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Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Daybreakers (2009) Horror Vampire

Daybreakers (2009) - Another film missed in the year it came out but thanks to Netflix it is easily accessible. In the year 2019 the world is ruled by vampires but because of over population the human blood supply is running out. Dr. Edward Dalton (Ethan Hawke) a vampire hematologist is working to solve the problem by creating a blood substitute. Problem is every time they try the product out the subject reacts violently and then his head explodes. The special effect in this are over the top gruesome at times. Dalton is the feel good vampire character who wants to solve the problem so humans do not have to become extinct. He was turned by his brother Frankie (Michael Dorman) against his will and doesn't see the power of his condition but more the curse of it.
A chance encounter one night on the dark roads on his way home then leads him in a totally new direction. What are the odds that the main guy in charge of solving the vampire blood supply problem would run into the humans who have the solution? Pretty fucking slim if you ask me but that is exactly what happens. He helps the humans including Audrey (Claudia Karvan) keeping them from being captured and in return they hook him up with Lionel 'Elvis' Cormac (Willem Dafoe) who knows how to change vampires back to humans. Amazing, really fucking amazing, but in this world that is how things are.
There is a time pressure too, you see when the vampires are not properly fed they change from the human creatures of the classical vampire image to the monster creatures more recently seen in such films as John Carpenter's Vampires . These monster will feed on anything including other Vampires so the pressure is on for a solution to the problem.
Even with this problem growing by the day and Vamp creature attacks on the rise, Dalton's boss Charles Bromley (Sam Neill) is looking for a way to profit from the blood shortages and the, he hopes, blood substitute. Written as a corporate asshole he is just that. He still stings from his daughter refusing to be turned and instead running away. Now what are the odds are that with the human population down to a mere 5% of the current beings that she would still be out there alive somewhere? Pretty fucking slim let me tell you that, but sure enough she is eventually captured and brought to her father. Alison Bromley (Isabel Lucas) can only see her father as the monster he is and still refuses to become a vampire. Not to be put off Charles has soldier Frankie do her so that problem is solved, except is there is this thing where she can feed off herself and become one of the creature vamps. Of course this is what will happen, power struggles in families never work out. So why have the character at all, I think the writers want a bit of sympathetic back story for the Bromley character but really he is such a dick who cares about his back story.
What are the odds that Elvis and Dalton can have the equipment needed and duplicate the conditions that changed Elvis back to human on the first try, before the Vampires capture them? Pretty fucking slim, but that is exactly what happens. The solution is so simple it is foolish to think it was not stumbled upon. Not only that but it makes so little sense that the viewer is left scratching his head. Then the convenience of how it will spread further stupefies as we quickly move towards the climax of the film. When all is said and done our heroes get to ride off into the sunrise even though we have not seen a satisfactory outcome to the plot. As a fully formed film I would actually pass on this but still the gore, bits of action made me hang in there. It is a real tossup whether to recommend this film.
Rating (4.9) 5.0 and up are recommended, Renting may be the answer.

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