This is the sort of film that would have scandalized your parents, had they caught you watching it as a kid.
Actually, more than a few adults likely would be similarly horrified, were they to dial it up by mistake.
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| When the vampire-hunting Bud (Jamie Foxx, right) is saddled with Seth (Dave Franco), a nerdish, pencil-pushing babysitter, the latter is warned to stay the heck out of the way. What could possibly go wrong? |
Director J.J. Perry’s kick-ass horror comedy won’t be more than a gory footnote in cinema history, but it boasts momentum, a sassy script by Tyler Tice and Shay Hatten, and a richly entertaining performance by star Jamie Foxx. It’s fun to see him return to his comedy roots, although this isn’t actually a comedic performance; the humor derives from the way Foxx plays this material straight, with deadpan sincerity, even as everything around him slides into cheerfully gruesome lunacy.
Matters begin innocuously, as San Fernando Valley pool cleaner Bud Jablonski (Foxx) arrives at the home of his latest client. Ah, but Bud isn’t your average pool cleaner. Trays of chemicals are a cover for somewhat more lethal tools, as he quietly slides inside this homeowner’s residence.
And the apparently terrified little old lady within isn’t nearly as helpless or frail as she seems.
Let us pause, for a moment, to acknowledge that this isn’t an old-school vampire movie, wherein the fanged nasties can be dispatched with a simple wooden stake through the heart. No, Tice and Hatten have gone old-school, where legend dictated that decapitation was the only way to truly kill a vampire.
Needless to say, make-up designer Christopher Nelson and his massive team are kept quite busy, with what soon follows.
Bud’s unusual profession notwithstanding, he’s an ordinary blue-collar guy struggling to make ends meet. The financial situation suddenly grows dire when his estranged wife, Jocelyn (Meagan Good), threatens to move their daughter Paige (Zion Broadnax) to Florida. This isn’t a fit of pique; Bud and Jocelyn’s relationship is prickly but still mutually devoted. She simply can’t get by on what Bud has been providing.
Things have indeed been tight, since the headstrong Bud was thrown out of the more lucrative international union of vampire hunters, following numerous code violations. It has been difficult to make ends meet, when his only income has derived from selling fangs to seedy black-market dealers such as Troy (Peter Stormare).
Bud begs for just a few more days; he then swallows his pride, enlists the support of his legendary vampire-hunting pal, Big John Elliott (Snoop Dogg), and begs to be reinstated by hard-ass union boss Seeger (Eric Lange).
Seeger derives considerable joy from agreeing, with a no-argument stipulation: Bud must be babysat by nerdy union rep Seth (Dave Franco), a desk-bound pencil-pusher who’s finicky enough to note even the slightest transgression.
The subsequent Mutt ’n’ Jeff dynamic, between Foxx and Franco, is this film’s beating (and bloody) comedic heart.
Franco’s Seth is all twitch and tremble; one suspects he’d jump at the sight of his own shadow, and close his eyes if confronted with any rough stuff. But no; Seth gamely tags along, Franco rolling his eyes, shrieking girlishly in abject terror, and repeatedly, ah, staining his pants.
Bud, not wanting a colleague’s death on his conscience — even one so inept — soon equips Seth with a neck guard.
Unfortunately, Bud’s frantic return to more profitable wet work draws the attention of Audrey (Karla Souza), Southern California’s most dangerous vampire. What ultimately ensues — as Bud and Seth blast and slash their way through lightning-fast, impossibly bendable and martial-arts trained vamps — builds to a dog-nuts third act just as crazy as that in 2004’s Shaun of the Dead.
This film also gets considerable pizzazz from the fact that so much of the action is captured live, rather than built via CGI. Fight coordinator Felix Betancourt’s huge team of stunt doubles, drivers and performers — many of them contortionists, for that extra ooky-spooky look — are choreographed superbly in all-stops-out melees crisply edited by Paul Harb.
Perry’s initial career as stunt coordinator/second unit (action) director stretches back three decades. Day Shift may be his first time in the top dog’s chair, but his considerable experience is evident in every frame.
Although Tice and Hatten carefully adhere to common vampire lore — protective garlic, the burning threat of direct sunlight, and so forth — they also insert a clever spin by dividing their savage blood-suckers into distinct categories: Juvenile, Eastern, Southern, Uber and Spider. (Draw your own conclusions about the latter two. You’ll be correct.)
Snoop Dogg’s Big John Elliott radiates lethal calm and resourcefulness, even when the odds seem insurmountable. Steve Howey and Scott Adkins are a hoot as the Nazarian brothers, Mike and Diran: cocky and confident, but with more brawn than brains. Natasha Liu Bordizzo has an intriguing role as Heather, Bud’s sympathetic neighbor, whose hip 1970s vibe conceals … something.
Souza’s Audrey is flat-out creepy-scary, and Oliver Masucci is similarly menacing as her hulking, mute henchman, Klaus.
Horror comedies are hard to pull off; it’s difficult to balance the gore with the giggles (the latter often filed under “I shouldn’t laugh at this, because it’s so appalling … but I will anyway”). Perry, Tice, Hatten and their cast succeed, and the result is a rip-snortin’ guilty pleasure.
But definitely not for the faint of heart.
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