Netflix’s Day Shift director shares why the vampires move like that

J.J. Perry is betting you’ve never seen vampires quite like this before.

Sure, many vampire movies have broken from the haunting, deliberate shamble of Nosferatu — the Blade vampires, for instance, or the vampires from the Twilight series — but Netflix’s new movie Day ShiftThis action-horror comedy takes it to a new level by incorporating contortionists and a unique camera technique.

The movie, which stars Jamie Foxx as a vampire hunter trying to get back in the good graces of the Vampire Hunters’ Union and also make money for his estranged family, was released on Netflix Friday and is the directorial debut of longtime stunt man and action coordinator J.J. Perry.

Perry is prolific. He is an action director, a stunt coordinator who also works on big brands (Blade, Avatar, Iron ManTo Oscar-nominated movies, including Fast and Furious (the Fast and Furious series).Argo, Warrior, Django Unchained) as well as many, many other excellent action flicks (I’d be remiss not to mention three personal favorites: Blood and Bone, Last Man Standing, Undisputed 2. Melissa McCarthy’s vehicle Spy).

Perry explained to Polygon that his background helped him prepare for his debut as a director.

“[As an action coordinator], the technical filmmaking part of that is infinitely more difficult and more intricate,” Perry says. “And also you have the burden that somebody could get killed on your set. In addition to the fact that you only have so much time and are under pressure from the danger, it is also important to know how to handle all that while still coming out on top. So it’s a pressure cooker.”

Photo: Andrew Cooper/Netflix

Perry comes from a long line of former stunt performers who have moved into the director’s chair, and it’s a history he’s very familiar with.

“Look at [John Wick directors] Chad [Stahelski] and Dave Leitch, and it started with Hal Needham from the American guys,” he says. “But it really started with Buster Keaton and then went to Jackie Chan. Jackie Chan for me is the gold standard because he was a stuntman that became an actor, a movie star, and then became an action director that changed the way that we shoot fighting.”

This is the unique view on vampires Day Shift leaps out from the very first scene, when Jamie Foxx’s character clears out a house of vampires. One of the vampires, an older woman, packs a mean punch, and when she and Foxx start fighting, she contorts her body similar to “crab walking” or “spider walking” from movie monsters, like Samara in The Ring.

But it’s more than just contortionism — the vampire moves in impossible ways. That’s because Perry ran the film in reverse for extra effect, an idea he’s had for nearly a decade.

“I’m a little bit dyslexic,” Perry told Polygon. “So when I’m editing stuff, sometimes I watch it forward, and then I watch it backwards. A movie I made in Hungary was called Spectral2014 The reaction was very fluid and I could see her flexibility. It was funny because I was looking at it and was thinking,Amazing! It’s even more beautiful in reverse. This idea sparked. I pitched those reactions to every director I’ve worked for since 2014. They were rejected by every director I worked for since 2014. They’re like, I don’t get it. It doesn’t make sense. So when the opportunity came for me to use it, I was like, I got something fresh and new.”

Perry and his team faced unique challenges with this new approach to technical issues.

“There’s a lot of tells when you shoot in reverse,” Perry says. “Hair, clothing, smoke in the background. The R&D for that was very extensive.”

Image courtesy of Netflix

Perry hired the top contortionists from the industry and had them appear in the film as vamps. Add a dash of lucha libre and MMA moves, and you’ve got a fresh take on one of the oldest movie monsters around.

Perry shares that four actors played the role of an older vampire in opening scene. The actor was joined by a stunt double. He was also ratcheted through glass. Perry shared the fight double and contortionist who were used for hand-to-hand combat.

Perry got the greenlight for this scene thanks to an old friend.

“Once we got the script going where we liked it I used that pre-viz to help me get the movie greenlit,” Perry: “WeTook [the script] to [John Wick series helmer] Chad [Stahelski], got him excited. He walked right into Netflix and got it greenlit and bubba, here we are!”

Other than the contortionism Day Shift It introduces a MMA-style collection of fight moves to its vampires. It’s a change Perry has introduced before in Undisputed 2Taking a boxing-centric series and changing it to the burgeoning world MMA.

“MMA changed everything, because of the expectations,” Perry says. “You’re watching MMA and you’re watching people really hit each other, then you turn on a movie and all of a sudden the punches are stacked in a weird way. You have to be innovative. What number of times has there been a right cross throughout the history filmmaking? What can we do to make this even cooler? It’s how you capture it, how you put it in the choreography. Looking for the next thing is always what we’re searching for.”

Perry is known for his freshness and enthusiasm in choreography, something that he demonstrated to the rest of their team.

“I just basically said to my team […] If we’ve done it before, let’s not do it again,” Perry says. “There’s going to be things that we have to do just because we have to do them, but let’s never say ‘Well, let’s just do the old...’ I said if we say that, we die a small death.”

Photo: Parrish Lee/Netflix

Perry’s vision was aided by a more-than-capable movie star leading the way in Jamie Foxx, as Perry will tell you himself.

“Getting the opportunity was the big win,” Perry says. “But getting Jamie Foxx was like winning the lottery.”

Perry and Foxx worked on the same project. Django UnchainedPerry was a stunt-performer. Both are from Texas, and both graduated high school the same year. Perry couldn’t help but gush about his star’s performance, and says with the exception of a few dangerous wire gags and wrecks, Foxx did all of his own stunts in the movie.

“I want to be Jamie Foxx so bad it makes my damn teeth hurt,” Perry says. “Working with him is a pleasure and an honor. He’s a true master of his craft. He’s good at everything he does. He’s generous. He’s kind. He’s a physical genius. What a master.”

Perry’s worked with many physically gifted stars before, and pointed to his work with Tom Hardy and Joel Edgerton on WarriorDwayne Johnson The Complete RundownKeanu Reeves and Jeremy Irons in John Wick films.

“The best way to fake being a badass is just to turn them into a badass,” Perry says. “Make them the character.”

Day Shift Netflix now has it streaming.