The premise of Daybreakers is simple – vampires are real and have become the dominant species on the planet. But it’s not all sappy teen romance and glitter in the sunlight (thank god). As a result of the over-expansion of their population, vampires now suffer from a Malthusian curse. In other words, they’re about to drain the dwindling human population dry. Unlike humans, however, vampires don’t just quietly starve to death. Prolonged blood deprivation turns them into Nosferatu-like homicidal maniacs. Ethan Hawke plays Dr. Edward Dalton, a hematologist who is trying to develop an acceptable blood substitute, ideally one that doesn’t induce projectile vomiting and bloody, spontaneous combustion. Meanwhile, vampire society is undergoing an all-too-human transformation towards fascism (and clearly fascist society demands its citizens to dress in a melodramatic film noir style reminiscent of The Maltese Falcon circa Blade Runner). The new corporate-fascist society is run by none other than Sam Neill.

Like any self respecting vampire, Dalton has a serious case of self-loathing. His sympathy for humans leads him to a band of renegades led by Lionel ‘Elvis’ Cormac (played by Willem Dafoe). Cormac was a vampire but through a bizarre accident somehow managed to regain his humanity. Now the humans need Dalton’s help to recreate the process and save both the humans and the vampires from extinction.

For a vampire movie, Daybreakers actually has some pretty deep themes. Well, it has themes, some of them are deep, some of them are shallow, and a lot of them get shoved down your throat. Here are some of them –

Mismanagement of Resources – the vampires in Daybreakers have a problem, they’ve almost drained the human population dry. When that happens, they will all devolve into freaky winged monsters…gross. This alludes to two things –

1. It’s a reference to Malthusian theory, a social theory created in 1798 by Thomas Malthus. He predicted that due to the exponential growth of the world’s population, eventually population would outstrip food production and there would be planet-wide food shortages and mass starvation. Clearly, that didn’t happen (we have food rotting in warehouses as we speak, even though we haven’t solved the hunger issue) because Malthus did not take into account the potential of rapid technological development. But it’s still a classic theory.
2. The metaphor of blood shortages in Daybreakers also points to our current mismanagement of many of the earth’s resources. Is blood a metaphor for oil? When deprived of oil do we turn into savage monsters that savagely kill our own kind? Is the substitute that Ethan Hawke trying to find a metaphor for alternative energy?

Social Hysteria and Mass Movements – The vampires have essentially gone to war with the humans – and won. However, when the last human dies the vampires will begin to consume each other (every society has to have a monster to fight, right? Be it vampires or terrorists). In an attempt to control the rampaging Nosferatu monsters, Sam Niell decides to have them exterminated, even though the monsters are merely a product of their own dysfunctional society. The scene where blood-deprived vampires are chained up and drug out into the sun to burn to death reminds me of A) the Holocaust and B) the Patriot Act (if you forgive me a moment of exaggeration, the Patriot Act is not the same as Nazi Germany). Both claimed (or claim) to be infringing upon the rights of some individuals for the sake of the greater good. If we can cleanse our society of these blood crazy monsters, then everything will be ok. Let’s just overlook the fact that our society is what created them in the first place.

Corporate Fascism – “But wait!” you say, “Fascism is not the same as capitalism. Fascism is for Nazis!” Mussolini in fact did include corporatism in his view of the all-embracing fascist state, “The Fascist State lays claim to rule in the economic field no less than in others; it makes its action felt throughout the length and breadth of the country by means of its corporate, social, and educational institutions, and all the political, economic, and spiritual forces of the nation, organised in their respective associations, circulate within the State.” (Benito Mussolini, 1935, The Doctrine of Fascism, pg. 41) More generally, Mussolini is attributed to saying “Fascism should more generally be called corporatism, since it is the merger of state and corporate power.” (Though this quote is not found in any of his writings, it still reflects the point.) Yes, corporate fascism is the evil twin brother of capitalism. At least, that’s how it is commonly portrayed in film and the liberal media. Daybreakers examines the danger that overly powerful state corporations can present to freedom. Sam Niell is a vamire, but what makes him evil is the fact that he’s the CEO of a corporation that seeks to possess a monopoly over the blood supply. Is this is allusion to American pharmaceutical companies? Daybreakers also depicts what happens when the military is used to police the civilian population. Be careful, the military is just as likely to tase you or cheer while you are burned alive than they are to protect you.

Human Nature Sucks…but it is Inescapable – Even though they are vampires, they still suffer from human nature. Basically, this means that eventually we are all going to destroy each other – like the bloody climax of Daybreakers. Ethan Hawke found a cure for vampirism, but he can’t cure human nature. That’s just something we’re going to have to live with. Inevitably, it is impossible to run from the human condition. I won’t revel the end of the movie, but humanity turns out to be something that no one, not even the vampires, can escape from.

Yes, Daybreakers is pretty deep, though sometimes the film lacks subtlety. I particularly didn’t care for the scene where the blood deprived vampires are drug out into the sun while the vampire soldiers cheer and Frankie Dalton (Michael Dorman) feels intense regret for allowing himself to become a mindless soldier/vampire who blindly followed orders, no matter how morally repugnant. It felt like the Spierig brothers were trying to shove something down my throat. However, this is clearly a step up from the usual vampire themes of sex, blood, and impeccable fashion sense.

A lot of people have been talking about the recent fascination with vampires, thanks primarily to the Twilight series of books and movies. But in truth vampires have always had an undeniable appeal. As far as monsters go, vampires are by far the most intriguing because they are nothing but walking metaphors for the qualities that all humans desire on some level – eternal life, eternal beauty and control of a dark sexual power. Anyone who says that they don’t desire those things – on some level – is either lying or an idiot. Vampires represent what we humans wish we could be and that is why they are constantly featured in books, films, television, etc. There are many different versions of the vampire myth – Dracula could assume various other forms and shriveled up into a flaky old man when he didn’t drink enough blood. Nosferatu (the original screen vamp modeled off of Dracula) was in some serious need of plastic surgery. Anne Rice’s vampires are physically dead and cold like statues, incapable of engaging in actual physical intercourse (though that doesn’t stop them from being the most unabashedly homosexual vampires of all time). Joss Whedon’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer combined the intrigue of sex and power with awesome wit and campy humor. Most vampires cannot walk in the sun, but some – like the kind featured in Christopher Pike’s Alisa Pern vampire series – can. Some vampires, like Blade, are half-breeds who possess the power of both by the weakness of none. But all of these vampires have something in common – there is something undeniably attractive and sexual about them. They can manipulate humans to either grant them their desires or they can forcefully take it from them (blood is a power metaphor after all). And they live forever. Two extremely popular book series – Laurell K. Hamilton’s Anita Blake series and Charlene Harris’ Sookie Stackhouse series (which you may know from the HBO adaptation True Blood)– prominently feature vampires and werewolves (plus an assortment of other creatures) as the romantic and sexual interests of the main characters, in both cases a female human. Needless to say, these series are virtually identical to one another. Twilight is just another addition to a long line of vampire novels and movies. More importantly, it doesn’t offer anything new to the genre – its so bland that I could make a convincing case that its an unabashed rip-off of any vampire series that exists (though it does share some rather blatant similarities to Laurell K. Hamilton’s series in particular.) Stephenie Meyer just replaced the gratuitous sex scenes with scenes of teenaged angst and viola~ bestseller! That’s a good idea because, let’s face it, teenagers (even sexually active ones) are more interested in angst and drama then the actual act of sex itself.

But what, you know find yourself asking, does this have to do with Daybreakers? Well, I am now going to make my point – we love vampires because they are exaggerated caricatures of human desire – the desire for youth/beauty, the desire for sex, and the desire for power. By reading vampire novels or watching vampire films, we are participating in blatantly self-indulgent escapism. And that’s cool, I’m all for mindless self-indulgence. However – what happens when you take away those exaggerated traits of vampires? What happens is vampires aren’t good-looking or no longer possess a dark sexual magnetism?

They become boring.

We don’t get to escape to that fantasy land of power and sex. And, inevitably, we are left unsatisfied. This is the problem that Daybreakers encounters. I really like this movie. I think it is one of the most successful vampire movies ever made. However, it feels like its missing something. This is because the vampires in Daybreakers are just a little too human. Daybreakers presents the audience with a vampire society that is altogether too human. They suffer from the same problems and handle them in the same unsatisfying way. They have the same weaknesses as humans and don’t seem to possess any supernatural powers to compensate for that. Other than yellow eyes, fangs, and the ability to live forever without aging, these vampires are just whiny old humans. They aren’t super fast or strong and they can’t hypnotize women with their eyes. Instead, they have mismanaged their resources, fallen into a dictatorial form of government, and are starving to death. Personally, they are just as inept at managing their personal relationships as you and I. The Spierig brothers clearly wanted to make a realistic, gritty vampire movie and ironically they were just a little too successful. Just as Underworld depicted vampires as a little too weak in comparison to the gritty lycans (werewolves), the vampires in Daybreakers are no longer the badass supernatural creatures we are fascinated with, they are just human. Way too human and way too boring.

Tags: constantineintokyo, Film Reviews, vampires

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