Daybreakers

Sony Pictures

R4 DVD

It is hard to come up with a horror film these days that doesn’t leave the audience with the feeling that they have seen it all before. This Australian film has a truly interesting twist to a rather tired genre. It is superbly acted and filmed, not a budget production.

A vampire virus has infected the world. Most people have now been “turned” by the virus or by being bitten but they manage to continue as normal in their usual jobs – just at night now. Humans are an endangered species but the vampires depend on the humans for fresh blood. Drinking vampire blood will cause the vampire to revert to an older, primitive form and these are a menace to human and vampire alike. They are destroyed on sight but their numbers are increasing.

The big pharmaceutical companies are farming captured humans in their desperate search for blood but even so the world’s blood supplies are running out. The companies are also in a race to develop a blood substitute. The first to succeed will make billions of dollars but success seems elusive.

Ed Dalton is a haematologist involved in the race for a substitute. He has reservations about drinking human blood, especially after his boss tells him that the substitute will not suit everyone – there will always be those willing to pay more for the genuine article and may even enjoy the benefits of immortality. Essentially he sees the blood substitute project as giving his livestock a chance to repopulate. What Dalton needs is a cure for the vampire condition that will make human blood completely unnecessary. He falls in with a group of humans, one of whom has been involved in a road accident. In a strange mix of circumstances he has been cured of his vampire condition and Dalton thinks this may be the breakthrough he needs. If he can replicate the conditions of the accident he can cure vampirism.

Meanwhile the world is falling apart as the blood runs out. Food riots are becoming common. The ruling powers are deliberately capturing the lower Level 4 vampires, the dregs, and exposing them to sunlight to reduce the drain on supplies and cut the number of reverted vampires. It is at the point where there is less than a month’s blood available. Even the Army can’t contain the situation – the soldiers are starving too. Will both species perish?

It is common these days to put a big-name actor in a film to give it a bit of credibility. At first I thought Sam Neill and Willem Dafoe may have filled this role, but after seeing the film it’s hard to imagine anyone else for the cold-blooded mercenary corporation head Bromley or the Elvis-loving human. Ethan Hawke was an early choice for the lead role of Dalton but it was because he fitted the part so well. All the actors stand up superbly in their parts and there is no hint that any particular actor is carrying the film. The effects are good if a little unrestrained, courtesy of New Zealand’s Weta studios, and there is enough action to keep everyone happy. There are even little comic touches. Vampires exploding when caught in sunlight are now the biggest cause of forest fires.

The film comes with an extras disk that is quite comprehensive, from Lionsgate’s initial funding of the film based simply on a story treatment to the final product.

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This review will appear in Volume 3 No. 4 of the digital and print edition of Synergy Magazine.

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