Director: David Slade
Format: theater
Starring: Josh Hartnett, Melissa George, Ben Foster, Danny Huston, Megan Franich
trailer
For every monster, whether it be in movies or in video games, there are rules. Rules such as; vampires die in the sunlight, werewolves are killed with silver bullets, and the only way to kill a zombie is to destroy its brain. Rules tell the heroes how to survive. Even when the monsters are not standard fare, the ground rules have to be laid in order for the audience to understand how the game is to be played. The zombies in 28 Days Later were not the normal, slow variety that audiences were used to. However, the filmmakers let us know how people were infected and how to avoid becoming a victim. Without some kind of structure, things can go to Hell.
30 Days of Night takes place in Barrow, Alaska - the Northern most town of the United States. This far North on the globe, the sun takes a month off in Winter. So, if you’re a creature of the night, it’s the perfect place to vacation. Just as the sun gets ready to dive below the horizon, a stranger arrives in town. A mysterious chain of circumstances eliminates every escape route and puts the only apparent law officer in residence, Eben Oleson (Hartnett), on his guard. But, he doesn’t have much time to sit around and ponder the situation, because the town falls under attack. Vampires. Much of the town is slaughtered right away, but a small group of citizens manages to find a hiding place and try to find a way to survive until the sun returns.
30 Days of Night has some interesting costuming and makeup. All of the vampires are in spiffy suits and have very animalistic faces. However, instead of the standard elongated incisors, they have two rows of very sharp teeth. I liked that the vampires didn’t speak English. I’m no linguistics major, but their dialect sounded something akin to Russian. They’ve all got the strength and agility of vampires, but not much in the way of personality. Call me a traditionalist, but I prefer the Anne Rice, romantic, sexy vampires to the creatures in this movie. Rather than seducing their prey, they go about slaughtering and tearing throats, much more like a zombie would. They seem to gain no sustenance from their victims and delight merely in the kill. I don’t really like this strain of vampire. They didn’t carry much of the allure that I’m used to.
One thing that surprised me about 30 Day of Night was the gore. After the first 30 minutes of the film, I was resigned to the possibility that I may see nothing more than a few blood spattered walls. Once the main characters became the last survivors in town, the gore factor improved dramatically. There’s even a scene where one man has his head chopped off with an ax. Usually, it’s only the swing and the screaming that suggest a beheading that we get to see. In this film, the actual chopping in full, gory detail fills the screen. Right on! I wonder how it managed to sustain an R rating.
I have quickly become a fan of Josh Hartnett. He’s a bit more rugged (and fully dressed) than I’ve seen him in other films, but no less tasty. On top of his killer good looks, the boy can act. His female counterpart in 30 Days of Night is Stella, played by Melissa George. Her character is a little irritating at the start of the movie, but soon becomes a valuable part of the group. Most of the other characters in the movie are sort of mundane. There wasn’t any feeling of loss as they dropped off one by one. No particularly stellar performances. Eben’s little brother Jake (Mark Rendall) was annoying and I never felt any sort of real connection between him and the older Oleson.
I would wait for 30 Days of Night to hit the rental shelves before viewing. It isn’t nearly worth the $9.50 or other outrageous sum paid for admission. The gore factor almost redeems this movie, but the lack of any sort of guidelines (aside from an aversion to sunlight) or personality on the part of the villains makes the struggle unimpressive.
Overall Rating: 2 ½
Hottie Rating: 4 (Hartnett, of course)
Alternate Viewing: Bram Stoker’s Dracula
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