‘Daybreakers’ (2009) – The Spierig Brothers.

In 2019 the Spierig Brothers doomily prognosticate a far more cinematic pandemic than the dour dystopia that rapidly turned everyone into Netflix subservient Deliveroo drones. A globally destructive, vampire-making bacillus has effectively turned the beleaguered human race into sustenance for the now entirely dominant bloodsuckers or being reviled, ceaselessly hunted outlaws, until finally in a capricious turn of twisted fate the exiled humans and their parasitically-inclined overlords find themselves heading inexorably towards extinction! One of the more interesting quirks of ‘Daybreakers’ are the monstrously degenerated, nightmarish-looking blood-deprived wraiths (Subsiders) who are no longer content to dwell in the subterranean glooms ferociously foraging for grim mortal remnants and are playing all merry, bloody hell with the sun-frighted populace above them, finally venturing into the affluent gated suburbs to savagely seek their sanguineous nourishment!

Machiavellian Vampire CEO of Bromley Marks, Charles Bromley (Sam Neill) aims to maintain their dominance by all nefarious means available to him, while homely haematologist Edward Dalton (Ethan Hawke) is peachy keen to find an end to the hominid subjugation by synthesizing a viable vampire-friendly blood serum and his earnest endeavours ultimately lead him into the covert Willem Defoe-led enclave of dwindling human resistance fighters who have accidentally discovered an alternate remedy to the global annihilation.

‘Daybreakers’ is an entertaining riff on the now rather lifeless vampire mythos, playing out like a stylishly-shot apocalyptic action thriller with heroic Hawke, ‘little John’ Defoe and his merry band of men and women stoically taking on the Big evil vampire pharma has a grimmer, bloodier tone in the ‘Unseen’ Blu-ray version, contrary to the milk-hearted naysayers, the increased gore demonstratively improves the re-watchability of the grisly high-jinks, and the deliciously grisly slo-mo climax is a luridly operatic, blissfully bloody B-movie delight! All that being said, overall the film remains a tad uneven, it's fish-nor-fowl nature now exacerbated by the additional grue, suggesting rather strongly that ‘Daybreakers’ may have achieved its elusive celluloid immortality as a gung-ho splattery horror epic, rather than an over earnest polemic of the world’s ruling elite ceaselessly ‘feeding’ upon the labours of those below them deliberately enslaved by poverty.

The Blu-ray looks and sounds terrific, some minor artifacting occasionally despoils the organic look of the actor’s faces but overall the clean visuals are a grand improvement on the standard DVD ‘seen’ version, and the booming 7.1 mix is a truly astonishing revelation, guaranteeing a deeply immersive headphone experience! Even as a stalwart ‘werewolf guy’ I’d happily watch this gnarlier version of ‘Daybreakers’ again, as for all my grouching, I have the distinct feeling that my appreciation of the Spierig Brothers film will increase the next time I watch it.