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Reviews of Recent Independent, Foreign, & Documentary Films in Theaters and DVD/Home Video
DAYBREAKERS With all the vampire films in the past year, it sometimes feel like us humans are outnumbered. Between Twilight, True Blood, Underworld 3: Rise of the Lycans, and the other half-dozen vampire projects that were released, it feels like you can’t turn anywhere without running into a bloodsucking fiend. And not a cool one either—they all seemed to be mopey, teenaged or whiny. Daybreakers introduces us to just such an adolescent vampire in its pre-credit sequence, and quickly and not-so-subtly demonstrates that it’s going to take a very different approach. In Daybreakers, we are literally outnumbered. Set ten years in the future, an outbreak of vampirism and the subsequent bloodlust has left vampires the dominant species on the planet. Remarkably, this transformation hasn’t changed things much. Starbucks-like coffee shops are still prevalent, but with several new sanguinary beverage options. Politicians still argue on TV, but their rhetorical fangs are now also literal. New subterranean walkways, public warning systems, and automobile technology have been created to protect the populace from the sun, but they’re pretty much the big changes. (On a positive note, you’ll be pleased to learn that Chrysler has survived the current financial downturn and fickle vampire tastes and still turns out the Chrysler 300 model, virtually unchanged 10 years down the road—new hubcaps and LED lights are the only changes.) Vampire society, however, is not without its problems. With their population growing, the human population is understandably shrinking. Humans left in the wild are being hunted to extinction and can no longer sustain society’s blood needs. Edward Dalton (Ethan Hawke), a vampire hematologist, works for a major pharmaceutical company run by Sam Neill (with his robotic acting switch turned to “slightly evil”). Currently, the company farms humans for their blood to help feed the citizens of the world. (The farm bears a resemblance to the people farming in The Matrix, or for those of you slightly older, Coma, as I guess vampires haven’t yet discovered the pleasures of farming free-range human.) Edward is hard at work on a synthetic blood substitute to save the vampires and presumably the remaining humans, who the vampires would subsequently no longer need to farm or eat. Can he do it in time? Do the evil corporate powers even want him to succeed? Complicating matters, the remaining human supply will last only a few weeks longer. Lest you think I’ve just given anything away, that’s just the setup. The plot begins in earnest when Edward encounters a group of humans, who, as you might imagine, have a different perspective on this contented nocturnal society. The film here adroitly shifts genres into full-on George Romero zombie mode and kicks into overdrive, focusing on destruction, double-crosses, and the involvement of not one, not two, but three tricked-out classic muscle cars. Attacks are planned. Crossbows are loaded. Cures are sought. Humans band together for survival, and Willem Dafoe (playing a character named Elvis) chews some serious scenery.
There follow some ludicrous scenes, some brilliant scenes
(one in particular should be shown in medical schools to demonstrate the
spread of epidemics), and an ending which provides a sequel
opportunity that I hope the filmmakers take advantage of. While
Daybreakers treads on very well-worn ground in each of the genres it
straddles, its mix of vampires, sci-fi, and zombie conventions is clever,
original, and undeniably appealing. I’m sure a political allegory on
human society, capitalism, and abuse of natural resources could be
cobbled together from its plot, but thankfully messages take a distant
backseat to delivering thrills and chills. I mean a fun, ass-kicking
vampire film? When was the last time you could say that?
Doug Yellin
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