Daybreakers
Forget “Twilight” & “True Blood.” “The Vampire Diaries” and Anne Rice. This is the type of vampire movie that intrigues me. While its’ story comes more from modern concerns about the economy and the film has a more comic book feel than the Gothic dread of earlier vamp works, “Daybreakers” nonetheless shares more in style and theme with “Nosferatu” (both versions) and the classic “Dracula” films than the aforementioned modern successes. It’s a quality I also found in a couple of movies I screened last year- “Night for Day” and “Thicker Than Water: The Vampire Diaries- Part 1.” I didn’t think “Daybreakers” was as good as either of those, but it was certainly intriguing and original.
Ethan Hawke stars as Edward, a vampire doctor desperately looking for a solution to a blood shortage. Let me explain- the year is 2019. An epidemic has made vampires more plentiful than humans. What humans there are are either in hiding- trying to find a cure for vampirism- or used by the vamps, and in particular, a corporation called Bromsley Marks- which has military support- run by Charles (Sam Neill).
The blood is starting to run out. The supply of humans is going down substantially. Less than a month’s worth for the world is left. They need a solution. But as Edward will find out, maybe the solution will come from an unexpected source.
Written and directed by Michael and Peter Spierig (“Undead”), the world of “Daybreakers” is a combination of “Minority Report,” “The Matrix,” and “Nosferatu”- it’s a cool and thrilling film to look at. It gets a little too much into standard action cliches by end, when Edward gets involved with a pocket of humans (including Willem Dafoe) who have to fight off military folks to get into Bromsley Marks, but the film works sometimes defiantly as an original horror thriller. Still, I wouldn’t get too wrapped up in thinking about the film too much, and just enjoy the film as a visual entertainment.
