Daybreakers (2009) - Horror Film Review

First off; despite featuring lots and lots of vampires, Daybreakers is not remotely a horror film, it is a thriller.
The film is set in 2019, the vast majority of the world's population are now vampires after a plague ten years previous, Humans are facing extinction which is a major problem as without blood the vampires rapidly mutate into aggressive monsters who attack anyone. Ethan Hawke is a vampire scientist who is working on an alternate source of sustenance for vampires to drink. His boss, and owner of the company he works for (played by Sam Neill) estimates there is only enough blood to last till the end of the month. A chance encounter leads Ethan to a small band of humans, they say there is a cure to the vampire plague which could solve the problems of the world.

The world is ultra modern, all computer systems, and steel skyscrapers, but it is a world at its end, as city after city around the world are self combusting as the blood supplies run out. Many of the vampires in the world were voluntary created, willing participants to get immortality, others such as Ethan were turned against their will so share pro human views. As Ethan and his human survivors get closer to the cure they are hunted by America's vampire army determined to capture all humans in their desperate mission to get blood for the state.

I hated the trailer for this film, damn Placebo song just made the film look pompous and po faced, but it is quite a good thriller. The vampires act like humans, apart from the fact they need blood to survive, and sunlight, stakes all the usual stuff kills them. The world is interesting in how normal vampirism all is. Billboards advertise vampire goods, cafes sell coffee mixed with blood, and cars have been adapted to have anti sunshine screens, the humans look like the outcasts in a world no longer made for them.

Daybreakers is very very gory, there is lots of blood, decapitations and violence, but it's never visceral or stand out, so not a highlight of the film which is odd I found. A good enough thriller, with decent enough acting, but not really an amazing film.

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