Daybreakers, and a reason your DVD player might suddenly stop working.

Finally I got to watch Daybreakers

I say finally, because I had really wanted to watch it at the cinema, but I was still living in Spain when it was released.  Then I saw it was out on DVD and so I went up to Blockbuster and rented the movie, but it seemed it was not meant to be.

After spouting about how we’d had our DVD player for years and had only cost us twenty quid, I then put in the DVD and… nothing.

I ejected the DVD and put it back in again…still nothing.

I then switched the player on and off again.. still nothing.

I switched it off at the wall..

I swore at it…nothing

Then hit it several times… still swearing…

And at this point my husband noticed I had rented a Blue-ray DVD, so of course it wasn’t going to work!  Shame-faced I took the DVD back to the store and opened my explanation to the guy in the store with , ‘I know I’m an idiot, but…’

So this is my formal apology to my DVD player for the abuse I hurled at it!

Anyway, back to the movie.

Daybreakers is set in 2019, where most of the worlds population have been turned into vampires.  Now the humans are the endangered species and the vampires are running out of blood.  Ethan Hawke’s character plays the ‘vamp with a heart’, Ed, and is trying to create a blood substitute so humans no longer need to be hunted.  If the vampires don't drink human blood they mutated in long eared bat-vampires who are stronger, but a lot less human that the other vamps.

These mutated vampires were great – much more fun than Ethan Hawke’s character.  It was well done because I did feel empathy for these hideously ugly creatures, especially as they were essentially just starving vampires and the ‘normal’ vampires just treated them like they were scum.  I also loved the way the vampires exploded – they really made me jump. 

Daybreakers is a new and original take on the vampire genre.  It is fast paced and engaging.  It has a futuristic feel to it that reminded me of another movie – The Island.  I thought they stretched the truth a bit with the vamps being able to go out in daylight as long as they stayed in the shade, and they didn’t seem fast or strong enough to me, but that’s just my personal vampire taste! Also, I wasn’t sure about the storyline about the ‘cure’, but again, it was an original idea.

It was a shame the ‘normal’ vampires weren’t stronger or faster.  If anything they seemed a bit too human, but overall I really enjoyed this movie.  It is a must for any vampire lovers!