The year is 2019. Vampires make up most of the world’s population, humanity having been transformed from an epidemic that started ten years earlier. Any remaining humans are hunted and, if caught, are taken to corporations that harvest their blood. These corporations need all the help they can get; because so few humans are left, blood is in short supply, and when a vampire has no access to human blood, they mutate into violent winged beasts with virtually no mental capabilities. Pharmaceutical companies, like the one run by Charles Bromley (Sam Neill), have been trying to develop a synthetic blood substitute with little to no success. Bromley’s chief hematologist, Edward Dalton (Ethan Hawke), is well aware that if humans go extinct, vampires will suffer the same fate. It’s not about creating a substitute – it’s about finding a cure.
 
“Daybreakers” will never be considered a great film, but as a futuristic vampire thriller, it holds its own and manages to be entertaining. I admit, though, that I didn’t get much out of the action or the gore, both of which are plentiful during the last ten minutes. It just felt so pedestrian, so derivative, so detracting from the intriguing plot, which is essentially a fable about overpopulation, the exploitation and wasting of natural resources, and the idea that many find complacency easier than working towards change.
 
Before long, Edward meets Audrey (Claudia Karvan), a surviving human and the leader of a resistance movement dedicated to finding that elusive vampire cure. Success depends on Edward, who in turn depends on a wisecracking, car-loving group member named Lionel Cormac, a.k.a. Elvis (Willem Defoe). Why he depends on him, I leave to you to find out. Let it suffice to say that Elvis knows a thing or two about vampires. Anyway, this resistance is mostly human, but a few non-humans are also taking part, and I find this fascinating.

Subplots involving Edward’s brother, Frankie (Michael Dorman), and Bromley’s still-human daughter, Alison (Isabel Lucas), add some emotional weight. Frankie in particular is a complex character, torn between his life as a vampire soldier and his love for Edward, which probably hasn’t been expressed in quite some time. Convention requires that Frankie remains angry and distant until right before the end of the film, at which point he finally shows his true feelings for his brother. Yes, convention requires, but it works just the same. As for Alison, she isn’t given as much screen time, although I think we learn everything we need to know, especially during those tense couple of scenes involving her father. Indeed, it is an experience having a conversation with him; everything about him suggests deceit and menace, from his perpetually sinister tone of voice to his piercing eyes, which you’d swear could turn you to stone.
 
When it comes to supporting players, the real disappointment is Audrey. While certainly not a bad character, she is an unnecessary one, adding so little to the story that it seems she was included only out of necessity for a sidekick. Surely you know that all movies like this have sidekicks. Elvis is a little better, but not much; his jokey dialogue is unbelievably bad, and it’s made worse by an exaggerated Southern accent that does little more than reinforce a stereotype. It’s a good thing this character is vital to the plot. Otherwise, I suspect he’d get tiresome much earlier on, like during his first scene.
 
To be fair, most of the movie works just fine. Hawke and Neill give decent performances – about as decent as a vampire film will let them be, anyway. I also enjoyed the visuals; in this future world, vampires have been clever to develop high tech methods of avoiding exposure to the sun, such as underground walkways and cars equipped with UV-blocking panels (they have to rely on projected camera images to see the road). In the absence of sunlight, their world is a drab, muted landscape of blue and gray tones.
 
Here’s the bottom line: “Daybreakers” is an adequate movie, a fun way to spend nearly 100 minutes away from home. But given the fact that it’s also a fable, I guess I was hoping it would go a little farther. Maybe it’s gotten to the point where elaborate fight scenes and messy shots of exploding vampires should no longer be obligatory. Writers/directors Michael and Peter Spierig should have delved deeper into the allegory. What more could have been drawn from the world we live in today?  What about the economy? Class? Education? Government? The last one especially, since it’s safe to assume there was a functioning system before the vampire epidemic and that it was drastically altered afterwards. And it must have a hand in both the harvesting of blood and the funding of its synthetic substitute. Too bad none of this is explored.

- Chris Pandolfi

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