Movie Review of Daybreakers
Director: Peter Spierig, Michael Spierig
Cast: Ethan Hawke, Willem Dafoe, Claudia Karvan, Sam Neill, Michael Dorman
Review:
The Spierig brothers welcome the New Year with gore, violence and pandemonium through their release “Daybreakers”. Set in a fictional world in 2019 where a majority of a population has turned into vampires (no not because of Twilight!) because of a dangerous epidemic. As the human population is dwindling to the verge of extermination the vampires are also compelled to look for an alternative source of nutrition.
What originated from a bite of a German bat has turned almost the entire human species into bloodsuckers. “Daybreakers”, tells the story of a hematologist Edward Dalton (Ethan Hawke) searching for an alternate diet that can be used to sustain the vampires other than human blood as its supply will cease within a short time. Enter Audrey (Claudia Karvan) who belongs to a secret society of humans who have discovered a cure that can turn vampires back to normal. On being rescued by Edward she tells him their secret and he conducts a successful experiment that cures him. Meanwhile the vampire world faces another challenge from the “sub-siders”; bat-like ravenous creatures which vampires convert to if deprived of blood for a long duration. A human once again Edward along with his other surviving human counterparts must face and battle vampire friends and enemies alike in order to save the save humanity from vanquishing forever.
The only thing that doesn’t go in Daybreakers’s favor is its timing. Since moviegoers are currently under the spell of a mellow romance between a human and vampire popularized by Twilight, picturing them as gory and vicious bloodsucking creatures would definitely appall some watchers. However the Spierig duo has done a good job in building the fictional world and pumping the requisite amount of gore and blood required to tune the audiences to the frequency of the movie. Add to it convincing performances by the lead actors and we clearly have a box-office winner.
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