Today's Mini-Review: Daybreakers

Rating: ****/*****, or 8/10

Starring: Ethan Hawke, Willem Dafoe, Sam Neill

Directed by Michael & Peter Spierig

USA: Lionsgate, 2009

You'd think that after 80 years of vampire movies there's little 'fresh blood' to be added to the genre, but Daybreakers proved such pessimist thinking wrong. Containing one of the most intriguing premises I've ever come across, this film puts a wholly different spin on the notion of the undead thriving on the blood of their human victims. In the not too distant future, a viral outbreak has turned most of the world population into vampires, while regular human beings have become quite the endangered species. Since the vamps need human blood to survive while they are as immortal as usual, blood shortages are increasingly threatening the societal status quo (which remains remarkably human in appearance). A hematologist (Ethan Hawke) works tirelessly on a synthetic blood substitute, experiments which continue to fail, partially because the CEO of the company that controls the 'real deal' (a deliciously sinister Sam Neill) is rather keen to keep making the big bucks off rich vampires that can afford genuine blood. Vampires or not, money is still the driving factor behind it all, to the detriment of civilization. The situation is getting ever more untenable as poorer vampires are so desperate they start feeding on each other or even on themselves, causing them to mutate into crazed bat people (a funny take on the ever present relationship between vampires and bats, which otherwise plays no significant part in this film); freaks that are brutally exterminated by the authorities. Hawke's sympathetic scientist, made vampire by his brother against his will, proves a guilt ridden person determined to change this upside down world for the better and sympathizes with what few humans remain free, continuously hunted by the vampire military as they are. After aiding a group of humans evade capture, he is contacted by an underground resistance movement, led by ex-vampire Willem Dafoe, that aims to develop a cure for vampirism, the only viable way for both humans and vampires to survive their impending doom. Hawke accepts their invitation and joins their cause, which soon pits him and the rebels against Neill's profit driven tyranny.

Daybreakers' strongest moments are found in its first half, as we explore a world where vampirism is the normal state of being and society has evolved to accomodate it. Since the vampires of Daybreakers adhere to many of the archetypal characteristics of the genre, they also cannot abide ultraviolet light, and therefore “life” takes place at night, so commonplace items like houses and cars are designed to protect against sunlight. In other regards, this world differs little from our own, as the vamps work in order to pay their bills, buy their blood and live their immortal life. The disturbing imagery of humans forcefully strapped to transfusion tubes and slowly drained of their life essence in huge factory like environments successfully evokes comparisons to how we ourselves as a species treat animals in the bio-industry for our own basic needs without allowing them any shred of dignity and natural behavior. The vampire world is living in its 11^th hour, close to self-annihilation caused by plain and simple greed of those in power who prove unwilling to change for the common good, in some regards echoing our own inability to alter our ways for the better in fear of loosing what we gained. In the second half of the movie, Daybreakers sheds such symbolism and largely replaces the exposition of its fascinating dystopia in favor of more trite and true action scenes and an overabundance of traditional gore (it's still a horror film, you know!), including some almost orgiastic blood baths of famished vampires feeding. Whether society is ultimately changed for the better is left somewhat ambiguous, as the movie underscores the notion that vampires, for all their superior physical strength, are still always all too human in their limited line of thinking. Though it's a pity the movie doesn't end as strongly as it started, it doesn't undermine Daybreakers' position as one of the more ingenious vampire films to date, a far cry from the currently popular image of these undead as sexy hunks to appeal to teenage audiences.