Rating: 7.5/10

Writers: Michael Spierig and Peter Spierig
Directors: Michael Spierig and Peter Spierig
Cast: Ethan Hawke, Willem Dafoe, Isabel Lucas, Sam Neill, Claudia Karvan
Studio: Lionsgate

The vampire flick has seemingly oversaturated entertainment as of late (on deck, werewolves and angels!), but DAYBREAKERS is the antidote for anyone sick of mewling, sparkling, lovesick vampires. Ethan Hawke’s Edward (are there no other names for vampires these days?) is a reluctant neckbiter. So reluctant, in fact, he doesn’t even like to drink human blood. Wait, is this TWILIGHT? I assure you, it’s not.

The Spierigs stick to some very traditional tropes when it comes to their DAYBREAKERS vamps – classic moves that root the film in the known. These vamps burn in the sun and can’t be seen in mirrors. And, of course, they never age. But this vampire life isn’t just underground any more; the vast majority of the population has turned bloodsucker, as demanded by the government. The people who have made educated and informed decisions about becoming vampires have embraced immortality with gusto (like Edward’s baby brother, Frankie). But it’s the people who didn’t quite choose this life that struggle with it (uh, hi, Edward). The film opens with one such person – a girl who probably didn’t make her own choice, and is faced with an endless life of dealing with the consequences. As cheesy as TWILIGHT may be, Stephenie Meyer hit on something with the one of the series’ taglines – when you can live forever, what do you live for?

Well, blood, probably. But with just about everyone on the planet hungry for the same thing, a measure of civility rules, and no one seems to go around just randomly going for the veins of the few true humans left (they’re simply hunted like dogs to be kept alive and sucked almost dry). In fact, the vampires have reimagined the Earth in a way that makes their “normal” civilization seem not just entirely possible, but plausible. There are little changes – everyone works at night, cars have black-as-death tint jobs that would make most limo drivers weep in jealousy, and underground “sub-walks” make travel possible even at high noon. The Spierigs’ imagining of a vampire-ruled society is both incredibly understandable and seriously clever. It’s not just a new take on the way the world works, it’s a post-apocalyptic wonderland, and it’s extremely fun to take in.

But this new-wave vampire society is facing a true problem – having made nearly everyone into a vampire, the human blood supply is dangerously low. Sam Neill’s Charles Bromley heads up one of the world’s biggest companies – a company that is not only seeking to come up with a viable human blood substitute (Edward’s job), but a company that also stores and mines those hunted humans for their blood (a MATRIX-y plot point you may be familiar with from the film’s posters). As we enter the world of DAYBREAKERS, it has become horrifyingly apparent that a lack of human blood doesn’t just make vampires hungry, it makes them sick, and sick in a way that threatens to turn our vampiric population into a hideous and deformed subspecies of bloodsucker. But how can Edward save a species he’s loathe to even be a part of?

In one of the few misfires of the film, DAYBREAKERS jumps from its first to second act with Edward’s entire life getting flipped on its head. Before we’re fully acquainted with just how much Edward hates being a vampire and just why he is one, he’s enmeshed with a rogue group of humans with a secret. The resilient group (including Willem Dafoe, who I suspect was primarily left to his own devices in terms of his acting choices in this film, to hilarious effect) has something better than a blood substitute – they just might have a cure. And, in the fashion of the majority of the film, it’s both clever and obvious. Kudos to the Spierigs. After smoothing over a few expositional questions, DAYBREAKERS transitions into an exciting mix of chase flick, horror film, and race-against-the-clock problemsolver. It’s wickedly good fun, but it’s also got a wickedly sharp punch.

True horror buffs will be pleased to see that DAYBREAKERS offers some genuine scares, both of the popping-out-of-nowhere variety and in terms of tension-laced scenarios. There is also obvious political content and undertones running throughout DAYBREAKERS. On a very basic level, there is a bevy of commentary on capitalism. But this isn’t new ground for horror flicks, vampires are to capitalistic greed what zombies are to mass consumption. If that’s what you’re checking out DAYBREAKERS for, you’ll be pleased. If you’re simply in the market for scares through blood red-colored glasses, you can get that, too.