Ben foster, from "X-Men's" angel to a vampire in "30 Days of Night"

Best known for portraying the platinum blond, ripped, and high-flying Angel in the 2006 hit "X-Men: The Last Stand," Ben Foster now stars as The Stranger in Columbia Pictures' supernatural thriller "30 Days of Night."

Based on the groundbreaking graphic novel by Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith, "30 Days of Night" is set in the isolated town of Barrow, Alaska. There, in the extreme northern hemisphere, the populace is plunged into complete darkness for an entire month. When most of the inhabitants head south for the winter, a mysterious group of strangers appear: bloodthirsty vampires, ready to take advantage of the uninterrupted darkness to feed on the town's residents. As the night wears on, Barrow's Sheriff Eben (Josh Hartnett), his estranged wife Stella (Melissa George), and an ever-shrinking group of survivors must do anything they can to last until daylight.

Ben Foster was attracted first and foremost by the opportunity to work with "30 Days of Night" director David Slade. "I'd known David socially for a couple of years and I was already a fan of the graphic novel," he says.

"It's a stone-cold horror film—with intelligence. It was completely terrifying when we were rolling," Foster  describes, and he was intrigued by the opportunities represented in his character. "The Stranger has a level of fanaticism," he says. "What kind of person would get involved in a group of vampires and be willing to die for that group? For me, it became a metaphor – and it was a fun one to play with."

"In our first meeting, Ben started grilling me about the character – questions I answered gleefully," Slade says. "He asked where the Stranger is from, and I said, 'It would be great if he was from the South. Ben spent his own money learning a note-perfect Cajun accent, which is terrifying and enriched the character."

Slade says that the Stranger performs a very specific role in the story – one rooted in vampire lore. "If this were Bram Stoker's world, he would be Renfield," says Slade. "The Stranger is the helper who wants desperately to become a vampire. He's seen horrific things, lived amongst them – when the film begins, as far as he's concerned, it's his last night of being human – and he has great glee of the expectation of becoming something else.

"Ben repressed all the craziness that could have ensued," Slade continues, "and instead made the role incredibly emotional. He found a way not only to make an absolutely vile, disgusting character, but one that you have absolute sympathy for – absolute sympathy for the devil."

Opening soon across the Philippines, "30 Days of Night" is distributed by Columbia Pictures, the local office of Sony Pictures Releasing International.