30 Days of Night

Produced by Sam Raimi, this atmospheric chiller is based on a horror comic by Steve Niles but feels derivative of 28 Days Later. Barrow, a tiny Alaskan outpost hunkering down for a month without sunlight, is besieged by frenzied vampires led by a butch Danny Huston and assisted by Renfield-like psycho Ben Foster, who destroys every means of escape from the town. Forget about a stake through the heart: sheriff Josh Hartnett discovers that decapitation is the best way to stop the bloodsuckers, who suggest feral, steroid-crazed gymnasts as they scale buildings and leap onto moving vehicles. Curiously, most of them have vaguely Mongolian features, which implies that unspeakable evil lies just beyond the Bering Strait. David Slade (Hard Candy) directed. R, 113 min. By Andrea Gronvall