What We Do In The Shadows, the hit New Zealand vampire comedy, sneakily referenced iconic horror movie The Silence of the Lambs. What We Do In the Shadows is no stranger to pop culture references, including a reference to Twilight's weirdest scene, but it stepped outside overt vampire media cross-referencing during its season 3 premier "The Prisoner" to poke fun at a 90s horror film classic. What could have been a passing reference to The Silence of the Lambs instead revealed some larger themes at work in What We Do In the Shadows season 3.
The ongoing plot of the previous season of What We Do In the Shadows saw Guillermo de la Cruz (Harvey Guillen), who longed to be a vampire, coming to terms with his secret heritage as a vampire hunter. Guillermo is descended from the Dutch line of the legendary Van Helsing of Bram Stoker's Dracula. After the main characters, Nandor, Nadja, Laszlo, and Colin Robinson were put on trial by the Vampiric Council, it was Guillermo who used his vampire-killing skills to save them. There were only a few vampires that survived the season 2 finale, "Nouveau Théâtre des Vampires". As season 3 begins, Guillermo is imprisoned in the dungeon of their vampire home as a result of all his slaying, housed in a large cage that looks suspiciously familiar to many horror fans.
With Guillermo imprisoned, he is the Hannibal Lecter to the What We Do In The Shadows vampires in an overt and extended The Silence of the Lambs reference. This is the first time we see the main characters, all vampires, and Guillermo together again after season 2’s finale massacre. It's little wonder the vampires would imprison him; they must be wondering why Guillermo is so good at killing vampires. However, what could have been a passing joke in a show full of many passing jokes, the references to Hannibal Lecter may run deeper than surface humor, and promise to inform the character's season 3 story arc.
Guillermo is locked in a large central room cage reminiscent of the Memphis courthouse cage Hannibal Lecter is kept in during his escape scene at the climax of The Silence of the Lambs. The main vampire cast of What We Do In the Shadows fills in for The Silence of the Lambs' Clarice, talking with Guillermo from outside the cage. The vampire cast appear to fear Guillermo and his vampire-killing prowess. Although Guillermo is only Nandor's familiar and kept with seemingly no intention of making him a vampire, and although he is the only human in the room, Guillermo is the one treated as a dangerous monster in the scene. As Laszlo points out: "Please remember that this man is a vampire killer!" The plot of Guillermo's Val Helsing ancestry has been sitting in the background of the main plot since since season 1's finale "Ancestry". Now, the plot point has been brought to the forefront, and has Silence of the Lambs to thank for its imagery.
After the first two seasons focused on how unappreciated Guillermo was in his role in the house, an evolution for the character is welcome. The changing relationship between Guillermo and the vampires may be the biggest shift for a main character so-far in What We Do In The Shadows, even as the season 3 premier set up several ongoing stories. Guillermo may never get to be a vampire, but at least he can be his own kind of dangerous.