Not a vampire movie

Rating: 5/10 (21 November 2007)

The thing about vampires is that they're human monsters. The human part of them is what makes them more creepy, and attractive. I agree with a previous comment - these are more like fast moving zombies than vampires. They certainly devoured people more like zombies than vampires. The vampires in this film were just monsters, and not particularly scary either - they were a bit creepy, but their screeches were annoying and over-used. The made-up language wasn't the best idea either - what, you learn a new language when you get turned? Hm.
The human characters were pretty good, but there wasn't much depth to them so it was hard, I thought, to be that bothered when they were killed or turned. I also saw a lot of things coming in this movie, which is shocking because I hardly ever see things coming. As soon as that big grindy-choppy machine was shown, near the beginning, it was plain that someone, and/or part of someone was going to fall in to this at some point.
I thought this movie was exceedingly average, and I think it's going to disappear into cinema history without much of a trace. The reviews I've read claim that this is a 'genuinely chilling horror' and that the vampires are 'genuinely scary'. I disagree on both counts. Using the long nights of the poles was a good excuse for a movie though, almost surprised no one's thought of it before actually.
Chalice