Daybreakers Movie Review from modmove

LAPDANCE LARRY

SEVENTIES SIMON

PHOTOGRAPHY

COMIC ART

INTERVIEWS

Sub-menu 1.2.1.1

FESTIVALS

EXHIBITIONS

Daybreakers
Finally a vampire movie we can sink our teeth into (um… sorry!). The antidote to doe-eyed teenage vamps snogging each other, Daybreakers puts the vampire genre right back where it ought to be: replete with fangs, blood, viscera and scares. Set ten short years into the future when 95% of the population has succumbed to a vampire virus, the remaining human population are captured and placed into blood farms. In an astonishingly inexplicable oversight, the lack of any active breeding programme means that human livestock numbers are dwindling and so too then are the corresponding vamp snacks. Enter Edward Dalton (Ethan Hawke), haematologist and reluctant jugular sucker who's frantically attempting to develop a blood substitute.

I first encountered The Spierig Brothers™ (that's Peter and Michael to their folks) at the Brisbane International Film Festival in 2003 where they presented their debut feature, Undead; a no-budget zombie movie which looked like it had a budget and spun the zombie genre into some new territory. During the post presentation Q&A session, the writer/director/producers stated emphatically that (despite their display of obvious talent and passion) they never ever wanted to make a movie for nothing again. Apparently they meant what they said because it's now seven long years later and guess what? Daybreakers has a budget with commensurate star power to match! Clearly somebody with some loose change liked what they saw in Undead.

There's a lot of fun to be had with Daybreakers on the proviso that you can overlook its many logical flaws, of which the most glaringly obvious one is the above mentioned lack of a human breeding (or cloning) programme. And there are a number of lesser inconsistencies too such as how can a viral (i.e. pathological) infection imbue the inflicted individual with invisible (i.e. supernatural) reflections? But what the film lacks in feasible detail it makes up for in unique and interesting ideas. This was the strength of Undead and it is also the strength here.

Despite its international cast and sizeable budget, the Spierigs maintain a distinctively Australian flavour, mixing the international star power of Ethan Hawke, Sam Neill and Willem Dafoe with local talent such as Claudia Karvan, Vince Collosimo and Playschool presenter, Jay Laga'aia. And you can put the steering columns on the left hand side but there's no mistaking those indubitable Aussie landscapes.

Performances by all are on par, no more no less, but this is entirely commensurate with this kind of film - this is hardly Kramer vs Kramer. After a promising start, the all important splatter does dry up a bit but it's back on form by the time the finale rolls around; and there is an anti-corporation subtext running throughout but importantly it never dominates the action or vampire lore.

Daybreakers is that one step closer to greatness from the work they did with Undead but the Spierigs have a few steps yet to take. Still, there are sufficient commendable attributes on display here to hold us over until their next production - let's hope we don't have to wait another seven years.
Stuart Jamieson
www.daybreakersmovie.com


also featured
NEW COMPETITIONS! The Grey Competition Thanks to Icon Film Distribution, we have ten double in-season tickets to give away to The Grey! Read more >> Shame How do you connect with the disconnected? Read more >> Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is a characteristically British film. Read more >> The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo The best thing about this American version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is that this is Fincher's version of Dragon Tattoo. Read more >> Mission Impossible – Ghost Protocol After cutting his teeth on Pixar's The Incredibles, Brad Bird applies his ample talent and requisite enthusiasm for spy thrillers to live action in this, the latest installment in the foundering Mission: Impossible franchise. Read more >> Boxing Day Bash The annual Boxing Day movie feast presents Hollywood approaching the season’s end like it was a big fairy tale wedding with something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue. Read more >> Puss in Boots When a franchise runs out of steam there is always the spin-off. Read more >> Attack the Block The alien invasion genre has been hit particularly hard of late with the likes of Cloverfield, District 13, Battle: Los Angeles and Aliens vs Cowboys, each one more mediocre than the last and culminating in the downright awful Skyline. So kudos to director, Joe Cornish, for at least trying something a little different. Read more >> Immortals As eye candy, Immortals ticks all the right boxes. Read more >> In Time In Time is a competent action/thriller in the Hollywood mould but coming from director, Andrew Niccol, who also wrote and directed Gattaca and wrote The Truman Show, it is disappointingly light. Read more >> Moneyball First the conundrum, I love baseball movies but don’t especially like the game itself and would never even entertain the thought of actually watching an entire game. Read more >>


Stay up to date with modmove news
about modmove
What to know how we got started? Read more >>
read the modmove blog
Check out all the random stuff that didn't make it to the website! Read more >>
contact Us
If you have any queries or if you would like more information about modmove, we would love to hear from you! Read more >>
join our mailing list
subscribe to the mailing list and receive the modmove newsletter. Full Name Email Address Enter Word Verification in box below
search
search modmove for previous news and reviews.