A Review of Daybreakers: A Movie Unlike Other Vampire Movies

Daybreakers opened on January 8^th, 2010 in 2,523 theaters to a notable 15 million dollar weekend. That is impressive because the movie cost around 20 million to make. Daybreakers, directed by Michael and Peter Spierig, stars Ethan Hawke (Edward Dalton) and Willem Dafoe (Lionel "Elvis" Cormac) as humans turned vampires turned human again.

The story takes place in the year 2019 after a plague has transformed nearly all humans into vampires. Problems occur when the vampire race is faced with an evaporating blood supply. As the vampires search for a blood substitute, a vampire researcher named Edward Dalton (Ethan Hawke) and a vampire turned human Lionel Cormac work to find the cure which would save humankind.

Daybreakers opened to decent reviews with a rottentomatoes.com rating of 63% which is respectable. Vampires have flooded the scene as of late but Daybreakers is not for love struck teenagers. It brings a horrifying fresh concept to the genre. However no movie is without its imperfections and Daybreakers is no exception.

First there is the issue of the drastically falling blood supply. The movie Daybreakers is set in the year 2019 with obvious advancements in technology apparent since 2009. Why is it then that these scientists could not have just cloned the humans they farmed to keep their blood supply growing? It does not sound pretty but they were callously doing it anyway so I was surprised they did not take that step.

Second, if cloning humans was not a possibility then why not feast off the animals. Edward Dalton (Ethan Hawke), the head hematologist, only drank animal blood so it was a sustainable method. Why then the blood scare? Why not just harvest animals? Vampires do not eat meat so why spare them? Vampires were going hungry, blood was being rationed but why was this necessary with such a large supply source with animals?

Third, as minor as it may seem, was the eye color of the humans. Every time a vampire was changed back to their human form, their eyes turned blue. Blue is not a dominate color for eyes so why was it that every single vampire had blue eyes as a human?

Even with its plot holes, Daybreakers was still quite entertaining and full of amazingly gruesome imagery. For instance when a vampire is touched by sunlight they do not sparkle, but have quite the opposite effect. They also were not all fit and beautiful. Some were in fact old, deformed and downright ugly. Another was the innovated concepts of how to avoid the sun, such as having cars that shielded out the sun making it possible to drive while looking at video screens and the underground subwalk.

If you are a fan of the gory makes, then that is another reason to enjoy this film as there is plenty of blood and bodily explosions to make ones stomach turn. Daybreakers creates such good suspense that the end will sneak up on you.

Sources:

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=daybreakers.htm
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0433362/
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/daybreakers/