Daybreakers
Starring Ethan Hawke, Sam Neill, Willem Dafoe and Claudia Karvan
Directed/written by The Spierig Brothers
There Will Be Blood
Vampires live forever, unless they meet their fate by daylight, a wooden stake in the heart or wither away from lack of sustenance, i.e. human blood, which is the central dilemma facing a world overrun by vampires in the new film Daybreakers. Ninety-five percent of the population have become sunlight-shunning immortals after an epidemic sweeps our planet. Their transformation, including blood lust and yellowish eyes, may have been complete but that doesn’t mean the world has gone to pot. The vampires seem to have taken up right where their former human selves left off, living in a semi-civilized society with a few modifications to account for their condition. They still love coffee (laced with blood), drive snazzy cars (with new options like Daylight Running Mode to shield the driver from the pesky sun) and run greedy corporations that profit by controlling precious resources (in this case, the dwindling human population, who are hunted, then stacked in giant machines where they twitch in suspended animation while drained of blood, reminding us of the unsuspecting millions used for electrical current in The Matrix).
But vampires were human once and some appear to still have a soul. They are a distinct minority but include Ethan Hawke, a hematologist working on a blood substitute that could make hunting and farming humans unnecessary. The moral dilemma he faces as a thinking man . . . I mean vampire, in a world of civilized bloodsuckers drives interest in the film. His boss, Sam Neill, manages to steal the show, as leader of the big bad bloodsucking corporation. Usually playing sturdy and unemotional types, here Neill gets a chance to let loose and show his ravenous side.
Hawke’s personal and ethical struggles are etched on his face every step of the way, a hallmark of this solid actor, one of our best, who always brings a distinctive and emotional feel to his varied roles. Also strong is Michael Dorman, an Australian actor who plays his younger brother, a failed human who, after becoming a vampire, finds his calling as an Army man in a military focused on hunting and capturing the pesky hominids. Human resistance is scattered, largely ineffective, but one cell joins forces with sympathetic vampires, and it’s this group Hawke connects to as he tries to figure out a way to save the human race.
There is plenty of neck-biting, head-popping, blood-spattering action in Daybreakers, but the film is surprisingly effective with its intriguing premise, intelligent story and semi-realistic tone, all of which lift it beyond a mere blood-fest. The inability of humans and vampires to co-exist is an age-old literary and cinematic problem. Daybreakers succeeds by offering a fresh twist on the storied genre . . . without denying our bloodthirsty appetites.
Rating: 7 out of 10 (recommended) on the Movie Fraction Rating System™
