Whether through plagiarism or weird synchronicity, there are two films coming out this year with almost exactly the same concept: A town so far in the northern hemisphere that it’s longest night lasts for thirty days finds itself beset by vampires. First into cinemas is Swedish entry Frostbiten, (translating neatly as Frostbite), and following later is the aptly-titled 30 Days of Night, based on the fabulous comic series of the same name by writer / artist team Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith. And if there’s anyone out there like me who’s been looking forward to the latter and was concerned that Frostbiten might steal its thunder – well, you have absolutely nothing to worry about.

Frostbiten starts out well enough, with a creepy prologue set during the second world war, and a squad of lost and storm-bound German troops holing up in a cabin that’s locked from the inside but inexplicably empty (hint: there are vampires inside); but once it jumps forward to the modern day, it soon starts to stumble. Primarily it follows a mother and daughter newly arrived in town, but there are a whole host of other characters as well, most of them teenagers of the kind that populate the endless parade of similar American movies.

And herein lies its biggest problem – there are good ideas spattered around, some okay effects and an interesting concept – but Frostbiten tries to cram far too much into its running time in far too clumsy a fashion, and some of it (notably the main plot) just isn’t that interesting. There are basically three stories, as well as a host of scenes following minor characters, and not only are all of them hampered by plot holes you could drive an HGV through, not only are a couple of them ploddingly slow to go anywhere, but they also happen in different time frames, which is totally confusing and serves only to set up a fairly rubbish “twist” ending.

It’s a crying shame, because if Frostbiten had settled for being what it basically is – a dumb, shlocky B-movie – then it would be really fun. It’s not often I’d criticise a film for being too ambitious, but this one is, and it would have been much better without its convoluted and nonsensical back-story, its hokey science and its attempts to push genre boundaries.

There are points where it hits an entertaining Lost Boys vibe; notably in the plot strand following minor character Sebastian, which provides all the best and funniest moments. The scene where Sebastian has to meet his girlfriend’s folks for the first time while also contending with the unfortunate side-effects of transforming into a bloodsucking creature of the night is nearly worth the entry price alone, and suggests that director Banke has a real knack for balancing horror and comedy. So why he hasn’t bothered to do so in more of the film is anybody’s guess.

Frostbiten isn’t a total write-off – it has a handful of great moments, and the rest of the time it’s fairly watchable in a late-night TV kind of way. For some reason the fact that it’s foreign makes it slightly more interesting, perhaps just because the mental effort of having to read subtitles makes it seem more intelligent than it actually is – and of course, the fact that it’s Swedish means that all the furniture is very nicely designed. If you were bored, perhaps slightly drunk, and fancied a horror comedy that was dumb but not House of Wax dumb then it would justify a DVD rental. But if you’re looking for a good, novel vampire story then hold off for the hopefully-to-be-brilliant 30 Days of Night; or better still, go and hunt down the graphic novels.