A couple of weeks ago, we gave you a first look at some images and concept art forThe Darkest Hour.  I’d never heard of it until the deluge of news from Comic Con, but now it’s on my radar. We can now show you the promised trailer! Filmed on location in Russia, The Darkest Hour follows five young people who find themselves stranded in Moscow, fighting to survive in the wake of a devastating alien attack.  The 3D action-thriller highlights the classic beauty of Moscow alongside mind-blowing special effects from the minds of visionary filmmaker Timur Bekmambetov (Wanted, Night Watch) and director Chris Gorak. This is only Gorak’s second feature. His first, Right at Your Door,was a hit at Sundance in 2006.

Still not thrilled about the 3D, but the trailer does confirm my suspicion that this could be exceedingly cool! As I said before, it may or may not have anything to offer the ever expanding ‘alien-invasion genre’, other than “the classic beauty of Moscow” but that might just be enough. Is it just me or are aliens the new vampires?

This year alone we’ve had Cowboys & Aliens, the mecca aliens of Transformers 3, the aliens of the Green Lantern corps, Super 8, I am Number Four, Paul, Battle Los Angeles and even, Mars Needs Moms. Nest year we’ll get Prometheus, Men in Black III, Star Trek 2, John Carter, Apollo 18, even the new Superman can be counted. There are as many variations on the theme as there are sparkles on Edward.

The Darkest Hour, which is scheduled for a December 23 release in the US and 13 January in the UK, stars Emile Hirsch (Milk, Alpha Dog, Into the Wild), Olivia Thirlby (Juno, Solitary Man), Max Minghella (Syriana, The Social Network), Rachel Taylor (“Grey’s Anatomy”) and Joel Kinnaman (“The Killing”, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo) along with many Russians.