Movie Info
Movie Name: 30 Days of Night
Studio: Columbia Pictures/Ghost House Pictures/Dark Horse Entertainment
Genre(s): Horror/Comic Book
Release Date(s): October 16, 2007 (Screamfest)/October 19, 2007 (US)
MPAA Rating: R
My mother says I’m precious!!!
As the sun sets on Barrow, Alaska, the people are prepared for the final rays of sunlight for thirty long days as the cold of winter sets in. When Sheriff Eben Oleson (Josh Hartnett) begins to find strange vandalism around the town, he suspects something is wrong and the arrival of a strange man predicting doom (Ben Foster) begins a deadly hunt. A vampire horde led by a vampire named Marlow (Danny Huston) is out to drain the town of Barrow of life, and Eben, his estranged wife Stella (Melissa George), and a handful of survivors must survive the month to make it to the next sunrise.
Directed by David Slade, 30 Days of Night is a vampire horror movie. The film is an adaptation of Steve Niles’s 2002 limited series illustrated by Ben Templesmith. The film was relatively well received by critics and became a box office hit.
30 Days of Nights is one of those films that is a good idea in concept, has some moments, but ultimately lets you down. A vampire’s dream (aka perpetual darkness and a bunch of helpless people to drain) does open up tons of ideas, but the movie falls victim to typical horror tropes.
Get ready for a vampire throw-down showdown!
Despite starting out as a smart concept, the movie devolves as the story progresses. The vampires take over Barrow and then the story essentially stops. The characters go into hiding and then the writers ran out of idea. The characters begin making dumb mistakes and despite almost waiting out the thirty days, they decide to run around more…it turns out not to matter since the vampires set fire to the town, but if they had just stayed hidden, they would have likely never have been found…it is stupid and unnecessary writing that is below the concept.
I found Josh Hartnett to be a very generic lead and he continues the dullness here. Fortunately, he’s got a nice supporting cast. Melissa George is good as the wife who just wants out of the town. I have always liked Ben Foster and wish that his role in the story was expanded. Danny Huston is good as the lead vampire, but much of the human supporting cast doesn’t get developed.
I told you SPF15 wasn’t good enough…
The film has a creepy look, but the script once again doesn’t help it much. The movie is set in the vast (and dark) Alaska and it could have utilized the cold and the snow much more. Once the town is shutdown, the isolation factor is virtually forgotten for survival. I would have liked to have seen characters trying to hit the frigid wasteland instead of facing the vampires. The vampires themselves resemble many vampires and don’t add anything new to the vampire-lexicon.
30 Days of Night could have been a lot better. It was a smart set-up for a film that turns stupid. The chills and thrills are there, but it could have been so much more. There are a lot of vampire movies and stories out there and most aren’t very original…30 Days of Night is original but not inspiring. 30 Days of Night was followed by a straight-to-DVD film 30 Days of Night: Dark Days in 2010.
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