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Daybreakers

Mixed or average reviews
Based on 31 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 46 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info
Genre(s): Action | Drama | Horror | Sci-fi | Suspense/Thriller
Written by:
Peter Spierig
Michael Spierig
Directed by:
Peter Spierig
Michael Spierig
Release Date:
Theatrical: January 8, 2010
Running Time: 98 minutes, Color
Origin: Australia | USA
Summary
RATING: R for strong bloody violence, language and brief nudity
Starring Ethan Hawke, Willem Dafoe, Claudia Karvan, Michael Dorman, Vince Colosimo, Isabel Lucas, and Sam Neill
Two-time Academy Award nominee Ethan Hawke plays Edward Dalton, a researcher in the year 2019, in which an unknown plague has transformed the world's population into vampires. As the human population nears extinction, vampires must capture and farm every remaining human, or find a blood substitute before time runs out. However, a covert group of vampires makes a remarkable discovery, one which has the power to save the human race. (Lionsgate)
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
Daybreakers is more serious, from its A-list cast to its political commentary, with blood as a metaphor for oil. Like the best genre films, it has something on its mind.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips
Peter and Michael Spierig's earlier, campier horror outing, the zombie picture known as "Undead," was even bloodier than this one. The movie-makers are after bigger game here, and a subtler mixture of speculative nightmare and action film.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
While the characters are B-movie thin, the dialogue standard-issue, and the CG and matte effects only passable at best, it's undeniable fun to behold the likes of serious thespians Hawke and Dafoe slumming around in this cheeseball stuff.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen
The symbolism is about as subtle as a fang to the neck. Really, Daybreakers is more fun than foreboding; it's fright-lite, yet that's par for the bloody course in these busy apocalyptic days.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
On balance, however, there are more things to like about Daybreakers than to dislike. The production is loaded with impressive touches, some more nuanced than others.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Jeannette Catsoulis
The narrative may flag, but the doomsday atmosphere and George Liddle’s production design remain vivid until the final, blood-splattered reel.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Cliff Doerksen
Just when it seemed as if the vampire narrative had degenerated into terminal suckitude, along comes this gleefully gory little gem.
Read Full Review >Arizona Republic Bill Goodykoontz
Daybreakers isn't a great film, but it's a good one, and in a market oddly lousy with vampire tales, it's an original.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Kimberley Jones
It’s a little bit silly – as is Dafoe’s Kentucky-fried cowboy mechanic named Elvis – but silly is fun. In fact, one wishes it were sillier still.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
This intriguing premise, alas, ends as so many movies do these days, with fierce fights and bloodshed.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone Peter Travers
Daybreakers, despite the star presence of Ethan Hawke and Willem Dafoe, is a B movie, with all the disreputable low rent, lowbrow pleasures that implies. I'll take that over pompous any day.
Read Full Review >Premiere Nick Starkey
A slick, bloody, fast-paced, and ultimately enjoyable B-movie.
Read Full Review >USA Today Claudia Puig
Daybreakers is entertaining, though not quite up to the standards of "28 Days Later."
Read Full Review >New York Post Kyle Smith
Possibly the least sexy vampire flick ever to crawl out of the crypt (it never occurs to anyone that biting someone's neck is kinda intimate; the act is strictly utilitarian), but it's unusually detailed in its imagining.
Read Full Review >Empire Helen O'Hara
Lots of interesting concepts competing for limited running time make for more of a TV pilot than a feature film.
Read Full Review >Boxoffice Magazine Steve Ramos
The Spierigs make exciting use of their clever vampire premise and the result is a potential horror/action franchise equal to "Underworld."
Read Full Review >Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
The idea goes only so far--roughly halfway through the 98-minute running time--in staining narrative clarity. Daybreakers finally comes up with some comments on the predatory practices of Big Pharma, but that's an awful comedown from the blood-rushing brilliance of the early scenes.
Read Full Review >Variety Dennis Harvey
The script doesn't wring many surprises or much character involvement from the premise, and the brothers' helming, while slick, is short on scares, action setpieces and humor.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps
After a while, Daybreakers settles into the lulling rhythms of too many horror movies, as the characters ponder what to do in darkened rooms instead of doing much of anything.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Nick Pinkerton
Wearisome "Ain't it cool?" video-game splatter-violence is all that's memorable of the action, while a (mixed) metaphorical subtext of conservationism can't save a text that squanders its actors.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
Daybreakers turns into a ponderous apocalyptic chase film -- it's like "Children of Men" with exploding-plasma shock effects.
Read Full Review >Time Richard Corliss
In standard-narrative terms, Daybreakers suffers from tired blood. No question the Spierigs are prime film imagineers. What they needed here was a director.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek
Hawke gives his all here -- or maybe just half his all -- and it isn't quite enough: He's trying to be soulful, but he really just looks a little tired. The real delight is Willem Dafoe, as the rednecky leader of the survivor humans.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Peter Hartlaub
Hawke is half-assed throughout, showing passion only when he's screaming like a little girl when something scary happens. The visuals have a dingy, unfocused quality, especially in the muddy visual-effects-enhanced backdrops. And some of the plot turns are awful. The vampire "cure" is so stupid, you'll want to walk out of the theater, even if you normally like this kind of movie.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Joe Neumaier
Despite the Spierig brothers' punchy visual style and satiric tone, Daybreakers eventually devolves, though Dafoe and his Southern drawl goose things up and Hawke has a greasy romanticism.
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Maitland McDonagh
The Spierigs have assembled a strong cast, but even their best efforts -- notably by Neill, whose Bromley is the ultimate vampire squid, tentacles wrapped around the face of this scary new world -- can't pump any real life into the bloodless script.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan
In the end, Daybreakers doesn't really want to make anyone think too hard. If that were to happen, they might stop to wonder why all the human survivors out there hiding in fear of their lives don't just become garlic farmers and call it a day.
Read Full Review >Orlando Sentinel Roger Moore
Daybreakers is a stylish but unavoidably silly sci-fi vampire thriller.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Michael Ordona
Any higher intentions are brought crashing down by predictability, wooden characters, giggle-inducing attempts at scares (shrieking bats, anyone?) and cinematography so gloomy it should be checked for serotonin deficiency.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 5.6 (out of 10) based on 46 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Edward D. gave it an8:
I can't believe all the nitpicking about this movie. I initially did not go to see this because of what I read. I thought it was a very interesting story....a new twist for a vampire story. It was very well done from start to finish.......quality acting, well known and interesting actors. I read one comment that Sam Neil's daughter added nothing. Wrong again, it added horror and pathos to the story. I enjoyed this movie more than "Sherlock Holmes". This held my interest where Sherlock started to bore me. I recommend this movie to anyone who is a horror fan.
Nerijus D. gave it a2:
A pretty bad film.
Caleb R. gave it a7:
I honestly really enjoyed this movie. but i just felt that it couldve been better as a television series on a channel such as hbo or showtime so that way it could keep the gruesome vampireness but also add to the story maybe flesh certain things out a little more and maybe stretch the original plot of the movie out a little to maybe make a first season as i felt like the movie kindave moved to fast without really explaining certain things to just move on to the next scene. also WHY THE HELL IS THE MAIN CHARACTER NAMED EDWARD! I WANTED A REAL VAMPIRE MOVIE NOT A HOMAGE TO A SPARKLY POSER!
Joe S. gave it a5:
This movie could've had better and more entertaining ways of killing vampires, I kind of thought it sucked to with everyone a vampire and the sun was the cure to convert you back into a human lol, usually it's used to kill vampires lol, I didn't think it was the best vampire movie, From Dusk Till Dawn was way better the one with George Clooney and Qintan Tarentino not any of the other sequels though lol.
Timothy K. gave it a5:
Style over substance. This movie is like a Corvette with a moped engine. Looks cool and small snippets are visually stunning but overall the movie is a simple Meh on the scoreboard of fun. I didn't really want to see this movie because I did see these directors first movie "Undead" which is probably the worst zombie movie ever created. Dafoe's role as "Elvis" and Niel's role as "the bad boss guy" both felt contrived. The characters were so 1 dimensional you probably could guess what they were going to say before they said it, I guess cliche' would be a good way to describe. I was overall hoping that the transformed vampires deprived of blood would be more bad ass but instead they were simply caught and killed by the vampire army like it was no big deal. The story of Sam Neil's daughter was completely unnecessary. I would wait to rent it or better yet for TV.
Mike M. gave it a7:
I thought the detail of the Vampire society was very good. The acting wasn't as bad as I've been reading, aside from some pretty cheesy lines. This isn't going to be a deep story to begin with so I had no real problem with, "the cure", even though I can see how someone who wasn't enjoying the first hour could be turned off by it. If your in the mood to see a good horror type movie, and don't go into it wanted to pick it apart I think you'll be thoroughly entertained.
K L gave it a5:
Even though "Daybreakers" is pure fantasy........it would help if the premise it was set in was halfway believable. In less than 10 years we are led to believe that humans have virtually been wiped out and replaced by the vampires. But not even the black death,The Spanish flu, AIDS ,small pox couldn't come close to decimating the human race to such epic proportions as depicted in "DayBreakers". If Daybreakers was set 100 years from now then you might just have a more credible setting......but set just 10 years from now........not very credible at all. The action was okay.....but nothing not seen countless times before, but what let the film down most was the TERRIBLE.....TERRIBLE script......not even Sam Niell or Dafoe could improve things. There is most likely going to be a sequel......but please please employ somone that can write a decent script next time!
