How about we find out more about the vampires? They wear black overcoats, like to walk on rooftops, and speak in some kind of weird ancient European dialect (or maybe just nonsense). All in all, they look pretty cool, and they're led by Marlow, played by Danny Huston in a well-done performance. So where did they come from? Who have they attacked in the past? It's stated clearly that Foster purposely led them to this town, but on slightly further inspection that makes no sense. If he just arrived, then who stole the cell phones? Who killed the dogs? Where were the vampires during the daylight? The movie's steadfast refusal to tell you anything about the vampires seems to be in order to make them scarier, but I'd rather know more about them than witness yet another tired scene in which a human decides to leave his hiding place for no good reason.

How about they actually utilize the setting? When they first find their secure hiding place, Eben assures the survivors: "We can last the month. We know the town, and we know the cold." Oh, cool, I get it: even though the humans are outmatched, they have a few tricks up their sleeve because they know how to manage in the cold weather. That could be a good enough hook to hang the movie on, but the most creative thing it can come up with them to do with this skill is to go outside during a whiteout when it's harder for the vampires to see them.

And then there's the climax. Without giving anything away, Eben makes a choice to do something in order to save someone. The problem is, once he follows through, nothing really happens. If you look closely, he didn't really need to do it to save anybody. He accomplishes very close to nothing. And then the movie ends with no explanation about what happened to the surviving vampires.

The performances in this movie are good - Huston and Boone Junior are the standouts, and Hartnett and George make a solid hero and heroine - and a handful of scenes are quite good. That just ...