Daybreakers
Written & directed by Peter and Michael Spierig
Starring: Ethan Hawke, Sam Neill, Willem Dafoe, Claudia Karvan, and Isabel Lucas

Twin brothers Michael and Peter Spierig screened the last ever film at the glorious Uptown theatres on Yonge St. back in 2003.  It was their debut film Undead. They started with zombies and now, with Daybreakers, they’ve moved on to blood sucking vampires.  Believe me when I say that there are no romantic, gothic, emo vampire heartthrobs in this movie.  This is not Twilight.

The year is 2017 and a plague that started with just one bat has transformed the majority of the Earth’s populace into vampires.   These vampires are reminiscent of powerful overlords who rule the Earth’s economy and everything surrounding it with a ‘we shall rule the world’ attitude.  The main problem is that the human race is dying out and human blood is becoming more and more scarce and this new world is coming closer and closer to it’s end.

Vampire scientists are feverishly trying to develop a human blood alternative that vampires can sustain themselves on.  Leading this group is Ed (Ethan Hawke), a conflicted vampire who feels guilty in drinking human blood and who desperatly wants to find the blood replacement.  Things have gotten so bad for the vampires that they have begun feeding on each other and this ‘poisoned’ blood is turning them into ghastly, deformed creatures.

Ed meets up with some human survivors, led by Elvis ( a crossbow toting Willem Dafoe) who are on the run and who think they have found a cure.  Not for the blood replacement, but a cure for vampirism.  With them, he helps develop this cure and tests it all the while staying in hiding from an evil blood baron (Sam Neill) who wants to capture and feed off of all the remaining humans.

This film is full of blood splatters, decapitations, and mutilations.  If that’s right up your alley, then you’re a sick bastard.  The story was interesting and the action and scares were good, but I had a big problem with the music.  At times, the orchestral pieces were way too epic and thundering for what was actually happening on the screen.  Other than that, the film was decent and it you’re into vampires or horror, you should definitely check this out.   As Ed says in the movie: ‘Life’s a bitch, and then you don’t die.” – Greg

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