At a time when the relentlessly homogenised ethos of vampire genre storytelling desperately needed to be rescued from the clutches of Robert Pattinson and associated Twihards comes the second blood-spangled flick from emerging horror writer/directors The Spierig Brothers.
The Spierigs burst on the scene with a magnificent explosion of body parts in 2003’s zany Aussie zombie comedy Undead. Modestly budgeted at around a million bucks, the film looked like it cost ten times that amount – a result of their extensive hands-on SFX work and a restlessly inventive visual structure.
These guys know how to stretch a budget; they know how to savour every drop of fake blood. Therefore it’s not difficult to understand how and why they got the moolah to make Daybreakers, a revisionist vampire flick in which the Spierig Brothers upturn expectations by delivering an eerily original horror triumph. It makes Twilight look like Play School.
The story is set in a world where almost everybody is a vampire and where human bodies are harvested for their blood. Edward (Ethan Hawke) is one of the vamps, albeit of the more moralistic ilk: like an animal-loving vegan he sympathises with humans, rejects real blood and only drinks blood substitute. This fits in well with where the world is heading – because real blood is rapidly running out and the powers that be are desperate for a substitute, a cure, or simply more of the good stuff.
In pursuit of a solution Edward teams up with humans Audrey (Claudia Karvan) and Lionel aka Elvis (Willem Dafoe) who belong to a sort of underground resistance. To make matters more complicated, a third breed of human-ish beings exist: a race of sticky bat-looking freaks whose favourite pastimes include eating anything that moves (including themselves) and muttering incomprehensible scary sounds.
Dafoe, screen-chewing as always, is handed most of the best dialogue: “living in a world where vampires are the dominant species,” he grumbles, “is about as safe as bare backing a five dollar whore.” Sam Neill has a small but high impact guy-you-love-to-hate role as a tyrannical corporate bigwig. He swills and quaffs his blood, proffering a spot of critical analysis to boot, no doubt learnt on Yarra Valley blood tasting courses: “human blood has a scent that no substitute could ever replace – fear,” he says.
Small bursts of sassy dialogue are matched with big bursts of action. Vampire aficionados will be treated to flourishes of genre inventions strewn throughout the story. In a delicious touch, coffee drinking vamps have a shot of blood in their morning lattés. When rations are enforced and their blood/caffeine levels are low, commuters get a wee bit cranky, to say the least.
The film is shot in a metallic, midnight blue – creepy, cool and slick. There is a clever daytime car chase scene (vamps drive UV resistant, black-tinted vehicles) in which Edward not only navigates the road but also avoids bullet-created beams of light inside the car. And in a brilliant moment of Romero-esque who’s the real monster now, chump? a chain gang of sticky vampire freaks are hauled into the daylight, hissing and snarling, frying up in the sun. It’s a truly eerie moment with dark connotations – concentration camps, torture, the initial hoof prints on route to a new kind of genocide…
Not all of the Spierigs’ genre inventions come to fruition: a great many of them feel tantalisingly under-developed and some – such as the vampire freaks sub-plot – are cut way short. There is a sense that they bit off a bit much to chew in some areas and focused too squarely on action in others. But nevertheless Daybreakers is a bold and fiercely innovative vampire flick destined to defy anyone who thinks they’ve seen it all before. Sure to become a cult classic, it helps wash away the stinky, putrid sweetness dished out by the Twilight characters, who in the Clearasil-free Daybreakers universe would be served on a shish kebab and gobbled up for brekkie.
Daybreakers’ Australian theatrical release date: February 4, 2010
see it
skip it
don't rush
12 Comments
After watching a previous Spierig brothers film I was really looking forward to see what they had in store.
When I was at the multiplex I brought the ticket not knowing that this was a Spierig brothers film. I did not figure out the film was Aussie made until about half way through. I thought that there were some really good scenes but I was left a little unsatisfied with the ending. The ending to a previous Spierig brothers film with all the floating crucifixes is an image I can still recall. I thought Daybreakers definitely had an original ending but I would have preferred a little more of a “Hollywood” style ending.
Recommended. 4/5
Fair enough Ben. The ending of Undead was certainly a lot zanier. The Spierig’s are very good at conjuring memorable images: you mentioned the floating crucifixes; a big one for me was the flying fish too. And in Daybreakers the car chase, the coffees, the chain gang…
Hooray for them…
I dont suppose this spells the end of all the funding for this dreary monotonous ‘authentic’ aussie cinema we keep enduring that keeps failing at the box office? …ie ‘serious navel gazing drama ‘ / goofy larrakin comedy / historical snooze. You know, the stuff that wins awards that nobody outside the local film industry wants to see.
Beams of sunlight through bullet holes in the car reminds me of Kathryn Bigelow’s grebo vampire flick “Near Dark”, which is not a bad thing. The blacked out UV proof cars is also somewhat remiscent of the TV series “Ultraviolet” – again, no bad thing.
‘Even after Undead was sold to Lionsgate and saw a US theatrical release, the doors in Australia were still slow to open.
“Every studio in Hollywood wanted to meet with us and not one single person or one single funding body in Australia wanted to sit down and have a conversation with us,” Peter said.
The suggestion that a style of filmmaking can be ‘too commercial’ for the Australian industry is one that the brothers rail against. Passionately.’
Damning really…this should be the #1 topic on all local film discussions…There’s no reason at all for aussies to not be making quality genre films at any budget…the New Zealanders are making fools of us. Time to change.
gotta agree with you quantize, bring on entertaining Oz movies and out the door with the wrist-slashing angst of the last few years – except as you say the archetypal lovable bloke film. Can’t wait to see it and proud as hell that it’s Australian. Undead was great