daybreakers

When used correctly, sci-fi gives filmmakers a chance to comment on current society with complete impunity. If you do it right, no one even knows it’s there. But with Daybreakers, set in a world where a vampirism is the new norm and humankind is on the verge of extinction, the subtext is either entirely lacking or buried 6-feet under a pile of bat guano.

Ethan Hawke (who, bless his heart, always seems willing to give genre movies the ‘ol college try) plays a vampire hemotologist searching for a human blood substitute to replace the real thing. The remnants of mankind are milked for their precious bodily fluids in a big Matrix-style storage facility, but the well has almost gone dry. Sympathetic to the survivors plight, Hawke falls in with a group of human resistance fighters (including Willem Dafoe) who have a potential cure that could set the world to rights again….that is, if the prevailing vampire government (led by Sam Neill) will let it happen.

Directed by the Spierig Brothers (Undead), Daybreakers has its priorities out of whack. Rather than shoot outs, car chases and mutated monsters, it’s the film’s audacious concept that provokes the most interest. And for the first half-hour or so you’ll spot glimpses of the movie that could have been inside what turns out to be just another Underworld clone. What would happen in a world that functions only at night? How would the economy adjust? What kind of cars would we drive? Daybreakers only manages to answer the last one and that’s kind of a shame. Handed over to a director like George Romero in his prime, this vampire apocalypse could have been bled for much more juice than a few interesting gore sequences and one bitchin’ TransAm. The Lionsgate DVD comes with commentary, Making Of, trailer and art gallery.