30 Days of Night (2007)

The premise of 30 DoN is for me the best thing about it. It's a vampire story set in an Alaskan town, an icy location that once a year is plunged into a month of darkness. With no daily sunrise to force them into hiding, the bloodthirsty predators don't have to stop feeding (until they run out of food).
The build-up, i.e, before the invasion begins proper, is very good; it feels as if the town is winding down while the people themselves are gearing-up for the long night ahead. It's a shame that that same sense of interest isn't sustained.
Once the killing starts it's little more than fast-moving menaces stalking another pocket of survivors. There's a troubled relationship element that was a nice idea, but it lacks weight and is, frankly, as bland as shit is brown.

2½ cold cuts out of 5

TRIANGLE [2009]

I got to hand it to British director Christopher Smith, he doesn't particularly make amazing films but he makes them with care & love for the art without worrying what mainstream audiences will think. 

Triangle starts out like a paint-by-numbers slasher flick but along the lines it takes a bizarre turn and becomes much, much more.  It hopes the audience was paying close attention from the beginning but never throws it in your face making the confusing twists & turns that much more effective.  

3 bloody seagulls out of 5

Stephen King's Bag of Bones (2011)

A writer is haunted by visions of his late wife and the mystery surrounding a lake house in this made-for-TV adaptation. Pierce Brosnan seems oddly out of place in this type of movie, but I warmed up to him by the second half. It's not terribly well-done, but it's okay. Yeah, that's the best you're going to get out of me. "It was okay."

2.5 Dark Scores out of 5

Dark City (1998)

Life is an enigma and dead hookers are found in hotel rooms; what happens when those two things are combined? Who are the Strangers? Do you really know who you were last night?

Predates The Matrix by a year but shares much.

Stylistic, Kafkaesque, neo-noir sci-fi for the aficionado.

4 dead hookers out of 5