We love a vampire flick. Whether it is part of a larger lore or something just simply about mythical beings, vampires have become part of the cultural zeitgeist in a way that lends itself to making as many references as possible. And sometimes, vampire properties love to point out that other vampires exist in movies in their world, as well—like in the new Netflix film Day Shift, starring Jamie Foxx and Dave Franco.
The film takes us through the life of vampire hunter Bud Jablonski (Foxx) and his struggle to make enough money to keep his family in California with him. His ex Jocelyn (Meagan Good) and their daughter are planning on moving away, and when Bud finds out, he decides to turn back to the union of vampire hunters to finally get back on track and make the money he should be for his hunts. (He doesn’t make that much in his freelancing hunting jobs.)
It’s genuinely funny and a great time of a movie in a way that I think we have forgotten about with films. Sometimes, you don’t want something you have to think about, and this is just a fun ride from start to finish. It also loves to make fun of the genre it’s playing in.
One of my favorite parts of the movie is when Dave Franco’s character, Seth, makes a joke about The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 2, meaning that technically, in this world of vampires, Twilight exists. So when I got to talk with some of the cast and the director of Day Shift, I had one very important question: What vampire franchise would your character instantly connect to?
Karla Souza would hire them
When I asked the question, it did become very much the plot idea of What We Do in the Shadows, where all vampires are played by vampires, but Karla Souza, who plays Audrey, a vampire hunting Bud, turned the question into what vampires her character would hire to work with her.
“For sure, I love this idea. I’m seeing a prequel of Audrey in all of the Twilights,” she said and went on to talk about hiring some famous vampires to do Audrey’s bidding. “I love that, if vampires really do live forever that means that all the Lost Boys and Audrey or all the Interview With the Vampires, that means that Audrey knows Brad Pitt’s character and Tom Cruise’s character from that film.”
You can see the rest of our interview here:
Meagan Good showed Blade some love
As for what franchise would jump to Jocelyn’s brain, star Meagan Good clarified whether it was about her character or herself and went on to label Foxx’s character as the “Blue-Collar Blade”—Blade, of course, being Marvel’s half-human, half-vampire hero on a quest for vengeance against vampires for his mother’s death. We don’t know why Bud began hunting vampires, but I am fully here for the idea of him being a blue-collar Blade.
“He’s badass and he uses his actual body and physicality and fighting and knowledge to defeat these things,” she said as a comparison between Bud and Blade, and it works and is something that ties into the film as a whole.
You can see the rest of our interview here:
Director J.J. Perry talks The Evil Dead
One of the things that really works about Day Shift for me is that it’s one of those horror comedy movies that knows exactly what it is.
“For me, it was a pleasure. It felt very natural to do it. The hardest part was probably getting the opportunity to do it. You know you think 32 years in the business and it took that long to get the opportunity to do it. And I’m super grateful because I never thought I’d have any of this good fortune,” J.J. Perry said when I asked about joining the project for his first feature film as director (he’s worked as a second unit director for 20 years).
He went on to talk a bit about the comedy aspect of the film and how he found it daunting in comparison to the other elements of the film. “The thing that was a bit daunting for me was the comedy. When you’re doing an action/comedy/horror, and these are the movies I grew up with like Big Trouble in Little China, Lost Boys, Evil Dead, etc, the elements are there, action/comedy/horror in no particular order, but you have to have command of those three.”
You can see the rest of our interview here:
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Day Shift is available on Netflix now and is well worth the watch!
(featured image: Netflix)
Published: Aug 15, 2022 04:20 pm