The Spierig Brothers made their feature film debut with the low-budget zombie flick, Undead. Now, the twin siblings tackle vampires, turning them back into the bloodsucking fiends they were meant to be. Set nine years from now, Daybreakers revolves around a world almost entirely populated with vampires. A plague originated from bats turned many while others were willingly bitten out of a fear of death. Humans are rounded up by the military, kept like cattle, and slowly drained of their blood. But now, the human race is close to extinction and the blood supply is dwindling away. Without blood, the vampires will de-evolve into feral bat-like monstrosities nicknamed “subsiders.”
Ethan Hawke plays a hematologist named Edward Dalton. Unlike that other Edward, he’s no sparkly pretty boy, but he does mope a lot. Dalton is the equivalent of a vampire vegan. He refuses to drink human blood and feels pity for the humans. Dalton is in the employ of Bromley Marks, a pharmaceutical conglomerate run by Charles Bromley (Sam Neill). Dalton has been working on a suitable blood substitute to no avail.
Following a chance encounter, Dalton becomes a part of the human underground led by the crossbow wielding beauty Audrey Bennett (Claudia Karvan) and former vampire Lionel “Elvis” Cormac (Willem Dafoe with a silly Southern accent). Elvis hasn’t a clue how he was changed back, but Dalton sees this as the chance to cure the previously thought incurable. Other characters include Edward’s brother Frank (Michael Dorman), a soldier in the human hunting army; and Alison (Isabel Lucas), Bromley’s daughter who ran away when her father turned.
Daybreakers has put some thought into what the world would be like if it went vampire. There are ads for teeth whitener and we see a homeless man holds a cardboard sign reading, ”Will work for blood.” Dafoe’s character did custom car work and was the first to develop day-time driving add-ons, like shields and roof-top cameras. Aside from those cute ideas, the Spierig Bros. never go into very intricate details about the socio-political structure of the world. Is religion a thing of the past? With blood evaporating, you’d think war between nations would be inevitable.
Speaking of which, Daybreakers is full of obvious allusions to the environmental concerns of today. Despite the high-falutin’ themes, it never attempts to be anything but a lowbrow actioner. It has some nasty moments that will jolt you out of your seat such as when a body explodes out of nowhere. As the climax kicks in, the film descends into a massive orgy of torn limbs, decapitated heads, and splattered blood. Some of the action is pretty decent, but the filmmakers waste too much time in trying to make us care about characters that are paper thin. Dafoe seems to be the only actor who understands how goofy the movie is and acts accordingly. They should have just made the film with him as the central character and turned it into a wall-to-wall action flick.
Rating: * ½
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