Thanks to the massive success of Twilight, vampires have become a cultural phenomenon. It seems like every entertainment medium wants in on it, from film to television (True Blood, Vampire Diaries), and it is slowly over-saturating the market. Daybreakers, the new film by the Spierig Brothers, is the latest vampire film to hit theaters, but that story is a little different. The filming was completed in 2007, way before vampires hit it big, and its release three years later has made it look like the latest in an attempt to cash in on the phenomenon. This is not the case, however; while the other films and TV shows are essentially love stories, Daybreakers does something completely different, creating a world that has never been explored before, and does this successfully, at least for the most part.
Daybreakers takes place in the year 2019 (Blade Runner alert!), ten years after a single bat created an outbreak in humans that turned them into vampires. This disease has taken over 95% of the population, leaving legitimate humanity on the brink of extinction. The new vampire population is also having problems of its own: with fewer and fewer humans being found, the blood supply is running out. People who cannot get a constant supply are mutating into mindless half-bat beings known as “sub-siders.”
Edward Dalton (Ethan Hawke) is a scientist who is trying to find a blood substitute that would sustain the population and keep this from happening. Although a vampire, he does not feed on human blood, instead relying on animal blood, and sympathizes with the 5% of humans that still exist. Edward’s boss Charles Bromley (Sam Neill) runs the largest blood supply group in the world, harvesting what is left of humanity within its walls. One day, Edward saves a group of humans from being caught, and he is taken in to help them find not a substitute, but a cure.
The group is headed by a man known as Elvis (Willem Dafoe), who was once a vampire but an accident has caused him to become human once again. Edward is tasked with finding out how this is and to replicate it. Some people do not want to turn back, however, and the group is hunted down while Edward attempts to find the cure.
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