Bloodthirsty Consumers
Figure XI
"It was never about a cure. It was about repeat business"
- Charles Bromley
Marxist critical theory looks at a text though a specific lens aimed directly at social economic structure. Examining the class of the characters and how the economy works lead into great leaps of understanding and to signs that would have perhaps remained unseen otherwise.
Daybreakers presents a world that revolves around capitalism. Infinitywhite, Subwalk, and Bromley Marks are just some of the brands that are now household names. Not many films take the time to not only invent new products but to highlight them during precious screen time. Commercials and advertisements are snuck into most of the city shots or any reference to the new society. Commericalism is even used to highlight the changes in the society. During the film we revisit a nameless blood barrista. In her first appearance (figure XII) she cheerfully serves coffee infront of the sign that states they are still serving "20% blood". The movie later shows how fall the society as already fallen when the blood shortage leads to the friendly coffee girl getting attack (see Figure XV).
- Charles Bromley
Marxist critical theory looks at a text though a specific lens aimed directly at social economic structure. Examining the class of the characters and how the economy works lead into great leaps of understanding and to signs that would have perhaps remained unseen otherwise.
Daybreakers presents a world that revolves around capitalism. Infinitywhite, Subwalk, and Bromley Marks are just some of the brands that are now household names. Not many films take the time to not only invent new products but to highlight them during precious screen time. Commercials and advertisements are snuck into most of the city shots or any reference to the new society. Commericalism is even used to highlight the changes in the society. During the film we revisit a nameless blood barrista. In her first appearance (figure XII) she cheerfully serves coffee infront of the sign that states they are still serving "20% blood". The movie later shows how fall the society as already fallen when the blood shortage leads to the friendly coffee girl getting attack (see Figure XV).
The Real Cost of Living
"How much do you think they'd be willing to pay for your daughter?"
-Edward Dalton
Blood is now a necessity to sustain life but it's dwindling supply. The film explores what might be one of the most horrifying examples of how supply and demand drives up prices and leaves those below the means to suffer. There are two sets of victims to this system, first are the humans and second are the working class vampires.
What is left of humanity has been reduced to a resource. Humans produce blood and so humans are gathered and farmed for their resource. Audrey's caravan of humans on the run represent a very small minority of the remaining population. We are left to assume that any other humans that are left exist only as resource. They had been stripped of everything that would have made them human: rights, choice, speech, clothes, even their very consciousness. No vampire attack comes close to the horror the viewer glimpses in images such as Figure XIII. This is a frighteningly literal look at a Marxist concept that people below the bourgeoisie are nothing but resource. Only instead of labor being the resource, it is the shell of the body itself. These humans are drained until they are shriveled husk, their only other use is to produce more humans for consumption.
Edward Dalton has committed himself to solving the blood shortage and by the way he stops by the harvesting tanks every day it would seem that the treatment of the humans are his driving motivation. He believes that this is a horrible necessity that he can stop. If this was the case it may be closer to acceptable--sacrifice the few for the survival of the many. However, Mr.Bromley understands the reality of the system better. The harvesting of the human resource will never stop because there will always be a market for people willing to pay money for the "real thing". As long as there is money to be made, the welfare of the humans is unimportant.
-Edward Dalton
Blood is now a necessity to sustain life but it's dwindling supply. The film explores what might be one of the most horrifying examples of how supply and demand drives up prices and leaves those below the means to suffer. There are two sets of victims to this system, first are the humans and second are the working class vampires.
What is left of humanity has been reduced to a resource. Humans produce blood and so humans are gathered and farmed for their resource. Audrey's caravan of humans on the run represent a very small minority of the remaining population. We are left to assume that any other humans that are left exist only as resource. They had been stripped of everything that would have made them human: rights, choice, speech, clothes, even their very consciousness. No vampire attack comes close to the horror the viewer glimpses in images such as Figure XIII. This is a frighteningly literal look at a Marxist concept that people below the bourgeoisie are nothing but resource. Only instead of labor being the resource, it is the shell of the body itself. These humans are drained until they are shriveled husk, their only other use is to produce more humans for consumption.
Edward Dalton has committed himself to solving the blood shortage and by the way he stops by the harvesting tanks every day it would seem that the treatment of the humans are his driving motivation. He believes that this is a horrible necessity that he can stop. If this was the case it may be closer to acceptable--sacrifice the few for the survival of the many. However, Mr.Bromley understands the reality of the system better. The harvesting of the human resource will never stop because there will always be a market for people willing to pay money for the "real thing". As long as there is money to be made, the welfare of the humans is unimportant.
Relatatively, it would seem that the role of the actual working class in the vampire society wouldn't be all that bad. Until you get an upclose look at their fate (Figure XIV). It's not a pretty sight. Where the captured humans are nothing but unconscious sacks of blood, the working class has the singular pleasure of not only slowly starving to death but transforming into an inhuman monster as they do so.
It starts where you would expect. One of the earliest scenes depicts a homeless man with a sign around his neck that says "Starving. Need Blood." He stands alone because no one will help him. He is already showing mid signs of transforming into a subsider--the monstrous creature vampires transform into as they starve. A wealthy couple walks by the homeless man carefully not looking at him and when the starving man bothers the rich folk, the military is there. Not to help him but to collar him and electrocute him. Without the money to buy blood he is transforming into monster. Without money he is considered less than a citizen, fit only to be shock collared.
The movie proceeds to use the blood shortage to show the disintegration of society. Soon it is not the homeless man that is the monster but the honest working gardener. As the shortage economy consumes its victims, the pool of who is safe shrinks in greater proportions. Figure XV shows even a well dressed business man being reduced to an animal in the wake of his hunger.
This shows that the only thing that separates the businessman from the homeless man is the paycheck and that given enough time the capitalism machine will consume them all.
It starts where you would expect. One of the earliest scenes depicts a homeless man with a sign around his neck that says "Starving. Need Blood." He stands alone because no one will help him. He is already showing mid signs of transforming into a subsider--the monstrous creature vampires transform into as they starve. A wealthy couple walks by the homeless man carefully not looking at him and when the starving man bothers the rich folk, the military is there. Not to help him but to collar him and electrocute him. Without the money to buy blood he is transforming into monster. Without money he is considered less than a citizen, fit only to be shock collared.
The movie proceeds to use the blood shortage to show the disintegration of society. Soon it is not the homeless man that is the monster but the honest working gardener. As the shortage economy consumes its victims, the pool of who is safe shrinks in greater proportions. Figure XV shows even a well dressed business man being reduced to an animal in the wake of his hunger.
This shows that the only thing that separates the businessman from the homeless man is the paycheck and that given enough time the capitalism machine will consume them all.