Film / Day Shift

"So what’s on the agenda today?"

Day Shift is a 2022 Action Horror comedy film directed by former stuntman and first time director J.J. Perry and starring Jamie Foxx^note Who also executive produces., Dave Franco, Natasha Liu Bordizzo, Meagan Good, Scott Adkins, Karla Souza, Steve Howey, and Snoop Dogg. It released on Netflix on August 12.

The film is set in a world where vampires exist and vampire hunters make a living by tracking down their hideouts in the daytime to do them in. Foxx plays a former vampire hunter operating out of Los Angeles who must return to the business to make the money needed to keep his wife and daughter from moving out of state.

Previews: Trailer

Night Shift includes examples of:

• Abnormal Limb Rotation Range: Spider vampires are shown to be capable of extreme acts of contortion, such as the old woman Bud fights in the beginning or the vampire that almost kills Seth in the hive.
• Advertising by Association: John Wick director Chad Stahelski acts as producer and John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum writer Shay Hatten contributes to the screenplay. The trailer thus proclaims that the film is “From the guys who taught John Wick how to kick ass”.
• Affectionate Nickname: Bud refers to his daughter, Paige, as "Pickle".
• And I Must Scream: Vampires can only be killed by having their hearts destroyed, decapitation or immolation, so when Audrey buries a rival vampire in concrete, she knows it's this type of situation.
  Audrey: We've got big plans for the Valley, cabron. Maybe in a hundred years we can dig you up and show you what we've done with the place.
• Bash Brothers: The Nazarian brothers are scarily effective at their job, and work together like two pieces of the same entity.
• Beethoven Was an Alien Spy: In a blink and you'll miss it moment, a portrait in the Union headquarters implies, along with Abraham Lincoln, that Frederick Douglass was a Vampire Hunter.
• Blown Across the Room: At the start of the movie, Bud shoots a vampire standing a short distance away from him with his shotgun. The force of the blast is enough to knock the vamp out of the room, across the adjoining bathroom, through the glass door of a shower and into a wall with enough force to shatter ceramic tile.
• Boring, but Practical: Audrey’s whole scheme. As a vampire big bad, you might be expecting a plot to make the species better, reduce a need for blood, or even something as crazy as blotting out the sun? Nope, her plan to take over L.A. amounts to: buy land, build houses for vampires, move said vampires in. Repeat until they own the city.
• Bottomless Magazines: Refreshingly averted, especially rare for the Gatling Good trope. Big John shows up with “Big Bertha”, a cut-down, man-portable M134 Minigun with a backpack ammunition supply. Big John has exactly enough ammo for two sweeping bursts (approximately 20 seconds of sustained fire) before he ditches it for a more practical assault rifle.
• Breath Weapon: The Nazarian brothers chew garlic gum that they can spit at vampires as an improvised weapon. It's silly, but damn painful for the vamp who gets hit with it.
• Bring Me My Brown Pants: Seth wets himself after surviving an encounter with a vampire. Bud reassures him that everyone does it after their first vampire… except for him. He then does it again after barely surviving another vampire fight. In the final battle, he states proudly that he managed not to wet himself this time, a fact Bud immediately undercuts by pointing out that vampires simply can't do that.
• Buried Alive: Audrey buries a rival vampire in the concrete foundation of a house. Since vampires can't be killed this way, it becomes a terrifying And I Must Scream situation. She promises to dig him up a century later just to prove she was right.
• Chekhov's Gun: At the beginning of the film, Bud takes out a random vampire by stringing some silver-plated Razor Floss across a doorway. He later takes out Audrey the same way in the climatic battle.
  Bud: Works every time.
• Chick Magnet: Big John, with two of the female Union workers openly flirting with him when he brings Bud in to get his membership back.
• Chinese Launderer: The Union's front is one of these, though the woman at the front is specifically Japanese.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: At the start of the movie, Audrey tortures another vampire by leaving him chained in the sun, seemingly for no other reason than to make a point before she buries him alive in concrete.
• Covered with Scars: Bud is shown to have many scars accumulated from his years as a Vampire Hunter.
• Covert Group with Mundane Front:
  • Troy's black market for vampire teeth and weapons is run out of a pawn shop.
  • The headquarters for the Union is hidden in a Japanese-owned dry cleaners.
• Cowboy: Big John styles himself as one.
• Cowboy Cop: Bud is a vampire hunter equivalent to a cowboy cop. While he is shown to be an effective hunter, the Union has a sizable record of less than ideal incidents he has caused.
• Daddy's Girl: Paige clearly adores her father, Bud.
• Feral Vampires: The lowest form of vampires, created by extremely young vampires that themselves are the weakest sane variant of vampire.
• Friendly Neighborhood Vampire: Heather might be a vampire, but she only keeps tabs on Bud and feeds on blood bags instead of hunting people.
• Gatling Good: Big John's signature weapon is a minigun loaded with incendiary or tracer rounds, aside from looking awesome it's extra effective against vampires.
• Gratuitous Spanish: Audrey peppers her speech with Spanish words to accentuate her points.
• Healing Factor: Most vampires possess this, able to heal from any wound that doesn't result in the destruction of their heart or decapitation. Uber vampires (and those turned by Ubers) are able to survive decapitation and require both their heart and neck to be destroyed in specific ways. Juvenile and feral vampires, however, can't heal like older vampires and go down quickly. Additionally, all vampires cannot regenerate their fangs, which Audrey attributes to a cruel joke by God.
• I Call It "Vera":
  • Bud refers to his pistol as "Snake Eyes".
  • Big John's Gatling gun has a metal plate with a stylized "Big Bertha" on front.
• I Owe You My Life: Big John is willing to vouch to get Bud back into the Union because Bud saved his life when they were in the military together.
• It's Personal: Audrey targets Bud because the old vampire he killed at the start of the movie was her daughter.
• Janitor Impersonation Infiltration: The vampire hunters travel around scouting out potential nests and then getting into houses while utilizing covers or second jobs as pool men, stereo repairmen and the like to pass unnoticed in the Valley.
• Katanas Are Just Better: One of the Nazarian brothers and Heather use silver katanas in melee.
• Kill It with Fire: Vampires can be burned alive to kill them, but hunters don't use this method because the teeth are worth money and doing so would effectively mean burning bounties.
• The Masquerade Will Kill Your Dating Life: Joss divorced Bud largely because of his inability to be truthful to her about being a Vampire Hunter.
• Missing Reflection: Vampires don't have reflections, but their clothing remains visible, giving the appearance of floating pieces of clothing.
• The Nose Knows: Vampires can recognize each other by smell. More importantly, this stench lingers on the hunters, so they have to bathe vigorously after kills to make sure they aren't tracked by relatives.
• Offscreen Teleportation: After being dropkicked through a wall by a vampire, Bud points his shotgun at the newly created hole, expecting the vamp to come through after him, only for it to suddenly be directly behind him.
• Older Than They Look: Vampires, of course. Also, Franco's character, Seth. Even though his age is never stated, he is regularly referred to as a "kid". Franco was in his mid 30's during filming.
• Our Vampires Are Different:
  • There are five variations of vampire: Feral, Juvenile, Spider, Eastern, and Uber, each with slightly different traits. All five types have black blood, release a gas upon death that attracts other vamps to their killers, and have serrated fangs.
  • Vampires are also much more short-lived than normal: they are considered "elders" when they are around one hundred years old, the Big Bad of the movie is around two hundred years old and sits at the top of the food chain, and the seven hundred years old "El Jefe" is so old he is considered legendary and few even believe he actually exists. In most vampire fiction, the Big Bad would be considered to be basically still a youngster, and a figure like El Jefe would have some reasonable seniority but still be barely above the middle of the pyramid.
• Poor Communication Kills: Bud has a very strained relationship with his ex-wife and her threat to move her and their daughter to another state is what drives his actions in the early part of the movie. Turns out that he never told her that he hunts vampires for a living. She got tired of his constant lies and divorced him.
• Razor Floss: Bud has silver-plated razor wire that he likes to set up in doorways at neck height as a trap for vampires to blunder into and decapitate themselves.
• Removing the Head or Destroying the Brain: Decapitation kills almost all forms of vampires. Only uber vampires can survive it, requiring their heart also be destroyed in order to finish them off.
• Shotguns Are Just Better: Bud's weapon of choice for hunting vampires is a shotgun loaded with wooden buckshot.
• Shout-Out:
  • While explaining to Seth about the nature of vampires, Bud name-drops several movies from The Twilight Saga. Seth notices Bud left out Breaking Dawn: Part Two and surmises he hasn't seen it.
  • In the Vampire Hunter Union office, there is a framed portrait of Abraham Lincoln flanked by a pair of axes on one of the walls.
  • "That’s what I love about LA… all the damn vampires."
• Shower Scene: Bud gets one near the start of the movie.
• Slippery Skid: Bud suffers this after the old woman vampire throws up a bunch of black bile.
• Small Role, Big Impact: The Old Lady from the opening scene. Who not only establishes vampires exist in this world but as the daughter of Audrey, her death is what sets her off on seeking revenge against Bud.
• Stress Vomit: Besides peeing himself, Seth vomits during his first experience hunting vampires. And when he sees the carnage at Troy's shop he almost vomits again, but he manages to swallow it.
• Stronger with Age: Uber vamps, the oldest kind of vampire, are generally stronger and faster than normal vampires. Audrey, being the oldest vampire shown, has Super-Speed and can punch people across rooms. They also have to be killed by both decapitation and stake. Individually, they can recover.
• Tasty Gold: Troy tests the quality of Bud's Razor Floss by biting it, and is able to deduce that it's plated in silver instead of being pure.
• This Is Reality: Bud makes a point to Seth that this is not anything from Twilight and that the vampires they are facing are dangerous.
• The Tooth Hurts: In order to get paid for a vampire killing, hunters have to turn in their fangs, as it's the one part of a vampire that doesn't grow back and thus serves as effective proof the vampire is (or will be) dead. Audrey flips the script by removing all of Troy's teeth and using them to spell out Bud's name.
• Unplanned Crossdressing: After killing an old female vampire in her home, Bud is forced to wear one of her dresses outside after his own clothes become soaked in her blood.
• Vampire Hunter: Bud is part of a worldwide industry of these, who get paid for essentially protecting the public from vampires.
• Vampires Are Rich: Downplayed. Vampires were once worshipped as gods but have since been deposed. Audrey is a real estate mogul and the possibly mythical El Jefe is a drug lord, professions that would certain convey decent wealth but are hardly prominent. This makes sense, as the vampires are being hunted by a worldwide organization, so they make an effort to remain incognito.
• Weakened by the Light: Vampires, as usual... but only to a certain degree. They're able to tolerate sunlight for a bit and heal quickly after exposure, so it is at best a distraction as long as they can retreat from it. Stronger vamps seem to have a greater tolerance, but not complete immunity. They have developed an effective sunscreen that allows vampires to walk in daylight for about half an hour at most.
• Weird Trade Union: A majority of plot revolves around the fact that in the modern day, vampire hunters have managed to unionize, and their Union is now a powerful, global organization.
• Wham Shot: The movie starts with Bud breaking into a house and shooting an apparently defenseless old woman with a shotgun...only for the woman to get up and reveal herself to be a vampire.
• When You Coming Home, Dad?: While Paige still adores him, Bud's job as a secret Vampire Hunter has clearly made it harder for him to live up to his parental responsibilities, and led to the failure of his marriage.
• Wooden Stake: Played with. Traditional stakes can kill vampires, but the qualifier is the wood itself and the shape is irrelevant. If you can make bullets out of wood, that works too.

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"That’s what I love about LA… all the damn vampires."