DAYBREAKERS
3 out of 5 stars

elvis: “being a human in a world full of vampires is just as safe as bare-backing a five dollar whore.”



because of a virus (similar to resident evil except w/ vamps), almost everyone on earth is a vampire. a subwalk (so vampires could walk in the daytime) is built in the city, “coffee” shops offer blood mixed with a bit of milk, and human beings are farmed for blood in a matrix style contraption by a corporation called bromley marks. chief hematologist edward dalton is played by ethan hawke, and he is not happy… he doesn’t get why his world has to farm humans, and tries everyday experiments to perfect the idea of synthetic blood for the vampire population. because there’s a shortage of human blood left in the world, vampires that are starving are starting to mutate into really nasty bat-like creatures… (ever seen underworld 2? remember marcus? THAT!) plus, on top of all this, the human race is also on the brink of extinction… tough world!


it’s actually a very interesting movie, exploring a world of vampires and the predicaments they would face. how does one go about saving an entire vampire population? don’t mistake this as a horror flick because it’s not… but anyway, luckily for edward, he is contacted by a group of rogue humans all decked out with buffy the vampire slayer gear, and they show him the “miracle” AKA elvis cormac played brilliantly by the great willem dafoe. the acting is actually really good, especially sam o’neill (THE PERFECT VILLIAN) who is just another greedy corporate douchebag in a suit. (you’ll see why…) i really liked the monochrome palette (color filtering) to create this world, but it was too close mimicking the style of underworld and 28 days later…


i should mention that there’s some really cool effects with the makeup in this one! there’s a scene where some vampires are waiting at a subway station platform, and all their eyes glow as a train passes in the dark. it’s all about the eyes in this one… ;)