When last year the overwhelming grimness of the combination of Chernobyl and Season 3 of A Handmaid’s Tale left us trembling in a corner somewhere, we were only coaxed out by the promise of the premiere of an eponymous new FX series based on the 2014 film What We Do in the Shadows. A brilliantly absurdist mockumentary about four vampires living in a lugubrious mansion in suburban Staten Island, the series reveled in its carefully crafted gothic aesthetic, while also gleefully poking fun at familiar goth cliches.

A surprise hit, it is returning for a Season 2 on April 15—and the first teasers have just been released.

 

 

Smartly postmodernist, three of the bloodsuckers have dramatic, eternal Eastern European backstories—with correspondingly funereal fashion sense. While the other, Colin (Mark Proksch), is a preppy looking American described as an “energy vampire”—which is exactly what he is, working in a soulless office and draining co-workers of their energy by boring them senseless. Long suffering Guillermo (Harvey Guillen) is the “familiar” to pompous, puffed up vampire Nandor the Relentless (Kayvan Novak), with the former describing his position as, “like being a best friend…who is also a slave.”

Rounded out by married vampires Laszlo and Nadja (Matt Berry and Natasha Demetriou, respectively), the trio+Guillermo go about their daily lives seemingly oblivious to what would constitute any semblance of normal living…except when circumstances find them, say, shopping at the big box pharmacy for glitter and crepe paper. The also attend a city council meeting as part of their attempt to, um, “take over” Staten Island.

 

 

One of the Season 2 teasers hilariously shows Nadja prepping for a drug store blood pressure test, in full garb. And since the first season’s list of special guests was so deliciously head-spinning, including Nick Kroll, Tilda Swinton, Paul Reubens, Evan Rachel Wood, Oscar-winning director Taika Waititi (who helmed the original film), and Wesley Snipes, surely as a wink to his vampiric role in the Blade films, we can’t wait to see who pays a visit to Staten Island this time around.

What We Do in the Shadows Season 2 will be streaming on Hulu as of April 15.