Daybreakers

The opening moments of Daybreakers introduces us to a futuristic world that is monstrous, but oddly sensible and well thought-out at the same time. It's the year 2019, and for the past 10 years, vampires have been the ruling class on Earth ever since a disease started by a single bat quickly spread, turning most of humanity into undead beings that must feed on human blood. Those who were not infected, or refused to become vampires, are now hunted. As for the vampires themselves, life basically continues as normal as when they were human, only now they live underground.

The film's first half hour gives us some intriguing images of the vampire world. We see a billboard with a patriotic Uncle Sam urging people to hunt humans. We see vampires using blood as creamer for their coffee. We see a little girl who has supposedly grown tired of being an immortal vampire, never to age, leaving a suicide note to her parents before leaving the safety of the underground city to expose herself to the rising sun. Filmmaking siblings Michael and Peter Spierig have obviously put a lot of thought into their nightmarish future world, and it shows in all the little details. We see how the vampires get around underground and on the surface. We see how the vampires have held onto their last bit of humanity by making their world as close to their old lives as possible, while making some obvious adjustments for their new lifestyles. We also get some glimpses early on that their way of life may be in trouble.

There are reports on the news that the world's blood supply is running out. Most of the surviving human population has been harvested, and the world's food population is dwindling. (We see a homeless man holding a sign saying "Starving. Need Blood".) Those who are deprived of blood too long begin to mutate into mindless demonic monstrosities that exist only to feed, and seem to lose all shred of humanity. With the blood sources dwindling, more and more vampires are mutating. It won't be long until their way of life is over. It is the job of Edward Dalton (Ethan Hawke) to see that this does not happen. Edward works for the world's main supplier of blood, and has been trying to come up with a blood substitute that could be used to feed the world's growing vampire population once the real thing runs out completely. So far, he has had no luck, and his boss at the corporation (Sam Neil) is getting impatient for results. Edward desperately wants to find a substitute. He looks at the humans that are hooked up to giant machines, draining them of blood, with pity. He doesn't want to harm them.

As long as Daybreakers is focused on this world and its growing problems, it's fascinating and intelligent. I thought I had stumbled upon that rare January release that actually has a real brain behind it. Then Edward meets some human resistance members, and the movie starts to go downhill a little. The resistance are led by two main members - Audrey (Claudia Karven) and Lionel(Willam Dafoe). Elvis, we learn, was once a vampire himself, but found a way to regain his humanity. I'm not entirely sure how it works, even when the movie explains it to us. It has something to do with a combination of being exposed to sun and water at the same time. Edward realizes that a cure for vampirism just might be the answer his people are looking for, and reluctantly joins with the humans so that he can learn the secret of their cure. This puts him directly at odds not only with his former friends, but also with his brother Frankie (Michael Dorman), who works for the military, likes being a vampire, and sees no reason to change.

The movie goes on autopilot here, as Edward and the few remaining human survivors try to stay ahead of the vampires. We get a lot of chaotic action, which is generally well shot, but all of the intriguing ideas set up by the opening half kind of all to the wayside. What we get is a fairly standard action thriller, with a ton of gore. Given the amount of times we see people explode in massive geysers of blood that fly at the camera, you get the sense that maybe the filmmakers were hoping for a 3D release. The movie is competently made throughout. It's attractively shot, the cast is certainly game and don't seem to be cashing a paycheck, and the filmmakers obviously made the most of a somewhat tight budget. It's just disappointing to see so many ideas wasted on what is basically a standard shoot 'em up picture. Also irritating - How the film keeps on mistaking loud noises and things popping out of nowhere for genuine terror.

Was it studio interference? Did the Spierig Brothers not have enough confidence to follow their ideas all the way through for their first studio picture? Whatever the case, Daybreakers is an intriguing, but flawed film. It's certainly better than a lot of the vampire-related movies we've seen in theaters lately. But when your competition is New Moon, is that really saying anything?

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