Is it weird that I want to live in the vampiric society of DAYBREAKERS (2009)?

Posted by Stephen Jannise

With their blood-soaked horror polemic Daybreakers, The Spierig Brothers have provided us with a very promising start to the year 2010 in cinema. In fact, I would go so far as to say that, for the remainder of the year, few films’ opening acts will be as inspired as the first half-hour of this movie. The above poster doesn’t quite convey the tone of these early scenes, but it was the best one I could find (the one that seems most popular makes a bright red, and ill-advised, visual reference to the much-lesser film 30 Days of Night).

This film is frequently being described as a “B-movie,” but in its opening scenes, I believe The Spierig Brothers sought and achieved A-material. The credits sequence displays a number of images of a society retooled for a population of vampires; my favorite is a traffic sign that says “Slow Down, School Zone from 2am-3am.” This is the first in a series of delightful touches that flesh out what a sun-fearing civilization would be like.

Naturally, if you’re talking about a society that must remain in the shadows to live, there is no better cinematic tradition in which to treat this concept than film noir. High praise belongs to art director Bill Booth, set decorator Matthew Putland, and especially production designer AND costume designer George Liddle for recognizing the potential for a film noir touch in this movie, combining the minor technological advances of the film’s time (the story takes place in 2019) with a sharply defined 1940s-era design scheme. These vampires order their coffee, spiked with blood, from old-fashioned diner windows and stand on subway platforms in wide-brimmed fedoras, their cigarettes and undead eyes glowing in the dark.

This is clearly a production still. Imagine this much darker and bluer.

The film’s color and lighting scheme, namely “really dark and really blue,” has been used several times before, but I believe it really fits this particular story. It seems natural that people whose flesh has gone cold, who can no longer delight in the usual pleasures that a living human being might enjoy, would dispense with the pleasantries of bright, warm colors. Imagine how glum you would be if your nightlife was replaced by a rescheduled workday?

Few actors portray glum better than Ethan Hawke, who carries this somber mood well in the first act. It is only when Willem Dafoe swoops in as a human-turned vampire-turned miraculously back into a human (with a deep-fried Southern accent and a penchant for Elvis Presley) that the movie does indeed take on the appearance of a B-picture.

Like many B-Western heroes before them, Hawke, Dafoe, and Instantly Forgettable Actress hitch their wagons together and prepare to do what's right.

From this point forward, as with most B-movies, the film begins to wear its message right on its sleeve. Whereas Hawke’s character had been working on a blood substitute, Dafoe and his fellow human friends convince him that a cure for vampirism is the better solution. Unfortunately, Hawke’s boss doesn’t see much of a profit in curing the illness.

Clearly, the film is using the vampire disease as an allegory for our world’s ongoing energy crises, with a dash of pharmaceutical conspiracy. Rather than trying to find alternate means of creating energy, maybe we can just cure our thirst for it? As absurdly optimistic as that sounds, at least vampires have been given a chance to represent something other than sexually transmitted diseases or teenage awkwardness.

So, if you’re like me and find yourself blown away by the film’s first act, you may be initially disappointed by Dafoe’s kooky bohemian and the film’s turn toward action violence. But make no mistake, The Spierig Brothers handle these segments of the film with equal skill. The movie has a number of memorably gory set pieces and the most intriguing car chase with a gimmick since Children of Men. January is rarely blessed with a mainstream film this good, and considering that it has already fallen off the top 10 box office list in its second week of release, we probably won’t see something like it again. Too bad, I would love a prequel.