UK ad takes bite out of Kiwi vampire film

VAMPIRES don’t have reflections, but two Kiwi directors might be seeing shades of their fanged flick in a series of copycat British ads.

Directed by Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi, 2014 mockumentary What We Do In the Shadows told the story of three vampires living in a Wellington flat.

UK online gambling site Virigin Games has been accused of plagiarising the film for a series of ads which feature Vlad, a 21st century vampire who has learned to ‘‘live a little’’ by gambling on his smartphone.

They appear to borrow several gags from the film, including issues over bloody dishes, disappearing reflections and a vampire dating an elderly woman.

The similarities were highlighted by English satire magazine Private Eye, which accused Virgin Games of ‘‘utter shamelessness’’.

Cori Gonzalez-Macuer, who plays reluctant vampire Nick in the Shadows, said after watching the ads he thought it was pretty obvious the idea had been borrowed.

‘‘I’m pretty sure they got the idea from What We Do In The Shadows. I mean it’s not even like it’s kind of like it, there’s even exact lines from the movie in it. I wasn’t annoyed by it or anything, I think it’s cute they tried to do it. It’s not as funny, but good on them.’’

Gonzalez-Macuer said he failed to see the connection between the legendary denizens of the night