Daybreakers

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  • Opened January 8, 2010 
  • 1 hr 38 min
  • R | strong bloody violence, language and brief nudity

  • Parents: Common Sense Media says Iffy for 15+. More on child suitability

  • Ten years after a plague turns most of the world's population into vampires, a critical blood shortage causes panic and gruesome mutations among the reanimated. Edward (Ethan Hawke), a vampire hematologist, tries to develop a blood substitute when he meets Lionel (Willem Dafoe) and Audrey (Claudia Karvan), two fugitive humans who claim to have a possible cure. Edward casts his lot with them in the hope of perfecting the cure before it's too late. Full synopsis

  • Cast: Ethan Hawke, Willem Dafoe, Claudia Karvan, Michael Dorman, Vince Colosimo, Sam Neill
  • Director: Michael Spierig, Peter Spierig
  • Genres: Horror

What's the Buzz?

So-so
Fans say So-So
11 fans
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So-so
Critics say So-So
57 out of 100
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Fan Reviews

So-so
Awesome! ... until the last 30 mintues

by kowshe01234

This movie is great. I love the idea behind it: the whole world turning into vampires and depending on humans to farm blood. Awesome. Cool story. The movie is really good too, with good characters...

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Critic Reviews

75
Boston Globe
| Wesley Morris

Daybreakers has unexpected flashes of brilliance. Read full review

75
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

75
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

63
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

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Ethan Hawke as Edward Dalton and Willem Dafoe as Lionel ``Elvis'' Cormac in "Daybreakers."