Daybreakers

Director: Michael and Peter Spierig
Cast: Ethan Hawke, Willem Dafoe, Sam Neill, Claudia Karvan, Michael Dorman, Vince Colosimo, Isabel Lucas
Releasing in cinemas: 4 February 2010
Rated: MA 15+

Bringing back the bite

Daybreakers is the follow-up film to Undead, Michael and Peter Spierig’s wonderfully tacky low budget zombie splatter fest from 2003. Shot largely on the Gold Coast, Daybreakers is a big budget movie with a B-grade sensibility that boasts superb production values, and an international cast that includes Willem Dafoe, Ethan Hawke and Sam Neill.

The film is set in a dystopian future of 2019. A virus has turned much of the human population into vampires. An international pharmaceutical corporation headed by the sinister Charles Bromley (Neill) captures the surviving humans and stores them to use as a blood source to ensure the continued survival of the vampire race. But now bloodstocks are running low, and it is getting harder to find humans. Edward Dalton (played by Hawke) is a scientist experimenting with blood substitutes, but so far without success. Dalton is a vampire with a conscience, and he feels sympathy for the remaining humans. He would rather find a cure for the disease.

Then he meets a couple of crossbow wielding kick arse vampire slayers in Lionel (played by Dafoe) and Audrey (Australian actress Claudia Karvan). They show him that there might be a cure that can reverse the process and restore the human race to normal. Complicating things though is the presence of Edward’s brother (played by Michael Dorman, from Prime Mover), who is in charge of the military unit hunting down the humans.

As anyone familiar with the Spierig’s debut film will remember, there will be plenty of gore and blood, and exploding bodies, delivered with relish. The blood-splattered effects are quite effective, and visually the film belies its meagre $20million budget. But somehow the film lacks that edgy humour that made Undead something of a guilty pleasure.

Hawke brings his usual soulful and intense presence to his performance. Dafoe actually seems to be enjoying himself here as the vampire hunter. Neill relishes his role as the villain of the piece, and chews the scenery in a couple of scenes. Vince Colosimo has a small but important role as Dalton’s treacherous assistant.

The film’s ending leaves the way open for a possible sequel and may feel like a let down given the frantic action sequences that have preceded it. In an era when vampires have been rendered almost toothless and bloodless by the likes of the chaste, anaemic characters from the phenomenally popular Twilight series, Daybreakers is a film that puts a welcome bit of bite back into the popular vampire genre.

Greg King

Read more of Greg King's reviews at filmreviews.net.au