Fans of 'What We Do in the Shadows' Should Absolutely Watch This Cult Horror Comedy

After six wonderfully wicked seasons, What We Do in the Shadows is nearing its end. The program, which took inspiration from the 2014 movie created by and starring Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement, follows a group of vampires who live together in a house in Staten Island, New York. Think of it as MTV's The Real World, except they're a bunch of silly, dysfunctional, undead blood-suckers.

Natashia Demetriou, Matt Berry, Kayvan Novak, Harvey Guillén and Mark Proksch are the show's core cast, and over the course of the show's run, they've brought something unique and hilarious to the small screen. 

Now that the show's almost over, you may be on the lookout for another horror comedy series that follows a dysfunctional group of would-be heroes as they struggle to figure out the world around them. If you're all caught up on FX's Emmy-winning comedy and want to keep the fun going, let me introduce you to Garth Marenghi's Darkplace.  

I should warn you that this is not a show about vampires. In fact, Darkplace isn't much like any show that has graced television in recent memory. It's campy and weird, and while it riffs on retro TV horror tropes and styles, it's a wholly original series that begs for repeat viewing. And you can watch it right now on Peacock.

Read more: Peacock Review: Few Originals, but Cheap Access to Network TV, Movies May Grab You

Darkplace is a horror parody with a mockumentary flair, which is an important detail you should remember. The series, for all intents and purposes, operates as a show-within-a-show. Each episode opens with fictional horror novelist Garth Marenghi reading a passage from one of his many novels to the camera before introducing recovered footage from Darkplace -- a hospital drama that was shot in the early 1980s. From there, a delightful load of craziness ensues.

Each episode follows Dr. Rick Dagless (who is played by Marenghi) as he leads a team of medical heroes -- the suave Dr. Lucian Sanches (played by Todd Rivers), the mentally mysterious Dr. Liz Asher (played by Madeleine Wool) and the cigar-smoking, shotgun-wielding administrator Thornton Reed (played by Dean Learner) -- who fight the evils that lurk inside the hospital.

I should probably mention that, according to the show's lore, Darkplace was built directly atop the gate to Hell. 

If none of the names of the cast ring a bell, it's for good reason -- they're not real people. Like the characters they play in this '80s TV show, the actors here are also fictional. I know it's a weird concept to wrap your head around but go with me here.

Series creator Matthew Holness is the one who plays Marenghi; What We Do in the Shadows star Matt Berry is Todd Rivers; Alice Lowe is Madeleine Wool and The IT Crowd's Richard Ayoade, who co-created the program, plays Learner. 

The cast of Garth Marenghi's Darkplace from left to right: Matt Berry, Richard Ayoade, Matthew Holness and Alice Lowe.

Channel 4 Television Corporation

Darkplace premiered in the UK on Channel 4 in 2004, a year after Ricky Gervais' The Office began making waves on TV. The two shows share a similar experimental aesthetic, as well. Each series features interstitial segments where the show's subjects speak to the camera, which is a narrative detail that was still quite new for television audiences 20 years ago. Before audiences were introduced to Marenghi, in all his stone-faced quirks, Holness even popped up in an episode of The Office as Simon, the IT guy.

When describing Darkplace to the uninitiated, I've been met with confusion. But that's a part of the whole experience, as I was a bit in the dark (pun intended) when I first hit play on the series. Yet, as a die-hard fan of shows like The X-Files and Twin Peaks, the blend of genre homages that are smattered throughout Darkplace immediately drew me in. Marenghi's documentary stylings wrap a Christopher Guest-style bow around the whole thing. It's the meta-comedy icing on the proverbial cake.

Darkplace isn't the only horror series to premiere in 2004 centered on a sinister hospital. Stephen King's: Kingdom Hospital, inspired by Lars von Trier's absurdist Danish miniseries The Kingdom, hit ABC the same year. Darkplace pays tribute to that short-lived genre procedural in each of its six episodes. 

Sidenote: If this haunted hospital series sounds nuts, I'd challenge you to find a copy of Kingdom Hospital to take for a spin... because, holy cow, I still can't believe ABC invested the big bucks to get that insane show on network TV.

This is horror camp at its finest. It's no surprise Channel 4 dropped the show after its first season -- something this conceptually layered in both ridiculousness and intellect was ahead of its time for television audiences in the early 2000s. Everything in the series is packaged as bad, from the wooden acting to the production misfires, stilted writing, horrid dubbing and rudimentary effects. 

It's all on purpose, though. And it's brilliant. 

For those in on the joke, Garth Marenghi's Darkplace is the bizarre comedy gift that keeps on giving. Psychic attacks, eyeball children and malevolent spirits abound in the best possible way. It's a retro genre homage that every horror fan should watch. And lucky for you, it's available to be streamed on Peacock. Don't take my word for it; go see it for yourself.