Daybreakers
Rarely do a few weeks go by when we’re not reminded yet again of the tropes of the vampire film. I wonder what legendary Nosferatu director F.W. Murnau would have thought of the Twilight and Underworld films for one. Given how commoditized the vampire has become, it’s immensely satisfying when a refreshing take comes along, such as in the excellent 2008 Swedish vamp flick Let the Right One In, and while The Spierig Brothers’ Daybreakers is certainly rough around the edges, it’s probably the most satisfying vampire film since.
After a viral outbreak has turned the majority of the world’s population into vampires (and many humans have allowed themselves to be “turned” to avoid death), the vamps have decided to harvest the remaining humans in giant blood banks, sucking them dry to keep the dominant population going. However, with humans not getting the chance to repopulate, their numbers are dwindling fast, posing the risk of mutually assured extinction as the vampires begin to run out of blood supplies. Edward Dalton (Ethan Hawke) is a vampire scientist tasked with discovering a blood substitute before the end of month, by which time the starving vampire race will all turn into mutated, vicious monsters called subsiders, who live on the fringes of society and are exterminated on sight by the vampire forces.
However, Dalton becomes torn between two factions, as he attempts to appease greedy CEO Charles Bromley (Sam Neil), whose stocks are dwindling during the blood crisis, while also aiding the human resistance, headed by Audrey Bennett (Claudia Karvan) and “Elvis” (Willem Dafoe), who believe they have discovered a real cure to the vampiric “disease”, as they call it. Ultimately the premise outdoes the execution, but what Daybreakers lacks in consistent plotting, it more than compensates for with its exuberant visuals, fun set pieces and sumptuous direction.
Daybreakers’ strongest portion is undoubtedly its opening, which is packed with clever little nuances: starving vampires are treated the same as starving humans you can find on any street corner, the entire city’s infrastructure has been adjusted (with a subway system meaning the vamps never have to risk exposure to sunlight), and the vampire’s cars are fitted with cameras which allow them to navigate while a sunscreen covers the windows. These ideas are aided by some gorgeous-looking cityscapes, and although the film’s effects generally are quite inconsistent, the vast expanses are fantastically rendered, while an ever-blue camera filter reinforces how cold and soulless the oppressive and imposing vampires are.
Through and through, this is a convincingly crafted, revisionist look at a world where vampires are no longer on the fringe, and they have virtually assimilated the human culture and way of life, while the humans are seen as little more than rodents. Unlike most films of the genre, Daybreakers has unique psychological plausibility: after all, if all of your friends had become immortal due to a virus, why wouldn’t you, a fragile mortal, want to join them?
Similarly, the characterisation throughout works: there is more to Dalton’s character than meets the eye, while his own brother, Frankie (Michael Dorman), finds a new lease on life as a vampiric human-hunter, much to his brother’s chagrin. Even the nefarious boss Bromley isn’t a black-and-white cutout like you might reasonably expect: while he says with some candour that even if a blood substitute were to be found, the higher classes would still want the better-tasting human blood, he is himself a man saved from cancer by becoming a vampire, much to the disgust of his daughter. Even the baddies get a fair treatment here, and the lines of morality are more ambiguous even if the finale closes these gaps a little.
What doesn’t work so well is some of the plotting. The first meeting between Dalton and the human resistance is particularly convenient, and in fact once Dalton begins to change sides, things to grind to a considerable halt, which is all the more surprising as it’s the time when Willem Dafoe’s hilarious character pops into frame, spouting wry one-liners and astutely declaring, “We’re the folks with the crossbows”. Nevertheless, the film still manages to posit some interesting food-for-thought, with an interesting take on the vampire cure, even if the film’s middle-section isn’t as energetic as it should be.
Fortunately, the film musters up enough tension for a fun finale which will please the bloodhounds, and features some great slow-motion action. Things slam to a brisk, refreshingly unpretentious end, closing the film out in under 100 minutes and leaving little room for a sequel, making Daybreakers all that more enjoyable as a minor, but clever entry that certainly deserves to do better business than the Twilight flicks, even if it certainly won’t.
Indeed, the structuring of the plot needs work, the visual effects are often ropey (especially when the vampires are melted, and when a vampire truck is blown to bits), and Claudia Karvan is quite wooden at times, but in its best moments, Daybreakers is a visually stunning, smart take on the genre, with particularly delightful performances from Willem Dafoe and the much-missed Sam Neil. It’s perhaps a sad comment on the vampire genre that one of the best of recent times only gets three stars, but rest assured that with a few judicious re-writes, this would have been a four-star cult classic in the making.
Rating: 6/10