There are some films that you instantly fall in love with, that will forever hold a place in your heart, even when watching a chopped up version on G4. Then there’s films you fall in love with, want to marry and have children with, with eventually retire to a condo in Florida while fondly musing what a sequel could hold. “Daybreakers” falls squarely in the latter category, a film that will have you dialing 411 in search of a wedding planner moments after exiting the theater.
“Daybreakers” presents a world where vampires have become the dominant species on the planet, thanks to a briefly mentioned vampire outbreak in 2009. Now it’s 10 years later, and daily life has mutated into a bizarre society that might have been a fever dream of Bram Stoker and Marshall Mcluhan. Dusk is now the beginning of everyone’s day, with adults getting their morning liftoff juice of coffee and blood, while vampric teens wait for school buses while puffing on cigarettes. But while the populace seems fairly content, they’re unknowingly teetering on a precipice and about to fall. The blood supply is rapidly running dry, with only enough to last a month. The effects of the shortage are already manifesting in grotesque and murderous abominations, blood deprived citizens who have mutated into ravenous creatures who bear a passing resemblance to the winged Deadite from “Army of Darkness”. The Armed Forces, now converted into hunting down the remaining humans to be harvested to feed the undead majority, are barely finding enough warm bodies to make their excursions worth anyone’s while. Despite all efforts to suppress the truth, it’s slowly leaking out and panic is threatening to ensue.
The only hope is hematologist Edward Dalton and his team, who are frantically trying to create a substitute for the crimson red gold. Dalton feels pity for the humans, who are now reduced to being involuntary blood donors several times a day, and hopes lab created blood will somehow raise their standard of living. A chance traffic accident puts him in contact with the human resistance, whose leader was a vampire before an even chancier accident literally brought him back to the land of the living. Dalton quickly discovers he’s found something far better than a metaphorical band aid to his species problem–but does society want to be cured or simply maintain the status quo?
“Daybreakers” was written, directed, and produced by the Spreig brothers, and the fact that they do three difficult jobs amazingly well is probably nothing short of miraculous. The script by Michael and Peter (respectively) is wildly imaginative to a dazzlingly degree. While the idea of a vampire society isn’t an original one, the Spreigs take a fanciful idea and turned it into a dark and believable reality. It’s easy to suspend all disbelief and accept this alternate place when it’s obvious they’ve taken pains to nail down every detail of this brave new world. Homelessness, home invasions, teen suicide, food shortages, corporate greed–the Spreigs all display them in convincing fashion; more mundane aspects of undead, life like public transportation, product marketing, custom cars, and even black markettering make you feel like you could open a door and step onto a street full of nosferatu. Their directing is jaw dropping, creating a dysoptian world so bleak it sometimes makes “Dark City” and “The Crow” look positively uplifting. Thanks to them, “Daybreakers” roars by at fascinating breakneck speed, to the point you don’t dare take your eyes off the screen.
The Spreig boys were also smart enough to snare some terrific talent and pair them with parts they could shine in. Ethan Hawke is savvy enough to play Edward Dalton with understated earnestness and subconscious torment. He never wanted to be a vampire, refuses to drink human blood, and every day at work sees a warehouse of comatose human being farmed for blood. He’s dead and winds up living a life he secretly hates, until salvation arrives suddenly and in an unlikely form. As his slimey boss, Sam Neil manages a double play of being a two time bloodsucker, both corporate and literal. Willem Dafoe steals every scene as Elvis, leader of the human resistance and born again human. Despite looking like Keith Richards before he flies to Switzerland to get his blood replaced, he still radiates rock star charisma while never forgetting he’s responsible for whatever is left of humanity. Michael Dorman turns in a good turn as Dalton’s estranged brother, one who loves him but keeps expressing it in all the wrong ways.
It’s a pity “Daybreakers” got shafted by Lionsgate and released the second week of January, while Avatar fever was still raging. The film’s destined to be a classic, in the vein of “Blade Runner” and the aforementioned “Crow” and “Dark City”. This is a film that deserves far better, and in the future it’ll hopefully get it’s due.
Michael Spierig, Peter Spierig (director) / Michael Spierig, Peter Spierig (screenplay)
CAST: Ethan Hawke … Edward Dalton
Sam Neill … Charles Bromley
Claudia Karvan … Audrey Bennett
Willem Dafoe … Lionel ‘Elvis’ Cormac
Michael Dorman … Frankie Dalton
Isabel Lucas … Alison Bromley
