30 Days Of Night

Year Released: 2007

Date Reviewed: 3/13/08

Genre: Horror/Suspense

Rating: R

Average User Rating:

C-

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Synopsis:

Barrow, Alaska is the northernmost town of the United States.  During the winter, the town has 30 full days where the sun doesn't rise (i.e. - 30 Days of Night).  Having a small population and virtually surrounded by 80 miles of wilderness, it sounds like a perfect feeding ground for vampires.

A stranger stumbles into their town and suddenly creepy things begin to happen.  Cell phones are stolen and destroyed, sled dogs are butchered, etc...  With all the likeability of an enema, Josh Hartnett plays the town sheriff Eban.  Not long after the sun sets, the massacre begins.  Vampires appear and begin slaughtering the townspeople.  Eban and a few others attempt to hide and wait out the 30 days, all the while watching from hidden spots their friends be killed.

The Freak's Rating: D+ : I have always enjoyed vampire movies.  I realize that some people have no interest in them, my wife being one of them, and I can understand it.  A mythical creature who sucks blood and creeps around at night might not be what you want to spend your time and money on.  For me, and luckily some friends, I'm always pumped for a new one to come out.

The Lost Boys, one of my favorite vampire films, was one of my earliest vampire movie loves.  The coolness of a vampire was personified in that film.  Even if you weren't seduced by the allure of becoming a vampire, you at least wanted to fight them in some way.  Along with The Lost Boys, some of my favorite genre pieces are Blade, Underworld and even From Dusk Til Dawn.

To make a good vampire picture there are things you must do.  First, your lead characters have to be likeable on some level.  Second, the vampires must be scary.  Third, some element of style must be added in the cinematography to make the film scary.  Fourth, the deaths must be creative and violent.  Fifth, and most important if you ask me, the story of the film must be creative.  The best films pull off these five steps well.  The worst fail on at least three.

There are many problems with this film.  Though we are told the vampires can smell blood near the end of the film, they can't seem to use that sense to find the hidden survivors.  For some reason planes don't fly in and out of the town during these 30 days, why not?  Roads are shown leading in and out of town, yet no one tries to use them to leave.  Some cell phones are shown that weren't stolen before the vampires arrived, yet seem to vanish once the vampires arrive.  Did people not try to use them to call for help?  Where are these vampires all the time?  It would make sense that they would be constantly searching for survivors, yet much of the film they aren't anywhere to be seen.  They just magically appear when the survivors attempt to run.

I realize that trying to break down a vampire movie for realism isn't the best way to analyze it, so lets dissect it as a film.  The makeup is awful.  Perhaps the HD transfer of the film for Blu Ray made it more obvious, but at some points you could actually see the lines where they stopped painting their faces.  Ridiculous.  There were also scenes where continuity was completed dismissed.  A vampire starts chasing a human and all of a sudden the human gets away, without explanation.  Horrible.  The casting for the film was poor.  Josh Hartnett has no strength as an actor.  He is a character actor at best, not the leading man.  The head vampire wasn't frightening in the least bit.  Inexcusable.  Finally, the writing sucked.  Adding the fact that the lead character needs an inhaler to simply humanize him is obvious, therefore ineffective.  The final scene had potential to be well made and sad, but falls horribly short.  We are never told word one about the vampires.  Vampires do require some character development, otherwise they are just killing people and interest in their uniqueness is gone.

Now, there are two GREAT things about this film, believe it or not.  Hatchets have not been used this way in many years.  Not since Bruce Campbell wielded one in the Evil Dead franchise has a hatchet been used so effectively.  I'm always amazed that there can be three close-up beheadings and an R rating is handed out, yet if there is a sex scene that pushes boundaries it gets an NC-17.  The second rave I have is the cinematography.  Though inconsistent in quality, there is a 20 second clip of this film that has a flyover shot showing the chaos of the town's initial wave of slaughter that is beautifully done.  Sadly, neither of these is worthy of a recommendation but both save it from a failing grade in my book.