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Jamie Foxx stars as Bud Jablonski in “Day Shift.”
Dave Franco, left, stars as Seth and Jamie Foxx as Bud in “Day Shift.”
From left, Jamie Foxx stars as Bud, Zion Broadnax as Paige and Meagan Good as Jocelyn in “Day Shift.”
Jamie Foxx stars as Bud Jablonski in “Day Shift.”
Dave Franco, left, stars as Seth and Jamie Foxx as Bud in “Day Shift.”
From left, Jamie Foxx stars as Bud, Zion Broadnax as Paige and Meagan Good as Jocelyn in “Day Shift.”
Some people prefer their horror with a hint of humor — or their comedy with a helping of horror. Those who fall into either subcategory can express their deepest gratitude, and should they desire, make ritual offerings to one of the so-called “Lads of Kilkenny” and founder of the literary journal “Salmagundi.” In those youthful days, the author employed such colorful pseudonyms such as William Wizard and Launcelot Langstaff. Most of those who didn’t sleep through their literature classes will recognize his actual name: Washington Irving.
Irving has been credited by some as the first author to blend horror and humor in one of his most famous short stories. “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” published in 1820, is part campfire ghost story, part gothic tale, and part burlesque. Ichabod Crane, desperate in his desire to marry Katrina Van Tassel, mocks the typical romantic hero. He is a gawky, gangly, easily unsettled schoolmaster with a tendency to gossip and an irrational fear of ghosts, goblins, and witchcraft. His interest in the 18-year-old Van Tassel has more to do with her family’s wealth and influence than any starry-eyed notions of love. His rival for Katrina’s affections takes advantage of his superstitious nature, culminating in the disappearance of Crane from Sleepy Hollow after a late-night chase involving the alleged ghost of a headless Hessian soldier. The story is simultaneously scary and silly. It has the ability to make you shiver and giggle, like any good Halloween yarn.
Victor Frankenstein himself — fictitious master of constructing life out of mismatched jigsaw puzzle pieces plucked from graveyards — could not have imagined all the myriad ways in which filmmakers would mix, mingle, and meld comedy and horror. In 1948, “Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein” paired one of the most popular comedy duos of the era with some of the leading stars of Universal Studios Monsters franchise, including Lon Chaney Jr. and Bela Lugosi. Bud Abbott and Lou Costello did several additional films in this vein, including “Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff,” “Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man,” “Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” and “Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy.”
But Abbott and Costello weren’t the first to tap into the horror-comedy mashup.
As early as 1917, filmmakers were finding ways to combine laughter and screams, such as in the German silent film “The Golem and the Dancing Girl,” which is sadly now considered a lost film. Walt Disney even took a stab at the horror spoof with the 1929 animated short “The Haunted House,” featuring Mickey Mouse.
Prior to 1970, most attempts at blending horror and comedy tipped the scales in favor of humor. The filmmakers routinely opted for campy, silly scares rather than scream-inducing terror or buckets of blood and gore. In the 1970s, a few moviemakers tossed the old recipe book and started from scratch.
For modern audiences, films such as “The Abominable Dr. Phibes” (1971), “Young Frankenstein” (1974), “The Return of the Living Dead” (1985), “The Lost Boys” (1987), “Army of Darkness” (1992), “The Frighteners” (1996), “Shaun of the Dead” (2004), and “Zombieland” (2009) have come to define the quirky, unpredictable subgenre.
“Day Shift” is a new addition to field. This horror-comedy vampire romp was released on Netflix Aug. 12.
In “Day Shift,” Jamie Foxx stars as blue-collar dad Bud Jablonski, whose San Fernando
Valley pool cleaning job is a clever ruse to hide his actual occupation. Bud hunts vampires. He’s good at it, too, but he apparently has issues with following the rules, which put him at odds with the vampire hunting union, his former employer. At the beginning of the story, he is freelancing: Killing vampires in the daytime as they sleep and extracting their fangs, which he can sell to a black-market dealer in a local pawnshop.
When Bud learns that his estranged wife Jocelyn (Meagan Good) plans on selling the house and relocating to Florida with their daughter Paige (Zion Broadnax) because of financial issues, he vows to earn enough money to convince her to stay in California.
Bud turns to fellow vampire hunter Big John (Snoop Dogg), who helps him get reinstated in the union. Seeger (Eric Lange), the new union boss, only allows it so that he can catch Bud breaking the rules and prohibit him from the union for all time. He assigns Seth (Dave Franco) — a gawky, gangly, easily unsettled union rep — to babysit Bud, knowing the pencil-pusher will make note of every code violation and report it.
In trying to make a living, Bud manages to enrage Audrey (Karla Souza), the most dangerous vampire in Southern California and a real estate mogul. Audrey already has big plans: She speaks of a time in history when humans worshiped vampires as gods, and she’s looking to start a war to Make Vampires Great Again. Nevertheless, she finds time to torment Bud by abducting Jocelyn and Paige, which leads to an inevitable showdown.
Perry is an American martial artist, action director, actor, and stuntman. The hype promoting “Day Shift” emphasizes the fact that it while it may be a horror film, it’s also received a healthy transfusion of gritty action. That bodybuilding supplement comes from 87North Productions, the production company behind “John Wick,” “Nobody,” “Atomic Blonde,” and “Bullet Train.” So, in addition to blending horror and comedy, “Day Shift” adds an element of high-speed, blood-spattered action featuring intense fight choreography and brutal slugfests. That means Perry has to cover a lot of territory in his efforts at world-building, character development, and storytelling.
Maybe that’s why “Day Shift” doesn’t feel as immersive as it should. The constant tonal shifts make it difficult to connect on an emotional level with Bud and his cohorts. The scenes with Bud and his daughter are promising, but the script is so focused on action that it fails to develop their relationship fully. The same is true of the quirky bond that forms between Bud and Seth. Two minor characters — the hardcore vampire-hunting Nazarian brothers played by Steve Howey and Scott Adkins — have already generated a cult following, with viewers asking when they will get their own movie.
It's a case of there’s so much of everything, there’s not enough of anything: There’s not enough Snoop Dogg; there’s not enough of Franco’s nerdy, bumbling Seth; there’s not enough of Foxx’s well-intentioned but cocky gallantry; and there’s definitely not enough focus on the family dynamic to provide the groundwork for any kind of reconciliation.
“Day Shift” is also lacking in another area — and this is important if you’re here for the horror: It’s not scary. The vampires are narcissistic, pompous, and self-indulgent. Audrey is more megalomaniacal Bond villain than menacing uber vampire.
While the movie isn’t a complete washout, it’s a shame that it feels so incomplete. The cast is outstanding, the action scenes are gripping, and the story is fun and engrossing. It just doesn’t quite manage to sink its teeth into the viewer. It generates more superficial smiles than hearty guffaws. Its breakneck pace during vampire attack scenes leaves no time for terror.
Perry clearly admires the horror-comedy subgenre.
“I’m a big fan of ‘Big Trouble in Little China,’ ‘The Lost Boys,’ and the original ‘Fright Night,’” Perry said in the film’s production notes. “I’m 53 so I loved the action-comedy-horror movies from the ’80s. It’s a genre that feels like it’s almost been forgotten. Like, a film like ‘Zombieland’ was cool, but it’s not as common as it used to be. A film is either action or comedy or horror. I think combining them like this is a lot more fun. I also think getting a laugh out of somebody right now is going to go a lot further than upsetting them by making them dive into some deep dark story.”
By putting too much emphasis on the action component, “Day Shift” is only intermittently entertaining, leaving the viewer with a handful of rousing action sequences scattered across a mostly forgettable landscape populated with under-developed characters and materialistic vampires.
The vampires of Santa Carla and Sunnydale are far more interesting.
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