"Daybreakers"

I saw "Daybreakers" last Thursday night.  Yes, it is a vampire movie, and no, it is not for everyone (for a content review click here).  It is a vampire movie in the same way that "28 Days Later" is a zombie movie.  In "Daybreakers" the vampires are not mystical or magical but biological, turned by a virus from a bat.  These former people do not have beating hearts. Instead, they have a low body temperature, burn up if they are hit with sunlight. And, more importantly, they need human blood to survive.  Unfortunately, they are running out of humans.

Message and Themes 
Well, I could not really find a message in the film, but a major theme revolves around fear of death and fear in general.  Who really has fear?  The vampires think humans live in fear because they are being hunted; they are outnumbered; they can die, but the vampire cannot die of natural causes.  However, as the film continues you realize the vampire has much more to fear than just the sun, and like the humans they were before they were turned, they are still fallen and sinful and selfish and power hungry.  Really, you learn that immortality alone does not change someone's heart (whether it beats or not).  New powers and abilities do not change how one will use them.

Parallels to Life (Spoilers ahead) 
Parallels to life?  A vampire movie?  Really?  Yes.  The plot and conflict are similar to that of Will Smith and his plight in "I Am Legend."  Throughout the film I saw the vampires as those who do not have new life in Christ, as representative of those all around us who are living a physical life but are at the same time spiritually dead.  This is important for the following parallels. 

Parallel 1: Due to the lack of humans and thus, human blood, the vampires are looking for a blood substitute.  You find out that drinking one's own vampire blood or another vampire's blood does not work.  It instead morphs you into a bat-like mutant creature.  Just like sin and sinners, when we seek solutions and significance and salvation in any other place but Christ, in more sin, it only ruins us and takes us further down the path of destruction, makes us more selfish, more hard-hearted.  Like the vampires could not turn to each other for salvation from their plight, so we cannot turn to creation, to man or beast or plant for salvation from our plight of being dead in our sins, for there is no salvation there.

Parallel 2: You are then introduced to a character who has gone from being a vampire to human.  How?  The sun.  He crashed his car, flew through the windshield into the sun and landed in water where a tunnel to hide him from the sun was.  Anyway, that limited exposure to the light made him human again.  Brought him back.  Just like in life, it is exposure to the light of Christ that reveals the truth of who we are - sinners in need of a savior - that leads to new life.  "Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life" (John 8:12), and "you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light" (1 Peter 2:9).

Parallel 3: You then learn that not only do controlled burns from the sun make one human again, but the blood of the former vampires/newly humans turn vampires into humans again.  Interesting, we as Christians have been ignited by the light of Christ and are called to proclaim His gospel, His good news of salvation to the world.  What we have been given we are called to proclaim and give to the masses.  What was inside those who had new life was an antidote to the walking death the vampires lived in.  "For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, "The righteous shall live by faith" (Romans 1:16-17).

Parallel 4: Lastly, the vampires did not want it.  Reminiscent of Will Smith crying out to the mutants that he had an antidote, that he could save them, so we see the same response in "Daybreakers."  However, unlike the inability to respond the mutants had in "I Am Legend" (see Ephesians 2:1-3), the vampires in "Daybreakers" willingly chose to reject the cure, their salvation (see Romans 1:18-23).  And so does the vast majority of humanity reject by nature and by choice the salvation offered to them in Jesus Christ.  But just as the heroes of "Daybreakers" carry on, seeking to find a way to bring all the vampires back to new life, so we as Christians carry on as Christ's witnesses "that [we] may proclaim the excellencies of him who called [us] out of darkness into his marvelous light."

The Imperfect Christ-type (Spoiler ahead) 
A Christ-type in literature is a character whose death brings about redemption for others or society or the hope of redemption (Maximus in "Gladiator," Will Smith in "I Am Legend," Aslan in "The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe").  One former vampire, the brother of the protagonist, having been turned human, ends up standing before a SWAT team of vampires who are starved for blood.  He stands his ground, proclaiming the good news that they have an antidote, they do not have to kill anymore, they need no longer be enslaved to their need for blood; however, they do not listen and attack, not knowing this act of brutal violence will in fact be their salvation.  And so we as Christians stand, knowing that just as Stephen died proclaiming the good news of salvation in Christ, so we stand in the face of any opposition to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ, knowing that God will use our faithful stance and obedient proclamation to bring even some of our attackers to salvation in His Son, Jesus Christ.