DAYBREAKERS

 

Daybreakers is a rather unique vampire/horror flick. The movie presents an alternative "future" where a plague turns most of the world's population into vampires. Ethan Hawke plays a scientist working for a corporation--headed by a rather diabolical Sam Neill--trying to search for a blood substitute as the human population is dwindling and the blood supply is getting dangerously low, which are causing vampires to turn into bat-like creatures called "subsiders" who are little more than mindless killing machines. The corporation Ethan works for also "harvests" humans for their blood, a fact that doesn't sit well with Ethan's character who was turned into a vampire by his estranged brother who also works for the corporation as a soldier who captures humans to be "harvested" for their blood. When Ethan's character's attempts to find a blood substitute fail, he comes across this band of human rebels fighting against the vampires who are led by a mysterious man named "Elvis" played by--who else!--Willem Dafoe who used to be a vampire himself but he stumbled across a cure of which he hopes Hawke's character can utilize. (Of course, you'll have to watch the flick to see what the "cure" is, all right?) Anyway, Daybreakers is not like other slash & gore vampire flicks as--though it can be gory at times (especially towards the end when Ethan's character confronts Neill's character with Dafoe's character's help)--it focuses more on the story than on the slash & gore as other vampire flicks tend to do (and, yes, I'm looking at YOU, Blade!). If you'd like to watch a different type of vampire flick, then Daybreakers could very well be that flick!