10 Overhyped Horror Movies You Wish You'd Not Watched

Wedged in that weird time period between the end of Buffy and the beginning of True Blood and Twilight, 30 Days of Night was said to be the revolutionary vampire movie, redefining the genre for the next generation with a concept that had never been seen before.

Adapted from the graphic novel of the same name by several of its writers and brought to the big screen by David Slade (who, coincidentally, wound up directing 2010's Twilight: Eclipse), 30 Days situates its action in a small Alaskan town during its annual winter month without sunlight. Understandably, a vampire horde descends on these ripe pickings and an extended fight for survival begins. But what was supposed to be John Carpenter meets Danny Boyle feels instead like Paul W S Anderson meets Jon Avnet. 

Truth be told, the film is lacking an enjoyable monster element, leaning too hard into its "new", ugly and gory idea of what vampires could or should be, and away from the modern yet romantic lore that the successes of Anne Rice, Joss Whedon and Stephenie Meyer tell us people go in for.

Danny Huston puts in a good shift as archvillain Marlow, and the aesthetic is compelling, but the other characters are difficult to root for and the cold, almost greyscale colour palette gets old pretty quick.