30 Days of night? Right....

Today I strolled down to the local cinema to watch a film.

The horror film, 30 days of night.

First, a word about the plot. The concept is simple - a town in the far north of the US, which every year experiences 30 days of solid night. Vampires in the area get a little hungry.

The plot - and a lot of the basic ideas - are very solid. Interesting location, a good logical reason for isolation, even an implied reason for the existence for the town.

Most of the character work is good and the lack of CGI effects is excellent. So far, so good...

But there are two ways of building fear and terror in a horror film.

There's the easy way - cheap shocks, vast amounts of blood and guts, excessive on screen violence and the application of unremitting action, never allowing a moment for true fear.

Alternatively, there's another, better way. You build up tension. Slowly, carefully build up a sketch in the views mind. The terrible picture of fear drawn in stress, uncertainty and glimpses. Hints of the enemy, traces of evidence...

The second approach builds upon the uncertainty and fear in the views own mind - and no one can know what they fear more then the view themselves.

But alas, 30 days takes the first route - the easy one.

Ultimately the film is an acceptable horror film, but not a good one.

For a better vampire film, go watch underworld.

It is a better film.