Starring: Ethan Hawke, Sam Neill, Claudia Karvan, Willem Dafoe, Michael Dorman

Directed by: Michael Spierig, Peter Spierig

Warner Brothers

The Official Site of Daybreakers

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There’s a scene in Fantastic Mr. Fox where a realtor and a businessman have a heated argument that ends with them hissing and growling at each other. As neat as their little stop-motion suits may be, at the end of the day the realtor and the businessman are still wild animals and a heated discussion between a fox and a badger will often end with a lot of hissing and spitting.

There are moments in the new film Daybreakers that feel very much like this. In this alternate reality where vampires have taken over and rebuilt society in a human-farming, sun-fearing world there is a constant feeling that any business meeting gone wrong could end in the flashing of fangs and some unexpected, over-the-table lunges of death. That level of unpredictability lends itself nicely towards making Daybreakers work successfully as a horror movie but wears out its welcome as quickly as you might expect. Too many cheap scares had me begging for them to follow through on the great concept; to loose the cheap thrills and get smart.

Thankfully it does. Old school loud noises seem to fade away as we explore the world through the eyes of Ethan Hawke’s character, a vampire hematologist looking for a blood substitute to sustain the society of civilized vampires in a world that is dangerously close to running out of food. Vampires have taken to farming humans and while they’re always looking for new cows – the fields are empty. Without a proper substitute the vampires will devolve into feral beasts that attack their own kind.

The film was largely marketed on this idea of human farming and they stress the severity of it in the film. We are treated to images of rows and rows of humans hooked to machines. They take great care in showing us that they’re alive and then take greater care in showing us that the program doesn’t discriminate against the elderly or pregnant. All humans have become fair game.

A chance encounter with a pack of humans identifies the doctor as a human sympathizer. He’s had trouble letting go of his former life to the point where he avoids drinking the blood fresh. He’s recruited by the humans to develop a cure for the disease of vampirism in a twist that would make Dr. Frankenstein proud.

I initially scoffed at the idea of bring a dead vampire back to life but in a cinematic world that has fallen for the idealized, romantic vision of vampires it’s refreshing to find a film willing to remind us that no matter how sparkly they get in the sun, they’re still a pack of wild animals.

Hawke is an easy lead to follow. He is as cowardice and shocked as even the weakest-willed member of the audience so his experiences are ours. Overshadowing him is Willem Defoe kicks all kinds of ass as the world’s first cured vampire, a gruff warrior who Han-Solos his way into our hearts. The entire cast embraces the dark, B-movie vibe of the production but Defoe is definitely having the most fun. I’d imagine there’s something very liberating about being the guy just behind the hero that gets to be crude, crazy and occasionally save the day.

I promise – spoiler wise this is just the tip of the iceberg in a story that has a lot of fun exploring supply and demand and corporate greed within the context of the vampire mythos. Daybreakers has good fun exploring human survival (explosive crossbows? A+), explosive vomiting and a glorious redefinition of the term “food chain� (keep an eye out for the lobby showdown in the third act.) but also takes great care in exploring a world run by the living dead.

But Daybreakers is a movie that succeeds in the details. The kind of details I can’t really talk about without just flat out running the movie for you. Suffice it to say, this high concept horror movie with a twist of action and desperate plea for a sequel knows its audience well and delivers up enough exploding hearts, fiery car accidents and bumps in the night to satiate them.

This was fun but let’s be real. It’s not a great movie. Some of it, including the opening scene where we see a young vampire girl burst into flames in a very crappy display of Scy-Fy Channel like effects, had me wondering how this got a major release. But it preservers and does what it’s supposed to do very well. Not beyond a rating of “6� though.

Vampire fans should be entertained but not blown away.

Daybreakers was completed in 2007 but then shelved until now. This has been a common practice as the politics of Hollywood delay releases for one reason or another. Whatever the strategy it seems to have worked as Daybreakers did a respectable bit of business for a genre film and stands to turn a profit in the weak days of the New Year.

I’m going to say that this is one to pass on when it comes to DVD. I’ve been burned on clever horror movies that replay terribly. As a long shot, if the film actually develops into a franchise and they’re able to take it in a direction worthy of its nifty backbone of ideas, then I could see revisiting this introduction. Otherwise it’s arguably just some forgettable fun.

I don’t mean to discount romance as it pertains to vampires. Lust and murder have made great bedfellows when it comes to the vampire mythos and even the recent obsession with living dead romance (True Blood, Twilight, Vampire Diaries) have made efforts to portray the vampires as both lovers and fighters. The comic ignores that but there’s truth in everything. Daybreakers doesn’t even pretend their lovers. Sure they may have been at some point but it sheds nice light on the ugly side of a mythos that’s been a little too glorified the past few years.

I’m all about spoilers with this movie. Which is why you should keep a closer ear to the new Crappy Movies Podcast where we’ll be getting into all the nitty, gritty and hilarious spoilers involved with Daybreakers. Those that have been reading my work the past few years and that have seen the movie may have noticed a particular spoiler that I’m very anxious to discuss. It’ll have to wait for the show though.

Had a great time putting this image of vampire Frankenstein together for my newspaper syndicates. I was at first going to try and draw this amalgam of Ethan Hawke as the two monsters but using the classic image of the Universal Studios Frank was a better solution. I liked it enough that I’ll be making postcards to pass out at our convention appearances so if you dig the image and run into us at San Diego, New York Comic Con, C2E2 in Chicago or one of our other stops be sure and inquire about getting a copy.

I’ve enjoyed sort of a return to traditional illustration. Finding a way to caricature an actor or actress or sum up a movie in a singular image has been a challenge that I think has helped me to grow. I’ve come to view it as a skill building exercise as much as a source of income. It’s important to keep work fun.

For those of you that live in the Baltimore area I’ll come high five me at Super Art Fight where I’ll be participating in a live art battle with some of the area’s finest. This is an event co-founded and run by Ross from The System (a great comic you should seriously be reading already). It combines art with improve. I took part at Connecticon last year where the lovely and talented Yuko Ota slaughtered me in front of a packed room. The adrenaline is infectious. It offers a unique opportunity to feed of the crowd and create something beautiful at the same time. It’s as close as any of us will get to being rock stars. A great line up of talent will be on hand to kick my ass so be sure to come by and witness it first hand.

Thanks so much for swinging by.