Now how ‘bout that: An Australian made film that mainstream audiences might actually go and see! Or at least gore hungry teenagers with litres of Red Bull infused blood pumping around their hormonal bodies. But given the recent vampiric trend amongst teens, it’s the perfect market for the Australian film industry to suck the life out of. Lord knows they’re looking a little parched.

Yes, Daybreakers is another vampire film, but don’t hold it against it. This is stuff Twilight fans have nightmares about; if Edward met Bella in this bloodthirsty sci-fi action romp, he’d lunge teeth first at her throat before ripping her limb from limb, draining every ounce of bland blood from her angst-filled veins. Oh, if only…

Joining the ranks of last year’s Zombieland and Drag Me to Hell, Daybreakers continues the reprisal of the postmodern horror that lay mostly dormant in the genre for the last decade. Beginning with The Evil Dead in the 80s and revived once more by Scream in the 90s, these are the horror flicks that have realised there’s something hilariously camp about the excessively gruesome deaths, ridiculous chase sequences and crassly stereotyped characters that have been staple to the genre since its conception.

And although Daybreakers is goretastically entertaining, it’s by no means stupid.  There’s some biting political satire flowing through the inventive narrative, which Australian writer/directors The Spierig Brothers (Undead, The Big Picture) clearly had a lot of fun fleshing out.

It’s the year 2019 and 95% of the world’s population are now vampires after the ‘disease’ broke out a decade earlier. With so few humans remaining in the world, the vampire population are in the midst of a global crisis of a different kind: there’s not enough blood to go round and it’s causing the thirsty to mutate into violent bat-like creatures. Scientist Edward Dalton (Ethan Hawke), a human sympathiser, is desperately researching a synthetic blood alternative, pressured to speed up the testing phase by his money-hungry boss Charles Bromley (a devilishly fun Sam Neill), the CEO of the pharmaceutical company Bromley Marks. Considering vampires are mostly immortal –rather than glisten in the sunlight, they spectacularly explode in a rush of flames — blood is the only thing the company sells, which they harvest from the human population they’ve captured. Of course, there is still a small human resistance, lead by tough-gal Audrey (Claudia Karvan) and gun-ho mechanic Lionel “Elvis” Cormac (Willem Dafoe).  Armed with crossbows and UV lamps, the humans have one game changing trick up their sleeve; rather than a solution to the blood crisis, they’ve found a cure.

Michael and Peter Spierig have obviously been brewing on the idea of a world run by vampires for some time now, as they’ve gone into great detail describing how the night-dwellers survive with that pesky sun. UV-proof cars, for instance, have multiple cameras attached to allow vampires to drive during the day and, should you be looking to exercise those legs, extensive underground walkways connect each of the city’s buildings. Initially, it’s a lot to take in as we’re thrust into this skewed world perhaps too abruptly, but the Spierig brothers have put their slim $20 million budget to astoundingly good use in realising their vision, impressing particularly in the fields of makeup and set design. The brothers would have also saved millions doing most of the visual effects themselves, and while they’re not quite up to your typical blockbuster standards, they certainly get the job done. Considering the film has already recouped all its finances within the first fortnight of box office sales in the US, their hard work has paid off splendidly.

Despite being shot entirely in Queensland’s Gold Coast and comprising of a cast and crew that is mostly Australian, you’d be hard pressed identifying this as local produce. But that’s a good thing; too often our films are culturally exclusive, which severely limits its international marketability and chance of box office success. Yes, most moviegoers will think this is a Hollywood production as it sells predominantly on Ethan Hawk’s and Willem Dafoe’s name — the latter especially enjoyable to watch – rather than the solid Australian cast. And yes, I did find it a tad disheartening to watch the likes of Sam Neill, Michael Dorman, Claudia Karvan and Isabel Lucas downplay their Aussie accents to sound more American. But the important thing to remember is that, at the end of the day, a good percentage of the money is flowing back into Australia, which is something our film industry hasn’t seen much of lately.

I suspect other critics will tear a limb from Daybreakers for its overreliance on gore, bite off an ear for a number of underdeveloped characters and gorge on its spleen for a few niggling plot holes. Sure enough, if they did that, they’d be left with a bloody carcass of a movie. But gosh darnit, isn’t that the whole point?

Read our exclusive interview with Daybreakers writers/directors the Spierig brothers!

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