Excellent Vampire Film, the Humans are the Weak Element

Rating: 7/10 (13 January 2010)

While most modern mainstream vampire films seem to feature delicate, romantic depictions of the bloodsuckers, David Slade has done us all a favor and instead brought us the fearsome, deadly creatures of the night we love. The film is an adaptation of the graphic novel by Steve Niles, set in the town of Barrow, Alaska as it settles in for 30 days of darkness. Taking advantage of the town's long-term lack of sunlight, a pack of vampires arrive and the townspeople are left to fight for their survival over the next month. Bloody, tense, and occasionally boring...Slade has managed to create one of the better vampire films I've seen in recent years.
I loved the visual style of Slade's film, courtesy of cinematographer Jo Willems. Willems captured the cool, dark tones of the graphic novel with splashes of color (primarily blood red) and I thought the film was beautiful. The violence was graphic and often brutal, giving the film the hard R rating it deserves with decapitations and dismemberment to satisfy the gore-hounds, and there's a scene with a trencher that stands out as one of the best action spots in the film. I would've easily ranked this film amongst my favorite horror movies if it weren't for the fact that nearly the first two-thirds of the film drag on so badly. The film grabs your attention from the start with the weird happenings around Barrow (stolen satellite phones found burned, town dogs murdered) but then it grinds to a near halt as the survivors spend the next hour hiding, moving from one spot to the next, while the audience is desperate for something to happen.
The best performance in the film comes from Ben Foster, as a mysterious Stranger who wanders into town before night and gleefully warns the town of their impending fate. He was exceptionally creepy, with his disheveled appearance and Cajun growl. Danny Huston also stands out powerfully as Marlow, the alpha of the vampire pack. One of the creepiest moments in the film has Huston mocking his prey while she pleads "Oh God", Huston taking a moment to glance around the sky in search before staring her in the eye and uttering..."No God". The vampires really were the stars of this film; with their pupil-less eyes, pale skin, and jowls covered in blood from their recent kills, these are the vampires we want to see...primal and animalistic in nature. The humans in the film don't fair so well. The performances weren't terrible but they were outshone by their undead costars and I spent most moments eagerly awaiting the next attack scene instead of becoming involved in their struggles. Josh Harnett does a fair job as Eben Oleson, the sheriff of Barrow and leader of the human survivors. Melissa George, beautiful as she is, adds nothing too significant to the cast as Eben's estranged wife.
The vampires are what make this movie so fun to watch but we spend a bit too long hiding from them, rather than confronting them. The first time I saw the film, I lost interest pretty fast until the final act when the humans began to fight back with whatever tools they could find. Still, I don't judge the film too harshly because it was one of the few as of late to paint vampires in a more bloodthirsty light, and for that, this film is worth watching.