DVD Review: Daybreakers
Daybreakers (2009)
DVD Release Date: May 11, 2010
Directed by Peter and Michael Spierig
Cast: Ethan Hawke, Willem Dafoe, Claudia Karvan, Michael Dorman, Sam Neill
Review by Marc Patterson
Set in the future where a virus has been unleashed upon the human race from an infected bat, comes a story of science meets folklore meets the undead. A single bite has caused a widespread outbreak of vampirism. The surviving human population has slowly dwindled, and those that have survived have gone into hiding as they are being hunted and harvested for their blood by a highly-organized corporation, the Bromsley Marks Corp., run by a really evil Sam Neill. One of Bromley’s lead scientists, Edward Dalton (portrayed by a convincing Ethan Hawke), is feverishly researching genetics in order to create a synthetic blood substitute, as with each passing day the human population is decreasing, leading to slow starvation and ultimately total annihilation of the vampire population. His success hasn’t had the greatest track record, evidenced in a shocking reaction from a lab patient to his latest substitute. (Let’s just say a lot of explosive splatter of the ewwwy gooey kind ensues.) When – by chance – Edward encounters a group of fleeing humans, his world is turned upside down. He learns of a resistance, led by Lionel ‘Elvis’ Cormac (Dafoe), that may have tapped into a different kind of solution to the dwindling blood supply, a possible cure to vampirism itself. Now with his loyalties tested, he must choose a path to take.
I have to admit, I had been looking forward to Daybreakers for some time. I missed it in the theater, and then in the ensuing cavalcade of reviews heard not such great stuff about the film. But in spite of the scathing reviews and all the fanboy whining, I really liked this one. Perhaps it was the long string of dumbed down, poorly made films I’ve endured lately, but Daybreakers was a breath of fresh air. Not perfect, but pretty damn good and entirely enjoyable.
What I found so enjoyable about the film was its modern take on the vampire mythos. In some ways it blurred the lines between vampire and zombie, creating a near hybrid of the creatures. We saw this come into focus as – without the consumption of blood – the vampires would quickly begin deteriorating into zombie-like Nosferatu creatures, a result that could be reversed by the consumption of blood. This starvation effect hadn’t really been fleshed out in too much of the vampire mythos, beyond a shriveled up starved body that quickly comes back to life with a single drop of blood. That is a far cry from the demonic-looking mutants these vampires transform into. Plenty of blood spatter comes into play providing some nasty grue for the gorehound in us all. The action remained well-paced and the characters, though overly clichéd, were all believable and easy to relate to. It didn’t hurt that the effects were well done and the creature design well thought out and impressive looking.
That said, the execution of the film was shaky at times. I found the need to hold onto folklorish elements, such as invisibility in mirrors, to be ridiculous and out of place with this story that was so intent on presenting a fresh, futuristic, and scientific take on vampirism. There’s nothing scientific about not seeing oneself in a mirror. Additionally, the inclusion of side story plot devices, such as Bromley’s prodigal daughter, were useless at best and could have been better utilized to create a stronger story arc that might have successfully injected the film with a much needed dose of suspense. However, I could quickly overlook such idiosyncrasies with the larger scope of the films vision. It was obvious that the film was designed to be a non-stop bloodbath of fast-paced vampiric action on par with Blade. And to this end, the directors did a great job immersing us in this futuristic world that was all but the equal to our civilized society, except built around the requirements of vampires (blood coffee, underground walkways to avoid the daytime sun, sub-textual reference towards our depletion of natural resources, and some really cool cars equipped in a fashion to be driven during the day). I gotta say, a Dystopian society really never looked so damn good, and so inviting.
Daybreakers isn’t a perfect film by any means, but as far as the current trend of vampire flicks go it could have been a hell of a lot worse. If you’re in the mood for a light horror flick with some impressive blood spatter, and loads of blazing machine guns, Daybreakers will make an easy pick for the evening.
