Daybreakers -- Michael and Peter Spierig
I won't say I didn't have any expectations for Daybreakers except to be dismissive because it has all the hallmarks of modern horror fare (this was released in early 2010). Blue filters. Heavily processed in post. Loud, pulsing, unsubtle music. I'm not really sure how it ended up on my queue to begin with. But it's here, so let's get on with it.
Daybreakers is pretty rad! It combines several old ideas with some new ones that totally work. The world is roughly 95% vampire (I Am Legend), the human blood supply is running out and our hero, Ethan Hawke, is trying to make a synthetic blood (True Blood). I don't know if they tried animal blood, but I can only assume it didn't work out. When vampires don't get enough blood, they start to devolve into vicious bat-like humanoids. Hawke saves several human lives and winds up on the run from... the government? I don't know who is pursuing him, but they are armed and crave blood. He's a friend to the humans and meets Willem DaFoe, who will always be "Gas" (eXistenZ spoilers in that link) to me, who was cured of his vampirism in a baptism by sun-fire.
The first thing to appreciate is that it's rated R. You better have a damn good yarn if your horror movie isn't rate R this day and age. Unfortunately, some of this comes with some really crappy CG gore, but it looks like the Spierig brothers were keen on practical effects, too. Lots of Karo syrup flies along with the ones and zeros. There's even a bit of (not titillating) nudity just in case sensors deem violence even more acceptable than it already is because those boobs, they'll scar you.
I also dig that while they hint at a love story for a moment, it never goes anywhere. Seriously, there are so many movies with sex scenes that happen while the world is falling apart around them. But I guess they gotta do it in case they don't make it out of this mess alive.
The Spierig brothers also assemble a lively car chase (I'm a sucker for those) with no shortage of humor (except they get the angle of the sun wrong, which will make sense if you watch to movie) and a finale that calls to mind Cabin in the Woods (but was obviously in no way influenced by it or vice versa).
The few missteps were that I wish the relationship between the normal vampires and the devolved was examined more. There's a great early scene in Hawke's house that feels the devolved will play a big role in the climax. There's no real sense of people being afraid of what they will become without blood, either. I thought that would be a great bargaining chip once the humans had their cure.
Daybreakers drags in the middle as Hawke meets the merry band of surviving humans and there's a subplot with Sam Neill's daughter that is totally unnecessary. The dialogue is mostly perfunctory (on the writers' part, the actors do with it what they can). Or maybe just utilitarian. Lots of exposition, little charm. At 98 minutes, I can't complain too much. The movie was very entertaining and I have no qualms recommending it
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