This horror b movie is one of the best films of its kind in my opinion and this especially because of the first thirty minutes or so of the movie. The movie begins with a very dark and disturbing atmosphere when two innocent teenagers see a strange person in an old and ugly truck that seems to throw dead bodies in garbage bags in a row underneath a creepy old church next to a lost highway where only some ravens live. In the first half an hour you really get into this movie because you don't know what is coming next, what the two students will discover next or what they might do in a strange combination of naive curiosity and foolish ignorance. Those scenes send shivers down my spine and were a really intense and captivating beginning for a horror movie. The acting is more than appropriate and the scenery is filled with clichés but works perfectly.

But then comes a little down and this great atmosphere is broken when the two students come back into civilization and as the true identity of the creeper is soon uncovered. It is true that the creeper is a really ugly, strange and frightening creature but I found it even more creepy and uneasy as I didn't know what or who this creature was in the beginning of the movie and I think that the identity of the monster should not have been revealed that fast but only in the very end. The movie becomes then less frightening and concentrates less on the atmosphere but on some gore and action scenes. The acting is also less intense than in the very realistic and shocking beginning.

The gore and action parts are still well done for example when the creeper meets the strange old cat lady or when he is entering a local police department but the movie is only entertaining and not quite frightening anymore a part of the very last scene that finishes the movie in such an uneasy way as it began. That's why this movie only gets a really solid rating but not the two highest notes. The second part of the series is really less interesting because you know from the beginning on what the creeper is and what he does and the acting is also less convincing. But I'm still looking forward to the third part because I highly appreciated the first movie.

That's why I can really recommend this first movie to any fan of atmospheric psycho thrillers for the first thirty minutes and to any fan of the typical horror, gore and splatter movies because of what is following afterwards. From that point of view the movie rejoins two different styles and fans and the rupture after the amazing beginning has at least one positive point.

This movie is a very interesting vampire movie settled in a cold town in Alaska where strange people live, a little bit like "The barber".

The only thing that I found bad about this movie is that it was too fast obvious that vampires had infiltrated the city. It would have been more interesting to let the viewers in the doubt of what happened, as it could have also been a serial killer or a criminal organization that committed the first crimes. As you now quite fast that vampires have organized that, there is a lack of tension after the very interesting and dark beginning of the movie. I must also admit that this movie basically doesn't add something new to the genre. Those two minor factors are the reasons why I cut some points off the rating.

But at least, this movie turns then quite fast into an entertaining and intense survival story where everybody desperately tries to save his soul and reflect about his life. There are many intense scenes like the old and isolated guy who gives his life to save his comrades, the guy who got bitten by a child vampire and asks the other ones to kill him or the main actor who tries desperately to save his ex-girlfriend to prove her that he still loves her and wants her back. Another good point is the dramatical and uneasy ending of the movie that is as dark as the whole film's atmosphere. There is a lot of tension in this movie and you really begin to like the desperate and morbid atmosphere in the lost village and can somehow identify with all of this.

To sum it up, this movie is an intense and atmospheric vampire movie and survival horror with credible actors and some shocking scenes. This movie might please to anyone who likes the horror genre and is the best horror movie of the year 2007 in my opinion.

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

This movie is one of my favourite horror movies. The movie is short and sweet. It has an intense atmosphere. The actors are all doing an amazingly outstanding job, especially the great Ray Wise. There are many surprising elements and details about the characters that will get unveiled throughout the film and create more profound and credible personalities as in many other horror movies. The movie has a dark and shocking atmosphere, some gore scenes, but not too many in the beginning to leave us with an uneasy doubt. The movie also has a great sense of humour, but not too much, some quotes have a really dry and charming humour.

The greatest thing about this movie is its double twisted ending that will make you think about this finale for quite a long while as there are many possible solutions and analysis to make. What has been real, what has been imagination and if it was real, what have been the reasons that led to the upcoming nightmare. I have my own personal theory of the movie, you should not continue to read this, if you haven't seen this movie yet.

Attention: Spoiler! I think that the nightmare has been reality. The woman with the kid (maybe the driver's first victim, his unfaithful wife and now his assisting phantom) and the driver of the mysterious car are punishing and avenging people who have been lying in their lives. Every one had a lie or a crime that he has been hiding from the others. The mother has slept with her husband's friend and her son isn't her husband's son. The father has had sexual relations with another woman because his wife couldn't satisfy him. The son is smoking pot and a pervert. Only the crime of the daughter's boyfriend isn't clear, but he may force his girlfriend to get married and she feels extremely uneasy about this as we can discover in the film. I think that the mysterious woman in white with the dead baby doesn't punishes the daughter because she has been herself in a similar situation with her baby and once tragically died because of something or someone that we don't know. Maybe she was married to the driver, had a baby with him, but didn't love him and committed suicide or was killed by him as he discovered that she wasn't honest or faithful to him and her husband later understood it all and died too. That could be a reason why she does understand the situation of the daughter and wants to give her a chance to start all over again. The driver and the woman in white make her wake up in a hospital and make her belief that everyone died in a car accident so that the daughter can start a new life.

Maybe I am completely wrong with my analysis, but I just wanted to share this with you. I think that no other horror movie that I know had such an amazing ending. No matter what your idea or conclusion is, I am certain that you will enjoy this creative, intense and short horror movie.

Once I came home from a party with some friends and just wanted to relax and watch the television before I would go to bed. I switched from one channel to the other and found this movie. Although I had missed the first fifteen minutes of the film and my television magazine rated the movie as a rather average stuff, I decided to watch it and got drowned into a really creepy atmosphere that made me forget the funny evening with my friends. I got completely addicted to this movie until the very end. As it was a low budget movie, written by English writers and directors, played by mostly American actors and turned in the beautiful landscapes of Canada, I didn't expect that I would be able to buy a copy of this movie, but in over three years after I have watched this movie for the first time, I couldn't get it out of my mind and finally decided to look for a DVD copy and got it a few weeks later. I was able to listen to the whole movie this time and I liked it as much as the first time.

There are many special things that distinguish this movie from other ordinary psycho thrillers or horror movies.

First of all, the actors were all quite unknown at the time when this movie has been done, but they all do an excellent job, especially Kris Lemche in the role of Rex. It could have been a big risk to take only amateurs or unknown actors to make a movie with only seven actors in it and where two of them only appear a few minutes. But each actor plays a very special and unique character and has a strong presence and the concept works very well.

The second thing that makes this movie so special is the way it is filmed. It is filmed in a "Big Brother" style with many web cams and little cameras and this way creates a very intimate and realistic atmosphere. You are able to feel with the characters and the natural style of the movie makes it more shocking and intense than what I would rather call paranormal fantasy movies with weird creatures.

The third great thing about the movie is that you can't really figure out how it ends. In fact, the movie ends with a surprising double twist. What distinguishes this movie from the Hollywood horror movies is that there is - and I think I don't tell too much when I say this - a really disturbing and haunting ending instead of a happy end.

The only negative points are that the movie has a beginning that is maybe a little bit too slow paced and that there could have been more shocking elements that happen instead of putting the whole tension in the very last night the five people live in the house. I also think that the women in the movie could have done a better and more profound job and that the man actors are way better and save the movie somehow.

But all those three positive points plus an excellent atmosphere make this movie a very special one and I am even looking forward to see this movie again or present it to some of my friends. There are more and more reviews of this movie on this website and I think that this film is really worth the interest.

After several weaker movies, Shyamalan begin to work on a new trilogy about the presence of supernatural evil in big cities. He concentrated on the script and preferred to let other people direct the movie and so you might expect that this first part of Shyamalan's renaissance must be a well elaborated and twisted masterpiece. Well, this is absolutely not the case, there are no major twists or surprises in the story. But that doesn't mean that this movie is without the glimpse of a doubt a very well done psycho thriller.

Let me mention the negative points first. The movie isn't really long. There are only two minor twists and the first one is not that much surprising while the second one is an interesting turning point of the story but also a little bit predictable towards the end of the movie. The story is not really innovating and this time, Shyamalan really delivers what he announces in the previews. Because of the short running time, not every character is extremely well developed and profound. The critical and philosophic influence that many movies of Shyamalan had is not very present in this movie.

But there are more positive points about this movie. There is a high tension present throughout the whole length of the movie and this is what makes the watching experience breathless and intense, you don't see time pass at all. The movie spares out the unnecessary and goes straight in your face which isn't that usual for Shyamalan's earlier works. That is something new, fresh and innovative coming from him and a little positive surprise for many but maybe also a little deception for some of his more purist fans. The interactions between the characters in the elevator are intense and very interesting. Every character has a very unique and special behaviour and something interesting to hide even if the characters could have been more developed if the movie had maybe twenty minutes more running time. The actions in the movie become more and more intense towards the finish and end up in a well done finale that leaves you with no open questions.

All in all, this is surely not the best of Shyamalan's movies but way better than the last stuff he has done before this movie. It is not a very surprising and philosophical movie, but rather a short and intense psycho thriller. It is a very good movie but far away from being the best movie of the year. It is worth watching it at the cinema or at home, but i wouldn't recommend buying this movie at the full price without having seen it before.