The vampire hunters of the Netflix action-comedy Day Shift have one advantage that Blade never did. In Day Shift, hitting Netflix in August 2022 and heralding the directorial debut of longtime stunt man and coordinator J.J. Perry, Jamie Foxx plays Bud Jablonski, whose apparent career as a pool cleaner actually covers up his real life as a vampire hunter. He's hardly the only vampire hunter in Day Shift either, with Snoop Dogg and Dave Franco also joining him in his pursuit of the undead.
When it comes to vampire hunting, Blade is both the movie and the character who first springs to mind for many people, but his vampire hunting operation was even more clandestine than that of Bud. Early on in Blade, the movie shows that he, Whistler (Kris Kristofferson), and other vampire hunters finance their mission by stealing watches from vampire familiars. As Wesley Snipes's vampire hunter Blade points out to Dr. Karen Jensen (N'Bushe Wright), "We're not exactly the March of Dimes", but Day Shift seems to show vampire hunters with a different kind of cash flow.
The trailer for Day Shift shows Bud and his fellow vampire hunters working for an organization called the Union. In contrast to Blade's vampire hunting life, Bud and other vampire hunters work as mercenaries for the Union, with vampire hunting a genuine business offering substantial paydays to its hunters. In distinguishing itself from Blade like this, Day Shift is setting itself up for much better success.
Why Day Shift's Vampire Hunters Being Different From Blade Is A Good Thing
Blade brought a new image to the idea of vampire hunting movies into the public consciousness, and any movie or series working on that concept is inevitably going to face comparisons to the previous tales of the Daywalker. Day Shift is already clearly aware of that and is doing everything it can to differentiate itself from Blade with its considerably more comedic tone. Taking that a step further and portraying vampire hunting as an actual business is just as smart.
Day Shift, lacking Blade's place in the superhero genre, is introducing itself as a take on vampire hunting that more resembles a buddy cop movie mixed with the story of a down-on-his-luck protagonist in Bud's need for a quick payday to keep his wife and daughter from leaving. With a story like that, and its characters looking a lot more in over their heads than Blade ever did, Day Shift is fittingly distant from the vampire hunting hallmarks viewers associate with Blade (and its MCU reboot with Mahershala Ali). That makes comparisons much less of a problem, and Day Shift is in a much better position to connect with viewers looking for a different presentation of the vampire hunting sub-genre.
Day Shift has a lot of promise to deliver on both the vampire-slaying action and the buddy movie banter and comedy showcased in its trailer when it arrives on Netflix. The movie envisioning of vampire hunting as a mercenary freelance operation shows that it knows how inescapable Blade's influence on the vampire genre is and is taking all the right steps to avoid comparisons that could overshadow it with Marvel's take on vampires. The more distance Day Shift creates between itself and Blade, the more its unique spin on vampire hunting is able to highlight itself.
