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Mixed or average reviews - based on 31 Critics What's this?

User Score

Mixed or average reviews- based on 133 Ratings

  • Starring: Ethan Hawke, Sam Neill, Willem Dafoe
  • Summary: 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) Expand
  • Director: Michael Spierig
  • Genre(s): Action, Sci-Fi, Drama, Thriller, Fantasy, Horror
  • Rating: R
  • Runtime: 98 min
  • More Details and Credits »
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 16 out of 31
  2. Negative: 3 out of 31
  1. A darkly stylish horror film.
  2. 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.
  3. Reviewed by: Helen O'Hara
    60
    Lots of interesting concepts competing for limited running time make for more of a TV pilot than a feature film.
  4. 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.

See all 31 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 21 out of 38
  2. Negative: 8 out of 38
  1. EdwardD.
    8
    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. Expand
  2. Takes a bit to get into but it was actually rather good for the most part. I enjoyed it. The cast was decent ,I expected better, and the action was good. Its one of those films where you either like it or you dont and I liked it. Expand
  3. This is one of those cases where the users know more than the critics, but Metacritic doesn't weigh the numbers right. If you cull the people who don't like horror movies or are bored with vampire movies, you end up with people who see this movie for what it is: a very imaginative variation on an old model, with high production values and fine actors, and a number of political and philosophical issues. The plot is not without its imperfections, and at times it comes close to jumping off the plausibility track entirely. But as a conceit of how societies get propelled by basic instincts that aren't evaluated or controlled, and lead to unexpected difficulties and political nightmares, it is a movie that provokes thought while delivering on the imaginative potential that the vampire fantasy allows. Life vs. death as an option -- the basic vampire theme -- is often available to us in real life, for a while, anyway. Or a better life with ethical compromises, vs. a poorer one with no such comprises. Whole societies face those choices, and often choose the wrong option. Sometimes societies stumble upon a cure for their ills that fixes everything, almost by accident. Sadly, that is more often a fantasy. I give this movie an enthusiastic 7. Expand
  4. "Daybreakers" portrays the rise and fall of democracy, but in a bloody dumb way.

See all 38 User Reviews

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