David Slade

A 30-something photographer is seduced by a 14-year-old girl via online chat room. He brings her to his house for some drinks (alcoholic ones no less) and finds himself drugged, tied to a chair and bombard with dull-sarcasm and soapbox lecturing from his would-be teen victim. She accuses him of being a child-molester (who would have thought?) and a possible murder while threatening to castrate him, or at least bore him senseless with pretentious dialogue and gaping plot-holes. In the end, it's the audience that suffers.

Every year Barrow, Alaska has one month of total darkness. Taking advantage of this, a army of vampires ransack the town; killing all those they encounter and painting the screen red (instead of rationing their food like responsible, grown-up vampires) until a small group of survives fight back. Based on a graphic novel, the premise is promising, but writer-directer team of Brian Nielson and David Slade manage to ruin it with their usual bad dialogue and sloppy camera-work. Also, one has to wonder how much, if any, blood is actually ingested by the vampires as they seem more interested in ripping through bodies just for the sake of doing so and not so much for the sake of feeding. Followed by '30 Days Of Night: Dark Days.'

Interesting premise and lots of fun (if you like this kind of thing). Kind of like the remake of Dawn of the Dead's fast zombies, these vampires are the ultimate running, jumping and killing machines. No romance, no sexy vampire cliches (OK they do dress mostly in black), just plain creepy...think of the silent film image of Nosferatu, and Salem's Lot. Hartnett is not bad as the beleaguered town sheriff, and the atmosphere of the dark and cold Alaska town is effective. Ben Foster (3:10 to Yuma) does a great minor role of a psycho who may or may not be connected with the vampires. There's some good humor to measure. Pretty fun, although probably could've been cut down by about 15 minutes.