My Favourite Movies: Daybreakers



Yes, I know – it’s another film that’s hardly been out for five minutes. But I do love vampire flicks that push the myth a bit further than previous attempts.


In this one a virus has spread through the world’s population turning most people into vampires. The few remaining humans are either in hiding or strapped up to machines in facilities designed to farm them for blood. Civilisation has survived as a vampiric parody of its former self complete with fang whitening adverts and with coffee carts serving cups with 20% blood. But such a world is unsustainable. The human population, and therefore the blood supply, is running out. Without human blood the human-looking vampires quickly turn into mindless monsters and, as the blood starts to thin, their numbers are increasing. In the thick of it is Ethan Hawke who plays a vampire scientist desperately searching for a human blood substitute. The company that funds his research – run by the always fantastic Sam Neil – is pinning its hopes on a last minute breakthrough. Whilst in the resistance the ex-vampire Willem Defoe offers another path – a path back to humanity.


This was a very interesting idea – that a fully functioning vampire society could exist compete with all of the technology that allows creatures who would die in sunlight to go about their ‘normal’ lives. I particularly liked the video technology allowing vampires to drive cars in the daylight and public information broadcasts warning people about sunrise times. I loved the beginning of the movie where a teenage vampire wrote a suicide note saying that she couldn’t live in a world where she would never grow up and then calmly sitting on her front lawn waiting to be immolated by the rising sun. I liked the way the human resistance fought back with crossbows (though thankfully not with crosses and holy water). Inevitably there were some parts of the film I didn’t like. One was when we saw – or actually didn’t see – the reflection of Ethan Hawke in his cars side mirror. That, I thought, was unnecessary. The bit that I really didn’t like was the explanation of how Defoe changed back from being a vampire to being human again. At best it was heavily contrived at worst it was plain silly. The consequences of that change back however, I thought were very well done. Overall I thought that this was a very interesting, if somewhat flawed, advance of the vampire genre, pushing the envelope enough to make it believable and fascinating to watch. Attention to detail was generally very good as was the acting of all the main characters. It is rather gory in places – hence deserving its 18 certificate – but if you don’t mind a bit of blood I think that you might enjoy this.