Daybreakers
Starring:
Ethan
Hawke, Willem Dafoe, Sam Neill, Claudia Karvan
Running
time: 98 minutes
Year:
2009
Directed
By: Michael
Spierig & Peter Spierig
Written
By: Michael
Spierig & Peter Spierig
A bleak future is on the horizon if Daybreakers is anything to go by. A film
that shows the world only seven years away (ten when the film was released) run
by vampires with only a few remaining humans still fighting for the race.
Starring Ethan Hawke and Willem Dafoe this vampire flick is like no other where
it is more unusual to be normal than it is a blood sucker.
In 2019 95% of the population are vampires who feed
off human blood. With only 5% of the people on Earth being human their major
source of food is on the verge of coming to an abrupt end, meaning the vampires
will die out by becoming mutated savages through their un-quenching thirst.
Edward Dalton (Hawke) is a scientist drafted in by corporate boss Charles
Bromley (Neill) to create a blood substitute so the vampires can survive. His
company hooks humans up into giant machines and farms them for blood and his is
one of the only companies who still charge top money for 100% pure human blood
as opposed to others who have rationed their supply out. When a trial on human
testing goes horribly wrong Edward starts to question if there is a cure for
their kind instead of a substitute. He sympathises with the humans especially
since he used to be one. After a close encounter with a mutated vampire craving
human blood he is approached by Audrey (Karvan) one of the last remaining
humans. She claims to need his help to rebuild the human race. Edward agrees to
help when he meets Elvis (Dafoe) who was once a vampire himself only to find an
unusual way to cure himself and change back. The humans hope that Edward can
recreate the device to cure the vampires in order to keep alive their race but
the group are hunted down by the army who want these humans for food, and
Bromley who is desperate to prevent a cure.
The film is full of some really interesting ideas.
It is an unusual take on the usual vampire flick and Hawke makes us sympathise
with a blood sucker. The blacked out windows on their cars used to protect them
during the day, the curfew an hour before sunrise, the human blood farm, the
coffee shops that sell blood with their coffee are all a good way of imagining
if the world was actually run like this. The vampires are the dominant race and
going to work or catching the train is an everyday thing to them and the world
has adapted to meet their needs instead of humans. The Spierig Brothers have
given us a vampire film which looks at ethnic cleansing, curing disease, and
corrupt business moguls who only care about money. In a supernatural world they
have managed to ground it to be about human aspects.
The colours of the film are amazing and reminded me
of a film noir with a twist. In the vampire world everything is done at night
and the colours are neon blue on a dark back line. It is really prominent and
stands out making the vampires look pale and cold and it really works. If
anything that is all lost when we see the humans as their world isn't like
that. The cinematography is very crisp and adds to the look and feel of a
future which has evolved. The human blood farm is a good idea and looks
frightening when seeing live humans hooked up to a giant machine whilst their
blood is pumped from them. There are many good ideas within this film that
erase the memory of any terrible vampire films made over the past few years.
There are many good points but unfortunately there
are just as many bad points. The acting for starters is alright but nothing is
going to blow you away. The dialogue at times seems fairly unrealistic and too
many lines are explaining to the audience what is going on instead of the
characters just inhabiting their world. The music is uninspiring and seems
completely out of place in this futuristic world. It is a score we have heard
many times before in old school action or drama films and instead of drawing me
in actually pushed me out of the action. The music is good when it goes unnoticed;
here it was the only thing you could hear as it didn't feel right. In the end
the film also turns into a bit of a typical shoot out which is a shame when so
many dark themes had been explored. It was as if the writers felt without these
action moments no one will be interested. I was the opposite and found the dark
drama elements of the film the much more pleasing to watch and wish it hadn't
of taken a generic route.
It is an enjoyable film and really could have been
more than that. For the first time we see a vampire film that isn't typical and
explores areas that were never even mentioned in others of the genre. If the
film had remained like the first half of it then it would be a hell of a lot
better but unfortunately in the second half it loses the dark depth it had at
the beginning. So in the end we have an intriguing idea that, although directed
well, has as many good points as it does bad.
3
/ 5
Next film to review: BROTHERS
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