Pedestrian Horror

Rating: 7/10 (29 October 2007)

I grew up with Christopher Lee and his version of a vampire. Staying up until 1 or 2am (while younger than a teenager) I remember going to bed and unable to sleep after watching one of his movies. I found the characters and their situations believable (more or less), and the director tried hard to generate a general sense of suspense, a feeling that something was not quite right...
After watching THIS movie however, I think I'll sleep just fine. The story centers around a small Alaskan town that has 30 days of dark every year; this year something goes horribly wrong and it gets overrun by vampires during this time. Good premise and good production values, however there seems to be something missing. Perhaps its because you see everything a bit too soon...I didn't really find the movie very suspenseful. Or maybe it's because of the acting, which struck me as out-of-place in a few places (you can tell someone is actually ACTING being out of breath, as opposed to making you believe he is). Or perhaps it was a general sense of unbelievability to the movie as a whole, not from anything specific but just a gut feeling that prevents you from being able to identify with the characters (or their situation) at anything more than a topographical level. In the end, it was OK Halloween fare (with the price of admission paid for by the looks of the vampires, which I found excellent), but it simply didn't deliver many frights for me....