If you thought Bootle was bad just try imagining what life must be like for the poor benighted people of Barrow, Alaska.

Every year - courtesy of a bizarre seasonal freak - the sun disappears over the horizon and the town is plunged into darkness for a full thirty days.

As the light seeps away, the temperatures drop below zero and Arctic blizzards swirl viciously through the deserted streets.

So the last thing you want is a pointy-dentured Danny Huston leading a marauding gang of blood-crazed vampires through the local populace.

We first notice Dan's gang are in town when a team of huskies are sliced up with a kitchen knife while chained in their compound.

Their first human victim is an old-timer who wanders out into the snow only to find himself the epicentre of a maelstrom of razor-sharp nails and spiked teeth.

British director David Slade, who made the excellent cult hit Hard Candy, has determinedly strayed away from the stylised cool-vamp template of Underworld to lend his bloodsuckers a feral ferocity.

Fighting the local's corner is Josh Hartnett's cop, a decent small-town boy unsure of how to deal with a foe that can leap from roof-tops and bites into its carrion like a dog with a bone.

Based on the comic novel and owing more than just a tad to the overlooked Scandinavian chiller Frostbite, this initially feels like having an icicle of blood run down your spine.

Slade evokes an iced air of dread as the fiends flit just out of sight and an aerial shot showing them bloodily working their way through the town is inspired.

However, it inevitably succumbs to formula while characterisation and plot are never its strongpoint.

Nevertheless, in comparison to recent anaemic vampire offerings, it does make your blood run cold - assuming you've got any left.

Tim Evans