These days the vampire genre is a crowded and confusing confection. On the one hand, you have niche gems such as Let the Right One In and TV's "True Blood" on HBO. On the other hand, you have the female-fueled Twilight phenomenon. One might assume that the Team Edward and Team Jacob craziness makes this the perfect time to unleash a weighty and scary vampire thriller, but Daybreakers' brief and mediocre run at the box office delivered evidence to the contrary. And that's a shame, because there's a fair amount to like about this futuristic blood sucker from The Spierig Brothers.
The year is 2019. A plague has turned the vast majority of the world's population into vampires. Some humans remain, but there's a problem. The vampires are running low on blood. A viable blood substitute has yet to be discovered, so as a result the dwindling humans are being rounded up and harvested in Matrix-esque body farms. Unhappy Ethan Hawke plays the vampires' chief hematologist who has a crisis of conscience and makes a startling discovery after encountering a rag tag band of human rebels led by Willem Dafoe. What if a blood substitute wasn't needed? What if vampirism could be cured?
Still not convinced this movie is for you? See what our film guru Joe Lozito had to say about the theatrical release of Daybreakers.
The Picture 
If nothing else, Daybreakers is a great-looking film. And I'm not just talking about Blu-ray picture quality here. This is a wonderfully atmospheric picture and the Spierig Brothers have given the film a unique look not often found in the stake-through-the-heart genre of moviemaking. The vampire world is very dark and monochromatic - icy blues and greens mostly, while the human hideout looks much warmer, bathed in natural sunlight. Blu-ray renders these two vastly different realms with ease. The vampire office interiors display impressive shadow delineation while the human stronghold is loaded with fine image detail; sun-baked skin tones appear quite natural. Overall, this is an extremely solid 1080p transfer from the folks at Lionsgate.
The Sound
More impressive than the video is the aggressive 7.1 channel DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack. Bat screeches make for a piercing tweeter test while the film's infrequent-but-messy hand-to-hand confrontations are sonic treats, delivering plenty of low-end oomph amidst the large front soundstage. Tranquilizer darts fly through the room from speaker to speaker and the surround channels get plenty to do from start to finish.
The Extras
Daybreakers is easily one of the most technically advanced titles I've seen from Lionsgate thus far. Unfortunately, that's both a blessing and a curse. First, the bad. After it took an interminable amount of time to load on my Panasonic BD35, I tried the disc in my Blu-ray enabled Sony VAIO laptop, which typically loads much faster than my standalone player. The disc loaded quicker, but it was still much slower than the average disc these days. (Ultimately I watched the film on my BD35; the laptop test was pure curiousity.) And then came the Main Menu.
I need to try a few more discs on my laptop to see if Daybreakers is actually unique in this case, but if you have internet access enabled for Blu-ray playback, prepare yourself for a Main Menu that more closely resembles your PC's desktop than anything else. Superimposed over the disc's Main Menu wallpaper and navigation bar are local weather and time widgets floating without purpose. (Do I really care what the weather is right now? And what time it is? It's movie time, be quiet.)
More troubling is the internet-powered advertising bar above the main menu buttons, informing me of upcoming street dates for Lionsgate discs as well as theatrical news. This closely resembles the ad bar that sits atop your Gmail Inbox, for you Google fans. In its defense, the ad bar IS subtle, but it's also a troubling peek at what's to come if such power were to fall into the wrong hands. I say that with a wink and a smile, but I'm only half kidding.
If online content and ringtones are your cup of tea, be sure to check out LG LIVE (Lionsgate's riff on BD LIVE). As for traditional on-disc bonus material, there is plenty to here to keep you busy for hours - and I do mean hours. Most impressive is the exhaustive "Making of Daybreakers" documentary, with a running time of more than two hours - 30 minutes longer than the film itself! Covering every aspect of the production, this is must-see TV for aspiring filmmakers everywhere. Also worth watching is the Spierig Brothers' short film entitled The Big Picture. It has nothing to do with Daybreakers, but it's definitely worth a look (and not just because we love the title).
Final Thoughts
When it comes to vampire films, it's hard to break new ground these days. Daybreakers manages to buck that trend by introducing several original ideas with respect to the dos and don'ts of vampire lore. Though not without its flaws and perforated with plot holes, Daybreakers is an innovative and visually-impressive thriller with atmosphere and energy to spare. And at at the end of the day, it's just refreshing to come across a vampire flick that doesn't, well, suck.
Product Details
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