Day Shift Director on Shooting Vampire Fights, Using Lucha Libre Moves

Netflix’s vampire action comedy film Day Shift features its fair share of vampire fights, many of which feature a ton of incredible stunts and action as well.

RELATED: Day Shift Interview: Jamie Foxx & Dave Franco Discuss Netflix Movie, Natural Chemistry

Speaking to ComingSoon recently about the film, Perry talked about how the team behind the film came up with fight scenes and the idea behind the combat between the vampires and hunters.

“Inspiration comes from everything that you’ve seen or done in your life,” said Perry. “So inspiration from all the movies I’ve worked on … what I said to my action team that I’ve been on the road with for like seven years [was] “I don’t want to do anything that we’ve already done. I want to look for new ways to do things.” And if we ever say, “well, let’s just do the old way,” I said, “Then we failed and we die a small death.” The vampires needed to have an interesting look, so we brought contortionists and doubled them with stunt players, and doubled them with fighters. So something like, for example, the grandma. There’s the actress, there’s a stunt double, there’s a fight double, and there’s a contortion double, and the contortion work itself, when we slam them and fold them in half, we shot that in reverse.”

Perry went on to reveal more of how the fights with vampires — many of which see the vampires being folded or contorting themselves in various ways — were conceived, with Perry revealing that he looked to the world of Lucha Libre for inspiration.

“They’re in half, then we pulled them out on a wire and we played it in reverse, but with a magic camera speed that I can’t disclose unless you give me a lot of money … there’s a secret there,” Perry said. “So I wanted to change the way that vampires fought. So I mixed it with things like Lucha Libre, wire work … and they’re so bendy, it’s like fighting an octopus that’s trying to bite you. At the same time, throwing in some MMA moves, like a crucifix, right? You saw the mount, the switch. So I wanted to throw a few things in there that look familiar that people could relate to, but then throw it on its head and then try it over again. So yeah, I just wanted everybody to have their own style.”

RELATED: Day Shift Trailer: Jamie Foxx & Snoop Dogg Hunt Vampires for a Living

Day Shift is the feature directorial debut of J.J. Perry who is directing from a screenplay written by Shay Hatten (John Wick 3 & 4, Army of the Dead) based on the original script penned by Tyler Tice. The film is produced by John Wick director Chad Stahelski and Jason Spitz for 87Eleven Entertainment along with Impossible Dream Entertainment’s Shaun Redick and Yvette Yates Redick. It is executive produced by Foxx, Datari Turner, and Peter Baxter.

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