Daybreakers

Rating: ***

CAN’T be just a fleeting coincidence,can it? A story about nice,warm,loving and civilised vampires called Twilight. And now a film about vampires as they would actually be — hunting,seeking human life and blood,depraved were they deprived of it — called Daybreakers.

The film,written and directed by the Spierig brothers,isn’t anything if not a wake-up call. Imagine 2019,where one single bat leads to a plague that leaves behind vampires who are immortal,strong and who feed on humans. Ten years later,humans are few and far between,being hunted,being farmed,being encouraged to come and give blood on their own. Companies are working on making a blood substitute,ostensibly so that humans won’t be hunted anymore,while coffeeshops serve their brew mixed with blood,whose count is now rapidly falling. Unable to find or afford the cost of the precious human blood,vampires are turning “subsiders” — violent and aggressive,bat-like in appearance.

The vampire Edward Dalton (Hawke) is a haematologist. A doctor with one of the biggest firms supplying blood to the market,he has been entrusted with the task of fast turning up with a blood substitute. He is a reluctant convert,who hasn’t drunk human blood in a while — no explanation is offered about how he survives then. His boss,the company’s owner (Neill),on the other hand,is greedy,eager to make the most of a depleting market.

A group of humans led by “Elvis” (Dafoe) and Audrey (Karvan) recruits Dalton to help them out. They have been searching for “sympathetic” vampires,and realise Dalton is among them. What gets Dalton interested is that Elvis was a vampire who has now turned human. Therein could lie the cure he has been looking for.

Bodies are torn apart,gored,decapitated,eaten at regular intervals. But the Spierigs don’t stick to that alone,making a tight film,where the suspense doesn’t slacken,even as the characters grow on each other and on the audience. Where Daybreakers loses the plot a little is towards the very end,where less blood and more heart may have done the trick. For a film that leaves no loose ends till then — including having subwalks so that vampires can criss-cross town without venturing into sunlight,which can burn them,and cars which allow navigation with entirely tinted glasses — that is an annoying disappointment.