Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.0

Daybreakers 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Bringing a whole new meaning to "corporate vampires".

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman August 30, 2019

While a couple of recent Lionsgate 4K UHD releases have sported new if not necessarily improved 1080p Blu-rays (Rambo 4K and Apocalypse Now 4K among them), Daybreakers would seem to be a return to form for Lionsgate, with an upgraded presentation paired with a 1080p Blu-ray that came out relatively early in the format. That said, this is another kind of interesting choice for the 4K UHD treatment by Lionsgate, one with a surplus of style that offers nice opportunities for both Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos.

Daybreakers came out on 1080p Blu-ray way back in 2010, and in just one indication of how early in the format it was, the 1080p Blu-ray in this package allows you to chapter skip past both the (old style) Lionsgate logo and the FBI warning, which may make some of you pine for the "olden days" as much as it did me. There are some other vestiges of the early Blu-ray days on this disc, including long forgotten (to me, anyway) elements like BD Touch, MetaMenu and the ever popular LG Live. My colleague Dustin Somner reviewed the original 1080p Blu-ray release in 2010, and for those of you wanting a plot recap as well as an assessment of the technical presentation of the 1080p Blu-ray, I refer you to Dustin's Daybreakers Blu-ray review. I've ported over Dustin's score for the film in general and the 1080p Blu-ray presentation to this review, though I may not have been quite as generous as Dustin was with regard to the 1080p Blu-ray's video presentation.

Daybreakers 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Daybreakers is presented in 4K UHD courtesy of Lionsgate Films with a 2160p transfer in 2.35:1. This is an interesting piece from a stylistic perspective, and reactions to this will probably be based at least in part to how much slack "detail"-ists are willing to cut a film that toys with the palette and shadow as much as this one does. Daybreakers had both celluloid and digital capture aspects, and the grain here is therefore variable, though aside from just a bit of chunkiness in the very opening scene of the film, I found the grain resolution here to be largely commendable. Dolby Vision adds some interesting highlights, noticeably some in the blue and teal tones that are quite prevalent throughout the film, but there was perhaps less of an uptick in shadow detail than I personally expected, or at least hoped for. In fact, some passing crush can still be spotted intermittently in the 4K UHD presentation, especially when, for example, "men in black" (suits) are in front of jet black backgrounds and can almost start to look like disembodied heads and hands. The desaturated moments here have a somewhat cooler look to my eyes in this presentation than on the 1080p Blu-ray, and both greens and sepia tones are arguably cooler here as well. There's some fuzziness apparent in some interior scenes, notably an office showdown between Sam Neill and Ethan Hawke, though the russet colored walls in this scene look very interesting against the otherwise desaturated appearance of the sequence. I'm not completely sure the increased resolution of this presentation always benefits some of the effects work. The "going up in flames" aspects look largely great, as do even some of the other CGI elements, but some scenes almost have an old school composited look to them due to what I'm assuming was the digital tweaking to achieve some of the contrast between desaturated and saturated elements within the frame.

Daybreakers 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Daybreakers has a really fun and immersive Dolby Atmos track, one that provides significant vertical activity from the get go, with both tinkling percussive sounds and then, a bit later, labored breathing clearly wafting overhead. A number of fun effects sequences allow for excellent surround activity, including the big attack by what I might cheekily call the "bat man", and, later, some of the big showdowns with gunfire, where LFE is notably present and often quite forceful. The urban environment also provides a lot of nice immersive moments, with great panning traffic sounds and things like police sirens echoing through the sound stage. Dialogue is presented cleanly and clearly throughout the track, and is typically nicely prioritized even in some effects sequences.

Daybreakers 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Some but not all of the supplements on the 1080p Blu-ray are ported over onto the 4K UHD disc. For more information on the shared supplements, as well as a complete listing of what's offered on the 1080p Blu-ray, please refer to the above linked review by Dustin.

• Audio Commentary with The Spierig Brothers and Steve Boyle


• The Making of Daybreakers (HD; SDR; 2:01:38)


• The Big Picture: Spierig Brothers Short Film (HD; SDR; 13:51)


• Theatrical Trailer (HD; SDR; 2:27)

Daybreakers 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Daybreakers is probably another prime example of style triumphing over substance, but in that regard, it's notable that the film does offer some really interesting visuals and an equally appealing sound design. As Dustin alluded to in his review of the original 1080p Blu-ray release, there is a kind of tepid, mediocre feeling to some of the storytelling, and there are at least a couple of moments that may well leave even some fans rolling their eyes (my personal favorite is toward the end of the film when the "main damsel in distress", played by Claudia Karvan, is more or less kidnapped during a standoff with armed troops, with a vampire just emerging from a door behind her and Ethan Hawke in what actually plays almost comedically). The 4K UHD presentation sports nice technical merits (especially some outstanding Dolby Atmos audio) for those who are considering a purchase.