Daybreakers (2009)

Daybreakers has an interesting take on the vampire genera, which in this case the world (or just the USA? hard to tell) is completely overrun and ruled by them, making the human race almost extinct, but the vampires still need their (our?) blood to survive and not mutate into a mindless giant bat.

A good vampire Edward Dalton (played by Ethan Hawke) is desperately trying to synthesize a blood substitute so they can stop depending on human blood. During unfolding of the events, Edward stumbles into a group of humans and eventually meets Elvis (Willem Dafoe), that is actually a vampire turned human.

Edward finds a way to cure himself and now his goal is now to cure the whole vampire-kind, but the vampires do not want to be “cured”, they just want to keep the flow of human blood coming. His brother tries to convert him back to a vampire only to find out that the blood of a cured vampire also works as a cure for vampirism.

Armed with this new information, Edward goes to Charles (played by Sam Neil), apparently the highest ranking vampire in society, as he is in charge of draining the remaining humans of their blood. Edward tricks Charles into feeding from himself, curing Charles, then feeding a now human Charles to other hungry vampires, which in turn starts a chain reaction that will eventually turn all vampires back into humans (the ones that survive the bloodshed).

While this is not the best vampire movie ever, it’s still a good story and is worth your time if you’re into vampire fantasy movies. The new take with the vampire society is intriguing and a welcome change of pace.