How What We Do In The Shadows Brought Back The Badabook

What We Do in the Shadows remains one of the most surprising and hilarious shows on television and the program’s second season has only pushed the material to more challenging places by featuring the return of some familiar faces.

The television continuation of Taika Waiti’s brilliant feature film, What We Do in the Shadows, has only exceeded the lofty expectations that accompanied its announcement. It’s a hilarious series that only improves upon everything that’s in the movie and introduces many new characters and obstacles that have not disappointed. The weekly exploits of these out of touch vampires is a consistent delight for horror fans.

What We Do in the Shadows focuses on the misadventures of vampires, but the series has also taken a look at the other supernatural creatures that are in their orbit. The fact that vampires aren’t the only monsters out there in this world has been very entertaining, but some creatures have truly been a surprise. For instance the “Badabook” is very similar to, but not the same as, the Babadook. This character’s name is, of course, a joke derived from “Bada bing, badabook,” which reflects this horror character’s unusual Italian slant. The Badabook appears in season 1, episode 9, “The Orgy”, with the Bi-Annual Vampire Orgy, but the ridiculous character also makes a brief appearance in season 2’s latest episode.

How What We Do In The Shadows Brought Back The Badabook

What We Do in the Shadow’s season 2, episode 2, “Ghosts”, has many characters weighing in on how they are skeptical to the idea of ghosts. Guillermo is more inclined to believe in ghosts, while Nandor remains closed off to the idea. Out of frustration, Guillermo asks why ghosts are so inconceivable after all of the other supernatural entities that they’ve gone up against. Guillermo lists many creatures, most of which have appeared in episodes of the series, like zombies and werewolves, but he also refers to how he’s faced “several” Badabooks and a quick glimpse of one such encounter is shown.

Guillermo and Nandor break out into a debate over the Badabook and just how many they have encountered in their journeys. Nandor insists that Guillermo has only faced one, from the first season, but Guillermo continues to say that he’s gone up against more than one and that this is a species of creature, rather than a lone entity. It’s a small, but important distinction, however Guillermo may also be lying out of embarrassment. Regardless, there’s at least one Badabook that is very real.

Part of the immense fun in What We Do in the Shadows is how it finds unconventional and modern subversions of classic horror monsters and stories, but to lump a modern classic like The Babadook in with that is especially satisfying. Since the show also has a very fluid reality where the majority of vampires that are seen in feature films are actually played by real vampires, it’s not inconceivable that the monster in The Babadook could have been a “real” Babadook, or that the film was inspired by an actual encounter with one, or even the Staten Island substitute. It’s a fascinating and fun development in the series that keeps the options open and exhibits a playful level of fearlessness.

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