Descent Vampire Movie

Rating: 7/10 (19 October 2007)

The film is set in Barrow, Alaska where for 30 days during winter the town is in perpetual night. The movie begins with everyone who doesn't have to be there leaving because 30 days without sunlight is somehow impossible to endure. Having grown up in Buffalo, I can assure you this is not true. So the movie sets up the town, depleted and cut off, vs. a troop of vampires, somewhat artificially but there you go. Initially the vampires run through the town killing everything in the their path. There's an overhead shot of this that is completely original and spectacular. I suspect that the director took it from a panel in the graphic novel but to film this shot is way more difficult than to create a static drawing.
Anyway, from there on in it's the vampires vs. the plucky survivors and plucky they are. There's a bit of "I wouldn't do that if I were you" going on but that's just unavoidable in a horror film and it's kept to a minimum. In general the survivors act intelligently and most importantly believably as they try and last the 30 days until sunup. That goes a long way to keeping the movie afloat.
The end offers a bit of twist although the final scene it is similar to Blade II.
I would say that if you like this sort of movie you will not leave the theater feeling disappointed or cheated.