NZ locations a lure for horror filmmakers

Our country is world-famous as a place to film stunning scenery and make reasonably cheap movies, but now New Zealand is making a name for itself in the blood-and-guts trade.

The vampire movie Perfect Creature was filmed here last year, and The Ferryman has just finished a 35-day shoot.

And a big-budget horror, 30 Days of Night, will start production in Auckland in July.

Perfect Creature, which will be released early next year, is set in the 1960s in an alternate New Zealand known as Nuovo Zelandia.

It is the story of a human cop and vampire cop who join forces to stop a vampire who is dead set on starting a war between the two races.

30 Days of Night is also a vampire movie and produced by Spiderman director Sam Raimi, and Rob Tapert, the husband of New Zealand actor Lucy Lawless.

The film, with a $70 million budget, is set in a small Alaskan town where it is completely dark for one month of the year. It is scheduled for release in October.

Tapert and Raimi also made last year's horror, Boogeyman, in New Zealand.