Ten years after a plague has turned most of the human race in to vampires hematologist Edward Dalton works for a corporate company that sells human blood . The vampire race are facing a problem in that the humans that the vampires rely upon are becoming more scarce and if the hematologists don't find a blood substitute quickly then the vampire race will die
This was marketed in Britain as THE MATRIX meets 28 DAYS LATER but to be honest it resembles Richard Matheson's I AM LEGEND more than anything else with the vampires themselves not portrayed as out and out baddies , just merely as a species trying to survive . The idea that vampires are not the angst ridden teens of the TWILIGHT saga makes a nice change and it's fascinating that they're victims of Malthus doctrine of population that is causing them to become mutant degenerates called " subsiders " . DAYBREAKERS is absolutely compelling and thought provoking when it concentrates on the dilemmas facing the vampire race
There is a massive spanner in the works and that is within the internal logic of the film it is far too convenient that it's only now with a one months supply of blood remaining the vampires only realise the problem facing them . It's also a bit too convenient that one of the vampires just happens to bump in to a character who was once a vampire who has found a way to reverting back to human form . The solution to this reversion back in to human is so simplistic it's impossible to believe that in the preceding ten years a population of several billion vampires haven't stumbled upon this easy cure
This ties in with another flaw of the movie and that is the villains aren't really the vampires but corporate capitalism . In some ways it's a bit of a conspiracy thriller where the cure will affect a company's profits and therefore they think it's a better idea to keep everyone has a vampire rather than a human . It might be an interesting theory but the chief baddie played by Sam Neil is painted so broadly he stops being a cinematic character and becomes a cliché
This is a great pity because DAYBREAKERS is a genuinely impressive stylish horror movie in parts that brings a new twist to the genre . I did actually suffer a couple of startle moments that caused me to jump and it's also a film that has a sharp and cold cinematography that suits the film perfectly but as is often said if a film is good it's down to the director and if it's bad it's down to the screenplay and the screenplay just falls short of making this a classic horror movie
This was marketed in Britain as THE MATRIX meets 28 DAYS LATER but to be honest it resembles Richard Matheson's I AM LEGEND more than anything else with the vampires themselves not portrayed as out and out baddies , just merely as a species trying to survive . The idea that vampires are not the angst ridden teens of the TWILIGHT saga makes a nice change and it's fascinating that they're victims of Malthus doctrine of population that is causing them to become mutant degenerates called " subsiders " . DAYBREAKERS is absolutely compelling and thought provoking when it concentrates on the dilemmas facing the vampire race
There is a massive spanner in the works and that is within the internal logic of the film it is far too convenient that it's only now with a one months supply of blood remaining the vampires only realise the problem facing them . It's also a bit too convenient that one of the vampires just happens to bump in to a character who was once a vampire who has found a way to reverting back to human form . The solution to this reversion back in to human is so simplistic it's impossible to believe that in the preceding ten years a population of several billion vampires haven't stumbled upon this easy cure
This ties in with another flaw of the movie and that is the villains aren't really the vampires but corporate capitalism . In some ways it's a bit of a conspiracy thriller where the cure will affect a company's profits and therefore they think it's a better idea to keep everyone has a vampire rather than a human . It might be an interesting theory but the chief baddie played by Sam Neil is painted so broadly he stops being a cinematic character and becomes a cliché
This is a great pity because DAYBREAKERS is a genuinely impressive stylish horror movie in parts that brings a new twist to the genre . I did actually suffer a couple of startle moments that caused me to jump and it's also a film that has a sharp and cold cinematography that suits the film perfectly but as is often said if a film is good it's down to the director and if it's bad it's down to the screenplay and the screenplay just falls short of making this a classic horror movie