Daybreakers: Surprisingly Awesome!
January is traditionally the cinematic dumpster, a time when studios are tossing out the films even they think are garbage. But it’s always been a good time for fans of genre film, who can inevitably find a few treasures in the junk pile. So I’m pleased to report that Daybreakers – yes, the Ethan Hawke vampire movie – officially earns a happy dance from me.
Daybreakers actually looks less like horror and more like very stylized sci-fi (the presence of Hawke makes it feel all the more like Gattaca) until the first of many buckets of gore are unleashed on the audience (frankly, I haven’t seen this much head exploding since Scanners) at which point you know that you’re in for some serious horror action. But the premise is smart enough: it’s 2019 and vampires run the show, but they’re about to run out of human blood. Our Hawke hero is a reluctant vampire scientist searching for a blood substitute, who also has a trigger (fang?) happy brother in the vampire army. Enter Willem Dafoe, a redneck former vampire who goes by the name Elvis, and a group of hunted humans, led by the very compelling Claudia Karvan. Rounding out everything is a perfectly cast Sam Neill as a (literal) corporate bloodsucker. There’s a bit of social commentary here – Hawke works for the equivalent of big pharma – but it’s never particularly heavy-handed. Instead, the film is a pretty solid blend of brains, blood and actors who do a good job of selling the script, which gets pretty thin at times. Add to that a solid dose of muscle cars, a lot of cheeky visuals, chimpanzee vampires (chimpires!) the most ludiciously fantastic bloodfeasting sequence – we’re talking SLOW MOTION BLOODFEASTING here, people – and a couple of very good jolts and you’ve got yourself quite a January horror gem. It’s good!
One other item of note about Daybreakers: being a vampire is seriously uncool in this film. These vampires are bad. What a refreshing return to form for a supernatural creature that seems confined to handwringing and canoodling with humans in pop culture these days. Hooray for the return of the bloodsucker!
1. Låt den rätte komma in (Let the Right One In) (2008). There’s nothing in this decade that really compares to this powerful, chilling, and inventive Swedish vampire thriller. It’s a dark and compelling (not to mention gender-bending) story of unhinged adolescence and mutual need, framed with some of the best cinematography you’re likely to find in any genre. It’s the best vampire film in two decades, and it’s a major addition to horror. 
