Daybreakers. Yes, yet another vampire movie. With the rampant vampire craze, Hollywood decided to fuel the fire by going back to traditional vampire mythology. These vampires do not sparkle, cannot sustain continuously on animal blood, and they burn to cinders in the sun.  Instead of focusing on the vampires- bloodlust and hunting, this movie focuses on the humanistic aspects, the humanity that survives in all of us.

The setting of this movie is in 2019, approximately 10 years after a disease struck the globe. Vampires are rampant, they control the world, they are the government, the jury, the judge, the executioner, and they are a fading race. The human population is dwindling, the population that the vampires are dependant upon. With the human population shrinking, the government has ordered all humans to give themselves to the government, so that their blood can be farmed. Most humans are already being used as cows for their blood. All the while, a small band of humans, as well as (separately) government scientists, are working day and night to create a blood substitute, a “cure” for the problem. The main character – Edward Dalton (Ethan Hawke), is as humanistic as vampires get. He tries to survive solely on animal blood, which his brother Frankie (Michael Dorman) constantly teases him about. Frankie is the good little soldier, while Edward thinks outside the box and avoids the “normal” aspects of being a vampire.

This movie is not about vampires hunting humans, but it is about the dependency that the vampires have for the human population. Unlike most movies, Daybreakers depicts vampirism to be a disease, rather than glorious immortality.

The movie brings up many questions, such as the meaning of morality and how far one is willing to go to survive or to keep someone alive. Many philosophical questions are woven into this thriller/action tapestry. With more than its fair share of blood and gore, Daybreakers provides to both the lovers of violence and the lovers of interwoven plots filled with suspense.