Good premise, poor follow-through

Rating: 5/10 (4 January 2008)

It's always sad to see a movie which has a strong idea as a concept, but then fails to deliver the goods. I have been browsing through some of the commentary already delivered and I am a little surprised to see that no one has mentioned the original graphic novel from which this film was adapted. And as far as comic adoption's go, this one is par for the course. Nothing really special, but not a total disappointment either. What I found interesting about the graphic novel was that the vampire attack was led by a "renegade" vampire, who thought it was a good idea to prey on a helpless town and it's inhabitants. This idea was not shared by the vampire leader however and resulted in a brief episode of conflict within the group. This was interesting to me, because it suggested that the vampires were not merely mindless killing machines. This I would have liked to see in the movie as well. As a whole the movie lacks depth in order for it to stand out from all the other horror fare out there. What was very nice was the re-imagination of the vampires. They looked genuinely scary. However their first appearance on-screen was not, which takes away from the tension. There are numerous plot-holes, which have been mentioned by other posters as well. All in all, I was disappointed. I hope there will be an extended directors cut, as I do not consider this the finished product. However I must say that Director David Slade did do a good job in terms of cinematography. Visually the film is brilliant. However for a more solid story with the same premise I suggest you pick up the graphic novel.