“How
would you survive if vampires
had taken over the world and you had
chosen to remain human — even if it
meant you could be taken prisoner and
farmed for your blood to keep the new
dominant society alive?”
A VAMPIRE FILM WITH A DIFFERENCE, DAYBREAKERS is an astonishing futuristic
sci-fi thriller that takes place in 2019 when a large proportion of the population
has become vampires and who have given the remaining humans two choices: join
them or become enemies of the state — and their prey.
Cutthroat businessman Charles Bromley (Sam Neill) is head of Bromley Marks Pharmaceuticals,
a company that provides the vampire population with blood that is farmed in
a gruesome way from the decreasing numbers of surviving humans, who are now
an endangered species making up just five per cent of the population. Bromley
thrives on his power and success, caring little for others, and even abandoning
his own daughter Alison (Isabel Lucas) to her fate because she has refused to
'assimilate'.
Bromley's Head Haematologist Edward Dalton (Ethan Hawke) is sympathetic towards
the humans and refuses to feast on human blood, finding the farming practices
abhorrent. He is determined to find a way to produce an alternative to blood
— not least of all because of the rapidly dwindling supplies that is having
devastating consequences all across the globe, particularly in the so-called
Third World. If he can perfect the blood substitute he is working on, he can
save the vampires and spare the remaining humans.
This is a cruel world of the future, where the vampires live in the shadows
and fear the sun; hungry for human blood and getting around during the day by
using a network of specially-built subwalks.
As
the blood shortages and rationing drive vampires deeper into desperation, blood-related
crime escalates and vampires who cannot find blood become violent and uncontrollable
'Subsiders' — ferocious bat-like humanoid creatures. Edward is horrified
by the results of the blood substitute experiments on death-row inmates and
time is running out.
“Humans bite back:
Daybreakers —
an exciting new twist on
the vampire theme;
a slick sci-fi thriller with
a terrific cast...”
Then
Edward meets the crossbow-wielding Audrey Bennett (Claudia Karvan), a human
who is in need of help. She tells him that there is another way to live and
introduces him to Lionel 'Elvis' Cormac (Willem Dafoe) who may have the answer
that Edward has been searching for — a startling medical breakthrough.
It is a knowledge that both vampires and humans would kill for. And Edward will
have to pit himself against his own kind — including his own brother Frankie
(Michael Dorman) — in the battle to decide the fate of the human race.
• Humans bite back: Daybreakers is
an exciting new twist on the vampire theme; a slick sci-fi thriller with a terrific
cast. A mite too much unnecessary blood and gore, perhaps, but nevertheless
a great film. Get your teeth into the futuristic sci-fi thriller Daybreakers,
an action-packed, humans versus vampires battle that comes to DVD and Blu-ray
on 31 May (2010) from Lionsgate Home Entertainment. Running Time: 94 minutes
approx | Catalogue No: LGD94252 (DVD) and LGB94252 (BD).
DVD Extras: Audio Commentary with The Spierig Brothers and Steve Boyle
| The Making Of Daybreakers.
Blu-ray Extras: Audio Commentary With The Spierig Brothers and Steve
Boyle | The Making Of Daybreakers | Picture-in-Picture Storyboards | Animatics
| Popcorn Taxi | The Big Picture: A Spierig Brothers Short Film.
"Humans bite back: Daybreakers is an exciting new twist on the vampire
theme; a slick sci-fi thriller with a terrific cast" — Maggie Woods,
MotorBar
"Truth is like the sun: you can shut it out for a time but it ain't goin' away"
— Elvis Presley
Stylish and provocative, Daybreakers also features: Vince Colosimo as
Christopher Caruso; Paul Sonkkila as General Williams; Todd Levi as Commissioner
Turnbull; Christopher Kirby as Jarvis Bayom; Harriet Minto-Day as Lisa Barrett;
Jay Iaga'Aia as Senator Turner; Damien Garvey as Senator Westlake; Carl Rush
as Al Walker; Sahaj Dumpleton as Homeless Vampire and Renai Caruso as Coffee
Shop Attendant.
Daybreakers is Written and Directed by Michael Spierig and Peter Spierig;
Music is by Chirstopher Gordon; Production & Costumes Designed by George Liddle;
Director of Photography is Benn Nott ACS; and Produced by Sean Furst and Bryan
Furst.
“How
would you survive if vampires