Starring Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement. Rated PG.

When flatmates argue about whose turn it is to “wash the bloody dishes”, that’s usually a figure of speech. The roomies of What We Do in the Shadows, however, have more visceral habits than most, and it’s hell on the furniture. “We’re vampires,” one explains. “We don’t put down towels.”

This ceaselessly funny mockumentary, which flags only a little before its 85 deadpan and surprisingly warm-hearted minutes are over, was ostensibly shot in places no human crew would normally be invited. It shows that there are other problems faced by four guys sharing an appropriately crumbling minimansion in Wellington, New Zealand.

To begin with, all sport vaguely Transylvanian accents, but each was born in a different century.

The eldest, and smoothest talker, is Vladislav (Flight of the Conchords’ Jemaine Clement), known as Vlad the Poker back in the Middle Ages. (“I was in a bad place then,” he explains.) Only 379 years old, Viago (Taika Waititi, who wrote and directed this with Clement) is our nominal tour guide. (Viago was boxed and shipped to New Zealand before World War II, “for love”, but took too long on the voyage, and now occasionally flies by his ex-sweetheart’s window at a local nursing home.)

A refugee of the 19th century who dresses like a dangerous Franz Schubert, Jonathan Brugh’s Deacon is the “bad boy” of the group, and therefore the worst at his chores. Then there’s Petyr (Ben Fransham), a mute gargoyle of indeterminate age who puts the tooth back in Nosferatu.

Deacon’s would-be acolyte (Jackie van Beek) occasionally brings this group fresh “wictims”, including the boorish Nick (Chilean-born Cori Gonzalez-Macuer), whom they immediately regret turning into a vampire—especially when he hits up nightclub girls, yelling “I’m the guy from Twilight.” Oddly, they much prefer his incredibly boring human pal, Stu (Stuart Rutherford)—perhaps because of his IT skills.