Day Shift review: Jamie Foxx horror comedy is underwhelming at best

Day Shift is a horror comedy film based on Bud Jablonski (Jamie Foxx), a vampire hunter who runs into trouble after a hunt. It is now streaming on Netflix.

Story

Bud makes a living out of killing vampires and selling their teeth. When his ex-wife, Jocelyn (Meagan Good), suggests she and their daughter, Paige (Zion Broadnax), move to Florida due to money constraints, Bud is backed into a corner.

He rejoins the vampire hunting union that had let him go because of his tendency to violate their set of rules.

But the union is still skeptical of his involvement and assigns a union rep named Seth (Dave Franco) to accompany him at all times in case he flouts any rules.

The situation takes a turn for the worse when one of Bud’s kills turns out to be special to a powerful vampire called Audrey (Karla Souza), who vows to take revenge against him and his family.

Hunted by her and still attempting to get the money required to prevent her family from leaving the city, Bud has a lot going against him. Will he overcome the hurdles?

Performances

All characters are written in a cliched and over the top manner in an attempt to bring out humour, but it never quite works.

Jamie Foxx has a very straightforward role and he does what’s asked, without being challenged in any way. The exact same can be said about Dave Franco.

Right from his family to the antagonists, nobody is written with any sort of depth. This is just one of those run-of-the-mill comedies.

Positives

With such a thin premise, the pace of the film is adequate enough to not let it drag too much, but it doesn’t captivate you either.  Snoop Dogg cameos are always a treat and it’s no different here.

Negatives

For a film that claims to be a horror-comedy, Day Shift gets none of the two correct, even to an acceptable extent.

The humour rarely works and a lot of the jokes don’t land. The horror is reduced to gore and nothing more. It is just violent.

All the characters are given as little depth as possible. The antagonist is just evil, Bud is the same throughout and the conclusion is extremely predictable.

There is no effort put into even the vampire theme of the film. There are just forced brief descriptions of them. It asks very little from the viewers.

Verdict

Day Shift is a below-average horror comedy that can only be watched if you’re an ardent fan of the genre and can sit through anything or can find nothing else to pass time.

For the majority of the viewers, this won’t cut it.

Day Shift
Day Shift review: Jamie Foxx horror comedy is underwhelming at best 1

Director: J. J. Perry

Date Created: 2022-08-12 12:00

Editor's Rating:
1.5

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