Thoughts About Daybreakers

When almost all of the Earth’s population is vampire, the human blood supply becomes a rare commodity. To make matters worse; without the blood supply vampires will eventually de-evolve into mindless scavengers who would feed off their own kind, and eventually themselves. Only two possible solutions remain. Either find a synthetic blood substitute, or find a cure for vampirism.

Edward Dalton (Ethan Hawke) is a hematologist charged with just those tasks. However, he slowly comes to realize that most people enjoy being a vampire and don’t want to be cured. Rather, the plan would be to capture and farm human blood from those that wanted to change back. Edward, (who never wanted to become a vampire in the first place) takes the moral high ground and refuses to be a part of humanity’s enslavement. When he happens upon the cure, with the help of vampire-turned-human Elvis (William Defoe), he goes into hiding.

I really enjoyed Daybreakers and think its a fantastic movie. It brings an honest and refreshing twist on the classic vampire genera. Willaim Defo and Ethan Hawke play their roles very well, and though he wasn’t in 90% of the movie, Sam Neill was the perfect casting choice for the sadistic head of the blood harvesting corporation.

My only real issue to the movie would have to be its attempts in making political statements. There were moments when the film seemed to take a “time out” in an attempt to make social commentaries on the ‘real world’. For example; suggesting that all corporation CEOs are blood suckers, even without being vampires. These moments brought the otherwise well paced movie to a crawl. And I honestly doubt many people are popping in a vampire movie to be preached too. I know I wasn’t.

This issue aside, I’m going to go ahead and recommend DayBreakers to fans of vampire movies with a solid 7.5/10.

Oh yeah, Twilight Fans need not apply. These are not cuddly vampires.

Who are we? We're the people with the crossbows.