What We Do in the Shadows cast shares their favorite vampire movies, books, and more

Fourth season The Shadows: What Do We Do?, Jemaine Clement’s vampire horror mockumentary, premieres tonight on FX. The horror comedy TV series starring Kayvan Novak, Matt Berry, Natasia Demetriou, Harvey Guillén, and Mark Proksch as four hapless vampire roommates going about their daily undead lives and having various misadventures in New York City.

Polygon got the chance to speak with the cast and crew of The Shadows: What Do We Do? to talk about their favorite pieces of Vampire media, from Anne Rice and Sheridan Le Fanu’s formative pieces of vampire literature to the lasting influence of Clement and Taika Waititi’s original film.

Twilight

Image: Summit Entertainment

Stephenie Meyer’s mega-popular Twilight series is among Natasia Demetriou’s favorite pieces of vampire media. “I was obsessed with the books, mainly,” Demetriou told Polygon. “I read all the books. “That was it, yeah. That was also the first time that I felt like. [exaggerated inhale] Ooooooh, yes. And then I’m also a fan of like human vampires, you know, like, I think Cher’s a vampire and Barbra Streisand is a vampire. So, you know, fans of them.”

The Shadows: What Do We Do?

Unison Films. Image

It should come as no surprise that Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi’s horror mockumentary How We Work in the Shadows aside from inspiring its TV series counterpart, would be a prominent favorite among the cast’s most beloved works of vampire fiction. “The [What We Do in the Shadows] movie, that was really what sparked my interest, you know, because I loved the film when it came out,” Matt Berry told Polygon. Demetriou shared the sentiment, describing Clement and Waititi’s original film as “absolute gold.”

The Shadows: What Do We Do?Kanopy allows you to stream the video with a librarycard

Christopher Lee’s Dracula movies with Hammer Horror

Image by Hammer Films/Warner Bros. Home Entertainment

Although he was not a big fan of vampires before his work, he did enjoy them. The Shadows: What Do We Do?, Berry cited Hammer Horror’s iconic run of Dracula films as some of his favorite vampire movies, particularly Christopher Lee’s iconic turn as the blood-sucking Count. “The only things that I would have been interested in were the Hammer Horror films from the ’60s and ’70s. With Christopher Lee, playing Dracula, that’s about as far as I’d have gotten into.”

DraculaYou can stream (1958) on HBO Max.

Interview with the Vampire: The book

Warner Bros.

Anne Rice’s bestselling 1976 novel Interview with the Vampire which would later inspire Neil Jordan’s 1994 movie adaptation of the same name, is one of Harvey Guillén’s favorite works of vampire literature. “I’ve always been fascinated with vampires, monsters, and all that,” Guillén told Polygon. “But like, Anne Rice’s books, and Interview with the VampireI remember that particular role as a child was one of my favorite memories. And when I got this role, I got to just revisit that classic love for vampire lore.”

Carmilla

Image by David Henry Friston/Wikipedia

In addition to Rice’s The Vampire Chronicles series, Guillén also has an affinity for and love of older works of vampire literature, particularly the 1872 Gothic novella CarmillaSheridan Le Fanu “[The book] was kind of pushed aside, because it was taboo,” Guillén told Polygon. “It was about a vampire, but it was a female, and then she was queer. That’s another story that I really like. And people have been like, discovering it.”

Ed Wood

Image: Touchstone Pictures/Touchstone Home Entertainment

While Bela Lugosi is best known for his role as Count Dracula in 1931’s Dracula and Ygor in 1939’s Frankenstein’s Son, it was Martin Landau’s performance as the iconic actor in Tim Burton’s 1994 biographical comedy-drama Ed Wood that first sparked Kayvan Novak’s interest in the mythos of vampires and the history of those who portray them. “Apart from Interview with the Vampire, I wasn’t really interested in vampires. I wasn’t even into The Lost Boys,” Novak said this to Polygon. “But the film Ed WoodBela Lugosi and his portrayal as Dracula. His tragic life story and subsequent death really drew me in to the world of actors who would portray ghouls, and Boris Karloff, and the age of ghoulish cinema. Then, I found it more fascinating to see what the fate of actors was after this era. It was this that sparked me imagination. [exaggerated Transylvanian accent] Draaacula!”

Ed WoodYou can rent it for only $3.99 at Amazon, Apple, or Vudu.

Count von Count from Sesame Street

Vampires can come in many forms and shapes. Count von Count of course is one such example. Sesame StreetAlthough the vampire is not horror royalty, it’s certainly the most popular representation of vampires in pop culture. The Shadows: What Do We Do?’ Kayvan Novak.

Sesame StreetIt is streaming on HBO Max.