Daybreakers (2009)

I was starting to feel better last night, so I decided that if I was still feeling better today then I would take in Daybreakers. I’m still sick, but I no longer feel as run down as I have been the last few days. I noticed that the early movie started before noon, so I figured there would be very few people that would show up that early for a movie that has already been out for a week. I ended up being the only person there, so I didn’t have to worry about making the person next to me sick as well. Daybreakers is a movie that I first heard about on the blog The Horror Section. The trailer was posted, as well as a small blurb about it. I can’t say that the trailer impressed me all that much. I wasn’t even going to bother going to the theater to catch this movie, but it has been a while since I have gone to the theater. In the end, I’m glad I decided to go.

Vampires rule the world. It has been ten years since the virus that turns people, and animals, into vampires was first discovered. Edward Dalton (Ethan Hawke) works for a company that is trying hard to find a blood substitute, but so far nothing has been working. Humans and animals are both in short supply. They are looking for a blood substitute because once a vampire is no longer able to feed on pure human blood, they start to mutate into something that looks more like a bat than anything else. Animal blood alone isn’t the answer, as this only slows down the mutation process. When Edward accidentally comes across a group of humans, things change. Edward never really wanted to be a vampire, and he believes that harvesting humans purely for their blood is the wrong thing to do. When he meets Audrey (Claudia Karvan) and Elvis (Willem Dafoe), as he likes to be called, Edward discovers something that could change the vampire race forever.

I went into Daybreakers not expecting much at all. In truth, the only reason I went to see it is so that I could review it for here. This isn’t always the best approach when watching a movie though. Sometimes that mood of indifference can be hard to overcome. The longer that Daybreakers went though, the more I found myself actually enjoying the story. The mix of sci-fi, it is set roughly ten years into the future, was a nice touch. Things like car windows going completely dark, with several cameras to show the driver the way during the day time so the vampire doesn’t burn. Buildings are more adapted for night, now that there isn’t much need to be out in the sun light. It isn’t much, but this added touch of sci-fi separates Daybreakers from other vampire movies. Those that have already watched this movie seem to be split on where they stand. The cure that they end up discovering was something that I really enjoyed. I would not have thought of it myself. Some people see it as stupid though, but I think it is because it goes slightly against vampire lore that people are so against the cure. What I liked most about Daybreakers was the characters they gave us. The vampires aren’t presented as cold and heartless, as they are in many other movies. Of course they see themselves as the better of the two races, and are starting to see humans as nothing more than food. The film opens with a teenaged girl writing a note, and then going outside to wait for the sun to rise because she doesn’t like the fact she will always remain a young teen. Edward still cares what happens to the human race, and still very much loves his younger brother (Michael Dorman). I know this isn’t a new thing as far as vampires go, but I was glad to see it. The cold and heartless vampire has its place, but a world full of them would be overkill.

The effects are pretty good. There are spots where it is a tad CGI heavy, but they keep these effects simple enough to where they don’t look bad. The subsiders, this is what the mutated vampires are called, look really cool. They are probably the scariest thing about this movie, as they just have that really creepy look about them. The effects are somewhat limited to the subsiders and vampires exploding, or catching on fire, until towards the end of the movie. Some of the final sequences have a lot of blood, and even some body parts, flying around. With a cast that features Willem Dafoe, Ethan Hawke and Sam Neil, one would hope for some decent acting at least. The main three do a great job with each of their roles. Claudia Karvan was good, but has a small role really. I also liked Isabel Lucas as Sam Neil’s movie daughter.

The biggest complaint I have been seeing for this movie is why the vampires aren’t breeding humans, or even cloning them. I have never done any research on cloning, but I don’t think it is something they can do in order to get results right away. The movie never tells us how long vampires have been the ruling class. They have obviously been in power long enough to change some things. We do learn right from the start that humans were given a chance to be farmed for their blood, and as expected they refused. So why did the vampires not try to do something until now? For all we know, they did. Just because it isn’t talked about doesn’t mean it never happened. Plus, even though they are vampires, it doesn’t improve how smart they are. I’m sure that vampires didn’t become the dominate race overnight. I’m also sure that they didn’t start to think about gathering up us normal humans until it started becoming clearly obvious that there just wasn’t many left. Even though we outlaw hunting certain animals, it still happens. The same can probably be said if the vampire government outlawed hunting humans, it would still be done. The fact that not enough had been done doesn’t surprise me at all. Daybreakers ended up being a fun movie for me. There were a few minor things I didn’t care for, like when a vampire exploded it would sometimes cause damage and sometimes it wouldn’t, but they weren’t things that just completely ruined the movie for me. It was the end of the movie that sold it for me completely. If you haven’t checked out Daybreakers yet, I suggest giving it a shot.

4 out of 5 Would you want to be immortal?