Meet Jamie Foxx's vampire hunter (he also cleans pools) in Day Shift 's behind-the-scenes video

The Netflix horror-action-comedy Day Shift is set in a world where vampires exist and are hunted for their highly valuable teeth. Jamie Foxx plays a pool cleaner working in the San Fernando Valley whose day job helps him in his real mission: tracking down bloodsuckers.

"Jamie Foxx is trying to save his family, he's having problems financially, he gets in over his head but he's got the starch in his britches to get him out of trouble," says J.J. Perry, who is making his directorial debut with the film. "He kills a vampire who we find out was the daughter of the boss lady vampire, who seeks revenge. There are these two worlds colliding, of a man trying to save his family and a vampire looking for revenge."

PARRISH LEWIS/NETFLIX Jamie Foxx in Day Shift

Day Shift costars Karla Souza as the vengeance-seeking vampire, Dave Franco as a representative from the vampire hunter's union, and Snoop Dogg as another vampire hunter. Director Perry, a military veteran, based the latter character on his old platoon sergeant.

"Snoop looks just like my platoon sergeant from the Army, who's no longer with us," says the filmmaker. "I told Snoop when I met him, 'Listen I'm not hiring Snoop Dogg, I'm hiring Calvin Broadus [the actor-rapper's real name]' and I think that really spoke to him. Everyone hires him to be that pot-smoking West Coast guy. I put a cowboy hat on him and I gave him the same swagger as my old platoon sergeant."

Perry began his entertainment industry career as a stuntman and was the stunt coordinator for John Wick: Chapter 2, whose director, Chad Stahelski, is a producer on Day Shift. He further established his action bona fides by directing second unit on Bloodshot and F9. Determined to give his vampires a distinctive physicality, the filmmaker employed Cirque du Soleil contortionists to double for actors playing the film's bloodsuckers.

"When you see a contortionist, our natural reaction is: It's shocking," says Perry. "I can't do it, you probably can't do it, only a very small percentage of humans can do that, and it's not something you expect. So we weaponized that. An actor [was] doubled by the contortionist for the movement and then doubled again by a stunt performer for the big heavy hits."

Perry first met Foxx when the former worked as a stunt performer on Django Unchained.

"Jamie was a dream come true," the director says of their collaboration on Day Shift. "He is a gem of a human. If he called me and said, 'Hey man, I need help washing my car,' I'd be there in the five minutes."

Perry explains he would like to make more movies set in the same universe.

"Well, this is the Day Shift. You know we've got to do the Night Shift,"he says. "And then we've got to do the Graveyard Shift, baby!"

Day Shift is written by Tyler Tice and Shay Hatten and the film's cast also includes Meagan Good, Natasha Liu Bordizzo, Oliver Masucci, Steve Howey, Scott Adkins, and Zion Broadnax. The movie premieres on Netflix Aug. 12.

Watch a behind-the-scenes video about Day Shift, released by Netflix as part of the streaming service's Geeked Week, below.

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