Review contains multiple spoilers.
When thinking about how difficult life is as a human, imagine how hard it is to live as a vampire. Many people don't like to think about the fact they will eventually die, but do they have what it takes to live forever? Would the humanity they once had fade away as the times passes? Could they get used to feeding on blood, but more than that, the blood of humans? For some vampires, it is not a challenge at all. They accept and embrace what they are, and since they are no longer human, rules do not apply to them anymore. But to others, letting go of their humanity could be too painful, so coming to terms with what they are will be a constant, perhaps eternal struggle.
These conflicts are at the core of Brad Ellis' Daylight Fades, a drama that at its center revolves around an eternal life filled with regret and loneliness. What works about it is the way it shows that not being human doesn't change the fact one can continue to make the same mistakes. If a vampire tries to hang on to what they were before they changed, the fact they are trying to be something they're not can only end in disaster. Hence is the case with Seth (Allen Gardner), a vampire who, as the movie opens, has hit rock bottom and is overwhelmed by all the aspects of his life. His existence is desolate and pathetic, so when he is offered an opportunity to have it all go away, he leaves everything behind and foolishly takes it.
The movie picks back up years later, and we see that Seth's decision to become a vampire has left him worse off than he was before. His resistance to living wild and free has led him to watch his daughter, Elizabeth (Rachel Miles), now in her twenties, who's life is not much better than Seth's was once he finally gave up. Elizabeth has never had positive male figures in her life, and the experience has left her bitter and cruel when it comes to partners and fathers. All this changes when she meets Johnny (Matthew Stiller), a loner who is shy, lacks confidence, and "got left with a broken home." The two share a stale meet cute that might be convincing if they were in high school but here, there's no real chemistry. It feels like they are meeting because the plot requires it.
Their biggest connection comes on a dance floor. Neither of them is looking for a relationship, but as shown through a nicely staged montage, they click and before he knows it, Johnny is in love. Elizabeth's guard is unable to come down though, so she cheats in an act of desperation and the emotional toll it takes on Johnny leads to a car accident he cannot recover from. And this is where Seth enters in. Having tortured himself over not being a part of his daughter's life, he sees saving Johnny from death as the only way he can show his love for her. It's an act of desperation to be sure, because why would Seth want to give someone the life he has? How could he possibly be so selfish as to force his daughter to grow old and die while Johnny stays the same and lives an eternity of Hell?
We have to wonder if Seth is changing Johnny as much for himself as he is for Elizabeth. It's obvious that the years alone have made it a struggle for him to relate to or communicate well with humans. He tries to sympathize with their sadness, but is unable to properly show emotion anymore. By turning Johnny and taking care of him, Seth will not only have someone he can talk to, but will finally be a proper father figure. He can teach Johnny how to survive as a vampire without having to take a human life. You can see the change in attitude as Seth first begins to explain to Johnny what he is. It's the first time Seth has felt alive in years.
Seth is so busy focusing on helping Johnny understand what he is, he never thinks about how the situation will affect Elizabeth. He makes Johnny promise not to change her, neglecting to remember that she will ultimately suffer and have to find ways to explain why he never ages. At one point, they ask Seth if sex is still an option and while they are able, they "can't create life." The only thing a vampire is capable of is taking life away. What Seth has failed to realize is that he's coaching Johnny to become him. Now that Johnny is a vampire, what will happen if Elizabeth cannot handle it and leaves? There are a number of moments where Seth sits outside the house of his lost love, a foreshadowing to Johnny's future. In this world, love is a double edged sword, as you will lose whether you are human or vampire.
The movie's visual style compliments the mood of the story. Most of the scenes take place at night, which lets the darkness cloak the characters in sadness. Seth is kept mostly in the shadows, most effectively during the scenes where he watches his lost love's home. Only half of his face is lit, appropriately showcasing the two sides struggling to exist, one vampire and the other human. Late in the movie, Seth has a lovely reunion with Sarah (Kim Justis, excellent), Elizabeth's mother and the woman he left behind. It is here we realize by turning Johnny into him, he is also turning Elizabeth into her mother. It's a selfish act, but even all the years of being a vampire haven't been able to change Seth from the shell of a man he used to be. The most tragic quality to Seth is that he will spend eternity making the same types of mistakes and not realizing it.
Seth is the glue that holds the movie together, and the scenes that feature him leave a lasting impression. Sympathizing with a vampire is not easy to pull off, but Gardner's quietly moving performance is able to do this. Sadly, the same cannot be said for all aspects of his screenplay. As it has been with a lot of his writing, I find that the supporting characters are often more appealing than the main ones. The same applies here. In addition to Seth, the movie's best character is Raven, played by the dynamite Rachel Kimsey. She is the antithesis of Seth in the vampire world, being that she uses humans as sexual toys and then feeds on them. Living forever is the ultimate party, and since there aren't many vampires around, the world has become her personal playground.
Raven sees Johnny as a protege and uses her sexuality as a way to bring him to her side. She looks down on humanity and uses her lifestyle as a way to make Johnny do the same. What I like about her performance is that she is not flat out aggressive with Johnny to adhere to her ways. Instead, she is patient with him and uses small temptations in hopes he will come around. As much as I love Raven, I never found Johnny's journey with her convincing. There's a scene where he talks to Elizabeth and is frustrated about the fact she left him in a time of crisis. Instead of simply voicing his disapproval of what she did (although he should have been understanding about it, since he killed someone right in front of her), he tells her he does not love her anymore. It feels too convenient, as if it has to happen so Johnny will get to experience the Raven side of being a vampire for a while.
I mentioned earlier how lame the meet cute between Johnny and Elizabeth is and sadly, their relationship never develops into something realistic. Worse, with the exception of Seth, none of the other relationships in the movie have any ring of truth to them. Since Elizabeth has never had a father, the screenplay provides an alcoholic stepfather named Tim (Michael Gravois), who exists for no other reason than to be overbearing and unsupportive. We also know that he is in the movie so Seth can attack him later. Same applies to Elizabeth's ex-boyfriend (Adam Burns), a complete asshole whose every appearance is building to the moment Johnny will finally get angry and kill his first human. I like the idea he will have to pay for this sin, but the movie's resolution to it is a cop out. I don't have a problem with the fact Johnny writes a letter detailing what he did, it's that the movie attempts to milk emotional resonance by showing the dead kid's mother watching Johnny leave after he drops the letter at her door. In this case, less would have been more.
Seth's best friend, Patrick (Dennis Phillipi), has become the close family connection and the real father figure to Elizabeth, although in many of the scenes, he feels more like an intruder. Instead of helping any of the conflicts he gets involved in, I kept thinking he looked like that cool uncle who would give you a sip of his beer when you're a kid. Equally out of place is Johnny's best friend, Jake (Drew Smith), a character who is in the movie to provide comic relief, although the only thing comic about him is that his dialogue sounds like a cheap stand up routine. He is supposed to be support for Johnny, but his comments are both egotistical and misogynistic (will Gardner ever be able to outgrow writing this character?).
Good performances could help overcome the issues I have with the two lead characters, but the result is a mixed bag. Rachel Miles tries hard to convey Elizabeth's emotional uncertainties, the problem being that she tries a bit too hard. I found the performance too theatrical, meaning the delivery of every line and every facial expression comes off as overdone. It's as if she is never comfortable in the role. This is most apparent during the scene where she confesses her love to Johnny as he is dying. As she cries, it looks like she is pretending to cry, so instead of appearing sad, she looks like she wants to swallow him whole.
Matthew Stiller fares better as Johnny. Aside from having the right look for the role, he is able to convincingly convey his uncertainty and then acceptance of what he has become. Even when the movie requires him to do things that don't make a lot of sense, Stiller's face gives the perfect amount of nuance to pull the audience along with him. Where he doesn't fare so well is in regards to the romance. Like Rachel Miles, his delivery has a tendency to get a bit theatrical, as if they are competing to see who can talk louder.
Many of the scripts failings are hidden by the cinematography, which strikes the right somber mood. The widescreen framing captures a world that feels worn down and lived in by beings who are uncertain of their purpose and may no longer care. In fact, the imagery is so entrancing it only brings out the screenplay's greatest weakness: that with the exception of Seth, none of the other characters feels lived in. The first time we meet them in the movie, it feels like the first moment they've ever existed and when the movie is over, we can't imagine their lives continuing. Everything begins and ends with the movie itself because the people inhabiting it feel like creations of a plot and nothing more. Due to this, it never feels like anything is at stake (no pun intended).
The movie's climax drives this idea home. After a suicide attempt to hopefully force Seth to change her, Elizabeth decides she, Johnny, and Seth should leave town and start over (what she thinks they'll find by running away is a mystery, as Johnny will still be a vampire). They all agree to it, but once on the road, Johnny realizes he can't go because it's not fair to Elizabeth. He only has one choice, and that is to die. The scene is completely abrupt and there has not been any real progression to bring Johnny to this point. If anything, he should be sacrificing himself out of guilt for murdering a human. Even more puzzling is why Elizabeth is so quick to accept his decision aside from the fact it makes sense in context to the plot (she never got to say goodbye the first time he was going to die, so now she can).
Seth's guilt over what he made Johnny (and how he has ruined Elizabeth's life) lets him know he must die as well. This makes sense, as Seth is the only character in the movie who has not functioned as a simple plot device. The only flaw in Seth's logic is that it seems he would try to stop Johnny and have them leave him behind. In his mind, Johnny and Elizabeth should be able to start over without him. The climax leads to a beautifully composed final scene of Seth and Johnny staring at the sunrise as they accept their fate. It marks the first time they truly see things clearly and are able to accept what they really are. It's a sublime moment in a movie that doesn't completely earn it. There is plenty of admire about Daylight Fades, but it has too many characters and needs a clearer focus. It's an unforgettable ending in search of a memorable path to get there.
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