Lives Up To The Trailer

Rating: 8/10 (14 November 2007)

I must admit that I have become a bit bored with the latest rash of Vampyre/Vampyrical cinematic attempts. I loved Underworld, but Underworld 2 led us somewhere so totally off the beaten path of the original, it left me cold. If you go all the way back to John Carpenter's Vampires, you'll delve right into some great Vampyre elements of the mythos, and some really creative innovations.
There have been good-to-great Vampyre movies since, strewn here and there. But the idea of having only 30 days to feed, each year ... ? THAT is a cool idea. But it's not new. Jeepers Creepers comes to mind ... every 29 years, they get to feed for 29 days. And yet, this film was highly enjoyable.
Action, suspense, tense (almost palpable) atmosphere, and believe it or not, believable performances by the cast! Hartnett surprises, but (unfortunately) part of his surprise is that he is the sheriff of this small Alaskan town. I do not know about anyone else, but I seem to have problems believing it. He gave an honest, realistic performance, but I could not buy him as the sheriff. I think it has more to do with his age and memories of him in other parts, than it does with his performance. As I said, his performance is believable ... more so than in anything else in which I have ever seen him, and that is a fact.
The execution of the elements was classic. I will refrain from detailing any particular element, as I hate to read a review that spoils everything in a movie, so I rarely write them.
I WILL, however, say that there were a few things with which I had a problem. Those things are enumerated below, so proceed at your own risk. They aren't spoilers outright, but a few could be POTENTIAL SPOILERS for someone who doesn't want ANYthing revealed.
As I've said, Josh Hartnett did not fit in as the sheriff. I could have much more easily accepted him as a deputy than as the actual sheriff.
He always looked too clean to meet the circumstances. They did give him a bit of grime, but nowhere near the amount of gore and dirt one would reasonably expect, under the circumstances.
The Vampyres were so visceral. I personally prefer the more romanticized versions, though I could buy into the premise that 1500 years of evolution could/would cause such an animalization of these Beings.
The filming during the kills is too "busy." The camera moves and the editing is so fast as to make you wonder if the camera man was having some sort of seizure during filming? The overall affect was to make me dizzy, without adding anything of substance to the film, itself. NOTE TO DIRECTORS: Slow it down and give us the graphic sequences you are too afraid to film! At least film alternate "kills" for the "Unrated Director's Cuts" if you MUST omit it for the PG-13 kiddies! But this was an "R" and THIS was the best you could deliver?!
The town itself had a "canned" feeling, like they filmed this thing on the back lot of some studio, or in a large stadium somewhere. The feeling of isolation is necessary, true enough, but the sense that this was constructed and executed at a location secondary to the place to which we were first introduced, should give one pause. If Sam Raimi could make a mistake like that, no one is infallible.
The use of the Infernal Promise, without going into the lore, or the mystery of the Infernal Promise, failed to please. (More on the IP in the next section.) I DID like that they included the Infernal Promise at all. It is used throughout the Vampyre genre with some great effect, but it was never better used than herein. The use of the IP also generated a secondary element I found delightful; that of the Stranger.
The Stranger brought with it the sense of foreboding, sealed and personified. It engendered a betrayal on a level to which the average man needs to believe other men are not capable. From his introduction, the viewer knows there is something amiss on the pristine snow-strewn horizon.
The use of the weather as a means of confounding the Vampyres' superior scenting abilities (done so subtly, as to negate this as a spoiler), and their method of covering the whole thing up, are both quite ingenious.
All in all? I really enjoyed this superior work of thriller/suspense. It is a definite Friday/Saturday night movie, and belongs on the shelves of anyone who enjoys a good Vampyre movie. I categorize this as a thriller/suspense, as the kills are not as graphic as I expected, the blood (while there, laws yes!) is not as prolific as I anticipated, and the gore is at a bare minimum. I'd actually pay to see this again.
It rates a 7.8/10 from...
the Fiend :.