THEY’RE COMING!

Every year when the small town of Barrow, Alaska loses sunlight for a month, most of its inhabitants leave, but this year an influx of murderous vampires changes things.

Don’t look for surprises in this dark, gruesome thriller; these vampires don’t bring anything new to this clichéd genre. However, that’s about the only real complaint I have.

The filmmakers came up with a kind of Western/horror hybrid set in a highly fictional but stylish Alaska (the town is real, but the film wasn’t shot there) that is quite well paced, has good performances and plenty of really nasty thrills.

2007-U.S.-New Zealand. 113 min. Color. Widescreen. Directed by David Slade. Screenplay: Steve Niles, Stuart Bettie, Brian Nelson. Graphic Novel: Steve Niles, Ben Templesmith. Cast: Josh Hartnett (Eben Oleson), Melissa George (Stella Oleson), Danny Huston (Marlow), Ben Foster, Mark Boone Junior, Mark Rendall.

Trivia: Co-producer Sam Raimi was reportedly first slated to direct the film. Followed by two miniseries in 2007 and 2008, as well as a direct-to-DVD sequel, 30 Days of Night: Dark Days (2010).