Daybreakers was a much needed antidote to the current bubble gum shiny vampires infesting our culture today. Vampires used to be tales of horror, suspense, and gore. Sure, the vampire is a very romanticized being and that’s fine. But they have devolved into creatures of very little threat. So much so that in the Twilight series they bare absolutely no resemblance to vampires – except that they drink blood; and that’s pretty much it.

Only a precious few vampire films have managed to stay loyal to the wonderful mythology in recent years. My favorite being the masterpiece “Let the Right One In.” You probably didn’t see it – it’s Swedish. It played in only a few theaters across the nation. I’m lucky enough to have a small family owned theater with two screens that shows requested films (new and old) and usually the more obscure films.

Daybreakers follows, thank God, the trail of Let the Right One In. These vampires are dangerous. They will mercilessly kill you. If they haven’t had blood in a while, they will literally rip you apart and drink every ounce. You can forget a romance with these vampires. They can’t go out in sunlight, the feed on blood, they have no shadow. These are vampires. You can keep your precious Cullens.

The year is 2019 and vampires rule the world. In 2009, an outbreak occurred turning almost all of the human population into vampires. The remaining humans were given a choice – be turned, or die. Many chose to turn and many others chose to run. Those humans that are caught aren’t killed; they are taken to blood farms. Once hooked up and put into a permanent vegetative state, they are fed intravenously and also leaked for blood, but not enough to kill. Human batteries a la the Matrix.

Ethan Hawke plays Edward (yea, I know) Dalton, hematologist for the largest blood bank in the world. You see, the human population is almost extinct. The vampires only have enough human blood to last to the end of the month. Without human blood, a starved vampire will degenerate into a feral vampire known as a subsider. (The pic on the right) There is rapid frontal lobe degeneration causing a loss of all conscious thought. They became incredibly strong and incredibly lethal. Ed Dalton must find a blood substitute and fast.

First and foremost, this film is creepy. I’ve never been creeped out in a vampire flick before, so good job. The subsets are terrifying, especially the first one that Ed runs into. The film has a great noir-esque feel, creating many nice visuals and adding to the creepy factor. Also adding to the creep is the amount of gore in this film. I figured it would be about as gory as any other vampire film and boy, was I wrong. Many limbs and heads are lost. Guts abound. The best part is, its not played up for kicks like in a Tarantino movie. The gore is very realistic (in most cases) and very unsettling.

The acting all around can be a little over the top at times, especially from Sam Neil and Willem Dafoe – but when is Willem Dafoe not over the top? Ethan Hawke plays Ed Dalton very stoic, especially during the first half of the film. It’s obvious there is some serious thinking going on behind those furrowed brows.

The films strongest point is the premise with which we are presented. The world culture is now one of vampirism. That premise is believable and well done in the film. The films weakest point comes from its trek through the premise. The story is fairly good, but manages to be cliché despite the original premise. You will see the twists coming a mile away; especially the end twist. At the climax the film makes a wonderfully grand gesture thinking we have absolutely no idea what is going on. You probably will know exactly where its going.

I generally don’t have a problem with clichéd films, so I won’t be holding that against this movie, but I know a lot of people do. I don’t feel the cliché hurts this film at all, just makes it a bit predictable. There are some goofy explanations for the supposed “cure,” but again, I can usually suspend my disbelief enough to allow for some silly explanations.

What is very obvious about the film is that the film makers loved what they were making. This is a film that lives and breaths vampire lore. It takes some liberties, as all vampire stories do, but it sticks to its guns and manages to create the first good vampire movie to have a wide release in America in a long time.

The vampire genre will be around forever, especially with as much as people are eating it up right now. Hopefully this deadly serious film (pun intended) can have greater implications on the main stream media – “We really can make an adult serious vampire movie about creatures that scare the crap out of us.”

Daybreakers kicks the 2010 film year off with a great bang!