Sean Parker
It’s exciting to see where the horror genre is these days, especially in places all over the world. However, it seems that one Southeast Asian region is specifically embracing it, pumping out some seriously formidable horror titles. With its catalog of horror films growing significantly over the last decade, Vietnam is emerging as a force in macabre entertainment. Titles like Vietnamese Horror Story, KFC, The Fetus, Ma Da: The Drowning Spirit, The Ancestral, Kumanthong, Claws, Live: Phát Trực Tiếp, and Muoi: The Curse Returns are now making their way stateside, fusing rich fantasies, excellent effects work, and introductions to amazing up-and-coming directors. This week, Dark Star Pictures is inviting all vampire lovers to Timothy Linh Bui’s Daydreamers (Nguoi Mat Troi), which was nominated for six awards at the 2025 Vietnamese New Face of the Year (Ngoi Sao Xanh) Awards, winning three for Best Director, Best New Talent, and Best Production Design.
With the continued success of Ryan Coogler’s Sinners taking big bites out of the box office competition these last two weeks, audiences may be looking to get glamoured for another bloodsucker experience. Daydreamers fits right into Sinners’ more basic premises, serving up another tale of two brothers, temptation, and salvation in an ambitious package. It’s also one of the first vampire films to come out of Vietnam.
Unlike Sinners, Daydreamers picks and chooses from a slew of horror and fantasy features, which parts of the vampire mythos to stick to. It starts with a fable over rich animation, establishing the difference between the feral beasts of uninhibited vampires past that incurred the wrath of humans, leading to an extremely restricted modern era, bound by vampire law. The scene seems vaguely similar to Timur Bekmambetov’s Night Watch, before switching to a Daybreakers plot involving a faith-oriented vampire cult that hopes to cure themselves of their curse by managing their temptations in the presence of blood. These Daydreamers come with one inexorable goal: to walk in the sun again one day.
Tran Ngọc Vang stars as Nhat, a member of this movement, who is one wrong move away from catching a silver bullet into the afterlife. On the first anniversary of his mother’s death, his estranged brother Marco (Thuan Nguyen) pays Nhat a visit telling him that everything their mother believed about vampire salvation was a lie and that he’s joined a new group led by Trieu (Chi Pu), a stylish Queen of the Damned type of vamp that not only has Marco’s loyalty, but also his romantic interest.
Marco is excited to bring his brother into his decadent lifestyle of exclusive clubs and hedonism, but when a young woman, Ha (Trinh Thao), recognizes Nhat from earlier in the evening, the vamps decide to make Ha a part of Nhat’s initiation. Dealing with the gravity of deserting his beliefs becomes difficult for Nhat, ultimately causing Ha to discover his secret. Understandably scared, HA grabs her friend and bolts, but Trieu’s group is bound by one rule: No Witnesses. Nhat is tasked with finding Ha and finishing the job. But, as the humanity instilled by his mother pulls him toward a Twilight inspired relationship with Ha, his loyalty to Marco pulls him another way, making for genre-bending drama with inspired action sequences, lavish set pieces, and costumes.
But for all of the incredibly cool stuff Daydreamers brings to the table, there’s a lot about the film that doesn’t work. For starters, the two-hour film could probably stand to cut twenty minutes, and no one would be any the wiser. Nhat’s indecisions quickly become redundant. Edited together as a couple of nights, he and Ha’s relationship blossoms in a “will he or won’t he kill her” kind of way, and there’s a frustrating tedium to that, after he’s given chance after chance to appease the Trieu clan or literally do anything else. Sure, a whole brotherly protection thing is going on, which takes the plot to some surprising places. Still, there were moments I wanted the manga-stylized villain monologuing and melodrama to subside and allow the film to get on with it.
Regardless, Daydreamers isn’t a complete washout. There’s so much on display from scene to scene with director Timothy Linh Bui drawing extravagant artistry from neon-soaked dancehalls, dark storage closets, a dank old boathouse, and high-ceiling apartments overlooking the city. It may be a style-over-substance presentation, but the style brings up the substance of a script that seems to borrow from a pastiche of films in its efforts to craft something original.
It also bothers me somewhat that Daydreamers vamps don’t adhere to an invitation policy. I suppose that element has legs in eliciting fear, but outside of the movie’s opening scene, the film never goes that route. That idea could certainly craft one hell of a home invasion thriller, but it’s almost unnecessary in Daydreamers. I suppose the leveling agent here is that fatal human wounds are still deadly to vampires, except just after feeding. Most other mechanics are still the same, such as the need for blood to survive, death by sunlight, super strength, reflections, and the ability to fly. However, flying in the movie is a little hokey and used sparingly.
I suppose that what I’m saying is that I do think Vietnam’s New Face of the Year Awards are incredibly right in awarding Bui, his cast, and the set designers top-tier accolades. And while I believe Daydreamers will find audiences that appreciate it, specifically those who like the star-crossed romance aspects of films like The Covenant and Twilight, I don’t think it’s better than many choices vampire lovers already have available to them when considering something to watch.
Daydreamers opens in limited theaters on May 2 and releases to PVOD on June 3.
Daydreamers (2025) Official Trailer | Vampire | Horror
Opening in Theaters May 9, 2025 Available On Demand Everywhere June 3, 2025 From Writer/Director – Timothy Linh Bui Starring – Tran Ngoc Vang, Thuan Nguyen, Trinh Thao, Chi Pu The tale of two totally opposite and estranged brothers, Nhat and Marco. Both are vampires.
