Distributed by
Lionsgate (United States)
Hoyts Distribution (Australia)

Production companies
Lionsgate
Screen Australia
Pictures in Paradise
Film Finance Corporation Australia
Pacific Film & Television Commission
Furst Films

Directed by
The Spierig Brothers

Written by
The Spierig Brothers

Produced by
Chris Brown
Sean Furst
Bryan Furst

Cinematography
Ben Nott

Edited by
Matt Villa

Music by
Christopher Gordon


Synopsis
In 2009, a plague caused by an infected bat transforms most of the world's population into immortal vampires. The human population plummets, leaving vampires with a severe shortage of blood; vampires deprived of blood degenerate into psychotic, bat-like "subsiders". Most humans are captured and harvested in laboratory farms while scientists research a synthetic Substitute. As sunlight is deadly to vampires, underground passages and UV-filtered cars are built for safe travel, while the few free humans travel by day, hiding in open spaces. In 2019, Edward Dalton is the head hematologist for Bromley Marks, a pharmaceutical company that is the largest supplier of human blood in the US. Edward and colleague Christopher Caruso are developing a blood substitute. Driving home from a failed experiment, Dalton accidentally runs another vehicle off the road. Discovering the occupants are humans, Dalton hides them from the police. Before they part ways, their leader, Audrey, learns Edward's name and occupation from his ID badge. Alison Bromley, one of the captured humans, is revealed to be the daughter of Charles Bromley (CEO of Bromley Marks), who refused to become a vampire like her father. Charles has Frankie forcibly turn his daughter Alison into a vampire, but she refuses to drink human blood. Devolving into a subsider, Alison and others are executed by being burnt to death by sunlight. Upset at witnessing Alison's death, Frankie seeks out his brother. The military imposes martial law to control the subsider population. Edward, Cormac, and Audrey break into Christopher's home and ask him to help spread the cure. Having finally discovered a viable blood substitute, and feeling overshadowed by Edward, Christopher is uninterested in a cure and summons soldiers, who capture Audrey while Cormac and Edward escape. They are found by Frankie, who agrees to help but his instincts cause him to bite Cormac, but drinking his blood turns Frankie human, revealing that the sunlight cure is unnecessary. Edward leaves Charles to be killed at the hands of human-blood-thirsty-soldiers on the brink of becoming subsiders. Frankie arrives and sacrifices himself to the soldiers which allows Edward and Audrey to escape. In the ensuing feeding frenzy, only six soldiers are left standing, now cured. To conceal the cure, Christopher shoots the soldiers and is about to shoot Edward and Audrey when Cormac kills him with a crossbow. The three survivors drive off into the sunrise. In a voiceover, Edward announces the cure will change the general population back