Daybreakers

Directors: Michael and Peter Spierig.

Starring: Etan Hawke, Willem Dafoe, Sam Neill, Claudia Karvan.

Reviewed By Clint Morris.

If, like a talented little league cricketer who’s forced to lodge a vote for one of two team captains that simply can’t keep up, you’re still not convinced either Team Jacob or Team Edward is worth your time, then maybe Team Ethan will take your fancy?

Or, to put it another way, if Twilight scarred you, then Daybreakers is the blemish-cloaking moisturiser that’ll make you forget it ever happened.

Not so much interested in windcheater-less werewolves and lycanthropic-induced love triangles as it is simply laying its sharp, surprisingly deep teeth into the audience, vampire pic Daybreakers is a return to the undead movies of old - you know, before bloodsuckers sparkled!?

Shot in Australia, with the atypical Yankee imports headlining (Ethan Hawke, Willem Dafoe), Michael and Peter Spierig’s flick is an imaginative, well-structured thriller that, whilst not especially slick (didn’t have much of a budget), gets your thumper ticking. It’s not the best vampire film ever made, but it is one of the better, more exciting genre efforts in recent years.

It’s the year 2019. A plague has transformed nearly every human into a vampire  -  and the ones that haven’t been turned don’t last long with the trigger-happy authorities patrolling the streets rather diligently. Though vampires are the most accepted race, they’ve also got a dwindling blood supply, and that’s forcing the fractured dominant race to do things that aren’t exactly, er, human.

Ethan Hawke is Edward Dalton, a researcher who, with the assistance of a band of covert vamps (Willem Dafoe and Claudia Karvan among them), plots a way to save humankind. But standing in the way of the outfit’s plan is Charles Bromley, Dalton’s green-eyed (or is that red-eyed!?) boss, played with savour by the always-dependable Sam Neill.

Though the performances are terrific - Hawke, Dafoe and Neill are at their best; Aussies Claudia Karvan, Jay Laga’aia, Michael Dorman, and Isabel Lucas also fare surprising well (showing Sam Worthington how the American accent is done, for one!) - the stars of this one are undoubtedly its talented writing-directing duo, The Spierg Brothers.

Without such a killer script (it’s reminiscent of the wonderful Children of Men), the film’s flaws, largely its’ cheapish production values, might’ve been more apparent. But with such emphasis on plotting, audiences won’t find a spare moment to whine.  

Aussies Michael and Peter Spierig, who burst onto the scene a couple of years back with their fiscally-friendly zombie pic Undead, have pumped fresh blood into a genre one might’ve assumed that been drained to the bone. But if this refreshingly original chronicle of a coffin-staple proves anything, it’s that there’s still room for vampiric tales with actual bite.

A low-frills but high-thrills thriller that reminds us that story is the most important aspect of a movie - everything else can afford to pale in comparison if the plot is tight - Daybreakers is a film genre fans will likely be fang-full they caught.

Daybreakers is in cinemas February 4.

ENDS