by Isy Jordan Daybreakers Directors: Michael Spierig & Peter Spierig Starring: Ethan Hawke, Sam Neill, Willem Dafoe and more... Welcome to 2019. Most of the population has been hit by a plague and turned into vampires and the blood is running out... The movie starts out with a victim of this plague unable to deal with her new immortal, unchanging life and I'm guessing its intent was to illustrate the hopelessness of this new world of vampires. It seems unconnected to the rest of the movie and in hindsight, raises a question that wasn't answered by the resolution of this film. But I digress... Next we meet Dr. Edward Dalton (Ethan Hawke), hematologist. He's a very important man in the grand scheme of things. Why? Most of the world population consists of vampires. Humans are scarce, hunted down. Those who are captured are drained of their blood until dead. They don't last long. What does a world of vampires do with no blood supply? Edward Dalton's job is to create a blood substitute, some substenance to keep the vampires going indefinitely -- because they are going to be around indefinitely. Having one month of blood left when you're immortal isn't a good scenario. To make matters worse, some vampires who are too deprived of blood are mutating into monsters who will even attack other vampires.

So far, Edward isn't having any luck creating a tolerable substitute and making matters worse for him, he's completely sympathetic to the humans' plight. He doesn't want to see them extinguished even if he can find a viable blood substitute. Edward actually cares.

He cares enough to help a group of humans escape when they have a car accident. He'll learn that he's run into a very special group of humans who know something that can save all of them. But even if Edward can trust them, do they have enough time to turn things around in an increasingly violent world?

As far as vampire movies go, this one had a lot of potential and a couple of surprises that I didn't see coming. The solution the humans had to the world's crisis wasn't entirely believable to me but the resolution it brought to the film almost made it forgivable because the ending was creative and entertaining.

There was just so much going on in this film. The plight of the humans. The plight of the vampires. The mutations of the blood deprived vampires. The story arc with Edward and his brother. The story arc with Charles Bromley (played with nice evil glee by Sam Neill) and his still human daughter. The solution... It wasn't hard to follow at all. It's just that there wasn't enough time to develop the characters enough to care about any of the story arcs save for the survival of the human race because that becomes the crux of the movie for the viewer.

The acting, for all intents and purposes, was rather good. Sam Neill was delightful as a powerful vampire in charge and Ethan Hawke was solid in his portrayal of the brooding, tortured hematologist. Willem Dafoe was the rebel with a cause which is a type of role he's very comfortable in. Still, he's fun to watch here.

This film is a short 98 minutes and rated R for language and a lot of bloody, gory vampire action. It's mild as far as today's horror film is concerned but still not for the younger set. I recommend this film for fans of horror films. Again, there are some surprises here but don't expect to be blown completely out of the water.

Isy

Best lines:

Edward Dalton: Is this place safe?

Elvis: (Willem Dafoe) Living in a world where vampires are the dominant species is about as safe as bare backing a 5 dollar whore.