Just got back from a screening of 30 Days of Night, the new horror flick based on the comic by Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith. Director David Slade also directed the super-creepy Hard Candy, so I suspected this might be good, and I was right.

The comic gets a lot of props, but I always thought it was a great concept that wasn’t handled very well. The hook is amazing: In Barrow, Alaska, the northernmost town in the U.S., the sun sets and doesn’t rise for a 30-day stretch. Which is depressing and dark and all that for the town’s residents. But for a slew of opportunistic vampires, it’s heaven—descending on Barrow, they turn the small town into a 24-hour buffet.

There aren’t a lot of decent horror movies—horror fans have to put up with about a 99.99 percent suckage rate with their chosen genre—but 30 Days is pretty goddamn sharp. We’ll have a full review when it comes out next week, but some quick thoughts: It’s creepy as fuck and beautifully shot, and Slade cashes in on the story’s great premise. (It’s also viciously violent and gory, with one or two shots that’re just… well, I can’t think of any other R-rated film I’ve seen that has their equal, which is saying something. Saying something gross. And bloody.) There are a few scenes that veer too far into well-tread horror cliché, and the ending isn’t nearly as good as the rest of the picture, but for the most part, it’s a really fun, scary flick. I’m not sure if the .01 percent of horror movies that’re actually good balance out the other 99.99 percent, but when watching something like this, it’s hard not to wish really cool, well-made horror flicks came along more often.

P.S. Also, Josh Hartnett is in it, and I like that dude. He’s underrated. Proof: Lucky Number Slevin, which I watched again a few weeks ago. If you haven’t seen it, it’s well worth checking out for a bit of light, smart fun.