Stardate 0606.10

Hello...yeah it's been awhile...not much..how bout you....

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Another Descent Into...

Daybreakers(2009)-
I'm not the biggest fan of the vampire genre. Oh sure, I appreciate the original Dracula featuring Bela Lugosi and a few Hammer films featuring Christopher Lee as the good count, but overall it's just not my thing. Too much melodrama I suppose. And now with Twilight draining  female bank accounts and sucking the life out of all things literary, it's just gotten worse.

Enter Daybreakers, a vampire film set in the year 2019. In the future, planet Earth has become blood-sucking friendly thanks to a diseased bat. The few humans remaining are being farmed for their blood and there's an inevitable shortage.(Ok, good premise so far).

As human numbers dwindle, the need for blood becomes desperate. When deprived of blood for extended periods, vampires degenerate into subsiders, aggressive bat-like creatures. Humans are captured and harvested in laboratory farms while scientists research a synthetic blood substitute to satisfy vampires blood hunger. The main supplier of blood in the United States is the pharmaceutical company Bromley Marks, run by Charles Bromley (Sam Neill). Edward Dalton (Ethan Hawke) and Chris Caruso (Vince Colosimo) are hematologists working on the blood substitute. Under pressure from Charles, they try multiple versions in a series of failing clinical trials. Edward secretly refuses to drink human blood and faces a strained relationship with his brother, Frankie (Michael Dorman), a human-hunting soldier.




A covert group of humans led by Audrey (Claudia Karvan) rescues and hides humans from vampire patrols while they attempt to win allies amongst the vampires. Audrey contacts Edward because of his human sympathies and scientific specialty. He meets Elvis (Willem Dafoe), a man cured of vampirism by brief exposure to sunlight while being thrown in water. After some experimentation, Edward is able to duplicate this effect and is cured himself.



When a convoy of humans headed to Audrey’s group is captured by Bromley soldiers, Charles is reunited with his human daughter, Alison (Isabel Lucas) and has her forcibly turned by Frankie. She refuses to drink human blood, and begins to turn into a subsider. She is killed when a group of the creatures are rounded up and executed. Witnessing Alison’s death upsets Frankie and he seeks out his brother.



Edward, Elvis, and Audrey meet with Chris and ask him to help spread the cure. However, Chris has finally discovered a viable blood-substitute and does not want a cure to become widespread. He calls in a vampire patrol who captures Audrey while Elvis and Edward escape into hiding. They are finally found by Frankie who agrees to help but is gradually becoming a subsider. He attacks Elvis and they discover that feeding on a former vampire is another cure for vampirism.



Edward turns himself in and goads Charles into attacking him. Edward uses the now-cured Charles to cure a group of soldiers experiencing the beginning of subsider aggression. Edward and Audrey, cornered by more soldiers, are rescued when Frankie sacrifices himself to the soldiers. This sparks a feeding frenzy that leaves all of the soldiers dead or cured. They are confronted by Chris, who kills the few cured soldiers to hide the evidence of the cure. Elvis arrives and rescues Edward and Audrey by killing Chris. The three survivors then drive away into the sunrise with a voice-over by Edward stating that they have a cure and can change others back.

So what did I think? Well, I loved it! This movie works as a multi-dimensional sociological piece, a gross-out splatter film, and a future-noir piece. It felt realistic, very plausible(albeit for the cure perhaps couldn't have been as simplistic as it was). You had a dark hue to the film I found enjoyable. And thank gawd, there is no "Oh, I'm so tortured I'm a vampire"-schtick. The acting is above average despite Ethan Hawke's somewhat annoying whining.
 
The ending was ok, nothing slam-bang spectacular but it doesn't detract from the rest of the film at all. High recommendation.
8.5/10
 
 
Where is this novel you been saying you're working on?
Well the answer is simple, it's because I've been working on it, lol. Seriously, I have never written a detective novel before, I've never had to research as much as I've had to research for this story to be as good as I know it can be. I've been studying some chemistry, autopsies, and a bit of astronomy to boot. So far, this novel has a dystopian hue, alot of things in Beta City are run down, including the detectives on the case.
 
Speaking of which, the characters in my lil' tale are speaking to me. They are giving their own voice to the situation they are in. I'm discovering things about them I never would have expected just like Stephen King said in his book, On Writing. As it stands now, I'm 31 pages into my 2nd draft and I don't have a timetable on when it will be complete. I believe so strongly in my story, I've put off going back to school another year just so I have time to work on this.
 
So yes, I'm being slow but I hope it's wine I'm making and not vinegar.
 
 
 
The Cinema Snob-
Did you know between Alien(1979) and Aliens(1986) there was a little Italian horror film entitled Alien 2? Huh? WTF? Well, sit back and watch as The Cinema Snob tries to explain it all in his latest episode.
 

 
 
Goodnight and Good Luck