REEL CRITICS:

For the tiny town of Barrow, Ala., it’s the last day of sunlight for the next month. Many residents have packed up for brighter climes for the winter.

But not far away, a strange-looking man (Ben Foster) is plodding through the snow heading for town.

Plodding is the word for the vampire flick, “30 Days of Night,” based on a graphic novel with an interesting premise — vampires making a buffet while the sun don’t shine.

And while the nasty bloodsuckers are interesting — with their lightning-quick movements and front grills that would make a Chrysler jealous — the regular towns folk are deadly dull.

Josh Hartnett, already looking like the undead, is the local sheriff who can only look mildly perturbed when folks get yanked out of their kitchen windows and decapitated.

But he manages to round up a handful of survivors, and they spend a lot of time hiding and shivering. It’s a waiting game as to who will outlast the darkness — them, or the audience.

Only Danny Huston (“The Constant Gardener”), as the lead vampire, seems to have found a role he can sink his teeth into.

Director David Slade thought he was making a new horror classic, but his movie could have used a little sprinkling of humor with all that blood.

And the dearth of genuinely scary moments is a big disappointment. There’s more rolling of eyeballs in the audience than of heads on the big screen.

Agendas abound in ambitious cop drama

Ben Affleck took a risky road to his directorial debut by trying to follow in the footsteps of Oscar winner Clint Eastwood.

He chose to bring to the screen a gripping crime drama, about a missing child, written by the same author behind the similar “Mystic River” story.

To top off the risk factor, Ben directs his own younger brother Casey in the pivotal role of “Gone Baby Gone.”

But Affleck pulls it off with a solid first effort behind the camera that stimulates and satisfies.

It starts as a police procedural following the report of a missing girl. Her mother is a low-life drug dealer with a checkered past and plenty of pals who are suspects. But the Boston police assigned to investigate the case also have a dark side hidden in their past deeds.

Ed Harris and Morgan Freeman are excellent in their supporting roles as streetwise cops with their own agenda.

Casey Affleck rises above his youthful looks to bring power and presence to his role as the outside investigator who gets to the bottom of the chilling mystery.

There are gritty twists and turns that make you wonder what is right or ethical or true. But clearly the Affleck brothers have joined forces to create a surprising and thought-provoking film.

SUSANNE PEREZ lives in Costa Mesa and is an executive assistant for a financial services company. JOHN DEPKO is a Costa Mesa resident and a senior investigator for the Orange County public defender’s office.