I enjoyed this movie more than I had a right to. Written and directed by brothers from Germany, and filmed in Australia, it is far from the usual vampire movie.
Set at a time in the future, the population of the world is mostly vampires, functioning much like "human" but only at night. Holding true to common vampire lore, when exposed to daylight they begin to burn and are quickly destroyed.
But vampires still require human blood, and when they don't get a minimum diet of human blood begin to mutate, and eventually turn into dangerous bat-like creatures the size of a man. With the human population getting smaller all the time, and the few remaining ones trying to hide out, an industry has sprung up to harvest humans for their blood, held in a climate-controlled environment reminiscent of the humans being grown for their electricity in 'The Matrix'.
That same industry is trying to develop a blood substitute that will allow vampires to get along without human blood, but thus far without success. And at one point an executive states, "This isn't about finding a cure, it is about getting repeat business."
Ethan Hawke is the hematologist working for the industry and has been weaning himself voluntarily off human blood. He keeps working for a cure.
So in all this is not your usual vampire movie. It has a better story than most, although there are a few scenes of very graphic gore. Not for the uneasy.
MAJOR SPOILERS: As the Hawke character is helping a small band of humans avoid capture and blood-letting, he comes upon 'Elvis' played by Willem Dafoe. It turns out he was a former vampire who found out they can be cured by short, controlled exposure to sunlight. We see him do this for Hawke's character, each short exposure results in flames but eventually he gets reverted to human and his heart begins to beat. (No heartbeat for vampires!) Eventually we find that when a vampire bites a converted human, the vampire gains antibodies which converts him also to human. So as the movie ends we see that the human race will be preserved, and eventually all vampires will be converted also.
Set at a time in the future, the population of the world is mostly vampires, functioning much like "human" but only at night. Holding true to common vampire lore, when exposed to daylight they begin to burn and are quickly destroyed.
But vampires still require human blood, and when they don't get a minimum diet of human blood begin to mutate, and eventually turn into dangerous bat-like creatures the size of a man. With the human population getting smaller all the time, and the few remaining ones trying to hide out, an industry has sprung up to harvest humans for their blood, held in a climate-controlled environment reminiscent of the humans being grown for their electricity in 'The Matrix'.
That same industry is trying to develop a blood substitute that will allow vampires to get along without human blood, but thus far without success. And at one point an executive states, "This isn't about finding a cure, it is about getting repeat business."
Ethan Hawke is the hematologist working for the industry and has been weaning himself voluntarily off human blood. He keeps working for a cure.
So in all this is not your usual vampire movie. It has a better story than most, although there are a few scenes of very graphic gore. Not for the uneasy.
MAJOR SPOILERS: As the Hawke character is helping a small band of humans avoid capture and blood-letting, he comes upon 'Elvis' played by Willem Dafoe. It turns out he was a former vampire who found out they can be cured by short, controlled exposure to sunlight. We see him do this for Hawke's character, each short exposure results in flames but eventually he gets reverted to human and his heart begins to beat. (No heartbeat for vampires!) Eventually we find that when a vampire bites a converted human, the vampire gains antibodies which converts him also to human. So as the movie ends we see that the human race will be preserved, and eventually all vampires will be converted also.