Thanks to the unfortunate Twilight revolution vampires have lost their fangs in recent years (please forgive the obvious metaphor). With the weepy Edward now the most famous bloodsucker in the world, it’s hard to remember a time when the creatures were considered frightening instruments of horror rather than sadsack star-crossed lovers. Fortunately, the new film Daybreakers has come along to save vampires from the tweens and prove that there is still some life left in vampire horror. This ingenious little movie starring Ethan Hawke, Willem Dafoe, and Sam Neil is not only one of the best films in recent years about our blood-addicted brethren, but just might go down in history as one of the finest vampire films ever produced.

Rather than focusing on forbidden vampire love or some sort of period vampire story, the twin writing/directing brothers Michael and Peter Spierig have created an entirely new concept for the fanged villains. Daybreakers is set in a world in which vampires have eclipsed humans as the dominant species. The vampire society now lives by night and sleeps by day, building up a vast empire with the human race frozen and stored in bloodbanks to feed the masses. The only problem is that the vampires didn’t consider the fact that unless they were allowed to continue breeding, human beings would exist in a finite supply. The film opens with the vampires concerned about where their next serving of blood will come from. All blood sold on the streets is watered down and the once massive supply of remaining humans stored at banks is dwindling fast.

It’s at this time that we meet Ethan Hawke’s young scientist who is trying to create a blood substitute that vampires could subside on under the supervision of Sam Neil’s capitalist leader of the vampires. Neil and his business suit wearing cronies are funding the project, but don’t really want it to succeed because they’ll lose the power of their banks. However, as vampires start to starve from lack of blood it’s discovered that without regular feeding they’ll mutate into uncontrollable bat-like monsters. Around this time Hawke stumbles upon one of the last groups of human survivors who under the leadership of a Southern-accented Willem Dafoe have discovered a cure for vampirism. Hawke is interested in the cure, Neil is not and it all leads towards a battle between the fangs and the fang-nots (sorry, bad pun again).

The concept for the movie is fairly simple, but brilliant. It’s one of those ideas that you can’t believe hasn’t been dreamed up before. The world ruled by vampires is a chilling version of our own. Greed and power rule all, with the entire population as greedily hungry for blood as America is for money. There is a subtle social commentary running through Daybreakers that is difficult to miss without every feeling pretentious or overbearing. The arrogance of the vampires who are unwilling to look ahead to the future and see their shortcomings and inevitable demise is an obvious stand in for the shortsighted greed that poisons the waters in America and lead to this wonderful, wonderful economic recession. There are some very clever ideas at play in Daybreakers which is as much a philosophical thought experiment as it is a horror film.