Recently proper horror zombie vampire rabies films are in fashion again, I suppose thanks to the success of 28 Days and the like. This one is clearly in that tradition, but also in the one of The Thing and any other setting far away from civilization and help. Perfect place to have a bunch of people trapped and exterminated. That’s what’s happening. Rather conventional in style and direction, also in establishing of a rather sophisticated vampire leader who knows his predecessors, or has at least read Stephen King’s more vampiry books. Fair enough, and they run fast and jump high. It’s only that everything is quite predictable and not particularly well done. I think the scriptwriter has to dragged to the light of day to burn in the sun for some of the things he almost got away with: why do the planes stop going just because it’s dark? What did the guy who apparently was sent by the vampires actually do, what was his mission? Just do away with some dogs? Tell the humans that something dark is coming? They could have guessed that when corpses were piling up. Why is it always bright as day? And if it is not: why does nobody seem to bother about an attic that is bright as day, and which has window slits through which a polar bear could dance? If the vampires are so allergic to daylight, how come they show up immediately after the sun sets – where have they been? A decent B-Horror picture would have had a nice sex scene at minus 25 degrees, with goosbumps of any size imagineable. Not even that… All in all entertaining, but makes me wish that I can see John Carpenter’s gory "Thing" version again.
thomas4cinema 