Petyr in What We Do in the Shadows is the ancient, feral-looking vampire who lives in the basement and quietly ends up being one of the most important figures in the flatmates’ lives.

Who Petyr Is

  • Petyr is an approximately 8,000‑year‑old vampire who shares a flat in New Zealand with Viago, Vladislav, and Deacon in the 2014 mockumentary film What We Do in the Shadows.
  • He is played by actor Ben Fransham and is visually styled after classic Nosferatu‑type vampires, with a monstrous, inhuman appearance rather than the more “normal” look of the others.

Role in the Movie

  • Petyr mostly stays in a stone sarcophagus in the basement, rarely joining the social dynamics upstairs, which makes him feel more like a horror‑movie monster dropped into a deadpan flatshare comedy.
  • Despite his silence and feral behavior, he’s implied (and in some cases confirmed) to be the one who turned the main vampires—Deacon for sure, and also Nick later—making him the hidden “ancestor” of the group.

Key Plot Moments

  • In the 19th century, Petyr dragged the human Deacon into a dungeon, bit him, and forced him to drink his blood, turning Deacon into a vampire and effectively tying Deacon’s fate to the flat.
  • In the present‑day documentary timeline, when Jackie brings her ex‑boyfriend Nick as food, Nick tries to escape but is ambushed by Petyr, who turns him instead of killing him, which sets off a chain of events that reshapes the group.

Personality and “Hidden Depths”

  • Even though he hisses and screeches instead of talking, other characters’ stories hint that Petyr can speak and is more aware and intelligent than he looks.
  • He shows small flashes of morality: he respects Nick’s plea not to turn his friend Stu (because Stu is “a vegetarian”), and he effectively “saves” Nick from being bullied to death when the others are just “playing with their food.”

Fate of Petyr

  • After Nick foolishly reveals that he’s a vampire to a vampire hunter during a night out, the hunter tracks the group to their house and breaks into the basement in daylight.
  • The hunter is killed when Petyr’s stone coffin door falls on him, but the sunlight pouring in sets Petyr on fire; the others fail to put it out, and Petyr burns to death, a heroic‑sacrifice‑style end that protects his flatmates.

Fan and Forum Discussion (Trending Angle)

  • Fans frequently post tributes and memes about Petyr, often leaning into the contrast between his terrifying design and his oddly soft moments; remembrance posts and jokes about his “fatal sunlight accident” still circulate on fan subreddits.
  • There are active discussions speculating whether he might somehow have survived, especially since the later TV series plays loosely with vampire “rules” and canon, but most fans accept his death as one of the film’s darkly funny emotional beats.

TL;DR: Petyr is the ancient Nosferatu‑like basement vampire in What We Do in the Shadows , secretly responsible for turning key characters like Deacon and Nick and ultimately dying in a sunlight attack after a vampire hunter invades their flat.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.