Daybreakers
Directed by Spierig Brothers
Daybreakers kind of came-and-went pretty fast on its theatrical run. I remember seeing the previews for it, and thinking that it might be pretty good, only to completely forget about it once I got around to going to the theater. Daybreakers is the latest film from the Spierig brothers. You remember them, the guys behind the Australian zombie picture Undead from a few years ago. Anyway, it's a hyper-stylized, heavy-on-the-action affair that is probably really less horror than it is a distopyian sci-fi/action picture. Is that a bad thing? Not at all. In fact, I kind of enjoyed Daybreakers.
To catch you up a little bit, the story takes place about ten years in the future. An vampiric epidemic has broken out, and most of the world have become night-walking, blood-sucking vampires. The problem is the country is running out of its blood supply. Insert Ethan Hawke's Edward Dalton - a vampire with a heart of gold that is working on a way to create synthetic blood (ala True Blood). Of course, the plot moves forward from there, and Dalton winds up working with a rag-tag group of humans (including Willem Defoe) to try and put an end to the reign of vampire terror.
Daybreakers is really a pretty lackluster affair. All of the setup is there for a great cult film. The mythos and world the filmmakers created really are a great start. Unfortunately, they don't do a whole lot with it. If it had done better, I would say that maybe a sequel could build on these elements, but I don't see that happening. There just isn't enough meat to...sink your teeth in to. I know that's pretty vague, but watch it and see what I mean. And I do believe it is worth watching. It's a fun, violent movie that works on a few levels. But don't expect your next favorite movie. Oh, I do have to mention this: Sam Neil is great, as usual.
6/10
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