Dark times ahead!

Movie Review: 30 Days of Night.

Director: David Slade
Writers: Steve Niles and Stuart Beattie
Date: 19 October 2007 (Canada)
Genre: Horror

Last Wednesday I was faced with the boring prospect of heading home after work, but feeling achy and ill and not having my girlfriend around to comfort me, I decided that I would not go home for a while.

Drinking whilst ill is stupid, so my local hole of debauchery was off the cards. That's how I found myself heading towards the big bright lights of the movie theater.

Staring up at the listings and looking around at the posters I knew that a no brainer horror would be perfect. I wasn't feeling like I could pay attention to a deep and meaningful film, 30 Days of Night was on hand to fulfill my need.

30 Days of Night takes place in a town called Barrow which is the furthest most northern town in Alaska. For 30 days every year the town is thrown into night. This year the residents end up having to deal with far more than endless depression, alcohol being illegal and missing loved ones who have fled to brighter parts of the world.

The film opens with the two town sheriffs discovering footprints and a pile of burnt mobile phones, whilst on their annual shut down. Immediately you know that the extremely handsome Sheriff Eben Oleson (Josh Hartnet) is going to be the focus of this movie. The tradition of giving the hero the job of straight faced delivery of the stupidest one liners is held.

Very soon after the romantic angle is introduced when his separated wife, Stella (Melissa George), firstly just so happens to be in town for work and secondly misses the last plane out.

From here on in, you know, the bitter partnership will obviously be there to save the town from the freakish events that will unfold!

Eben and Stella's first meet occurs whilst arresting a very unfriendly and unwashed stranger who is causing hassle at the diner. After imprisoning him in the cell at the police station (that also seems to double as Eben's home) the stranger continues to be unfriendly by taunting Eben's younger brother and Grandma from behind the bars. Threats such as 'You are all gonna die' and suggestions that they are coming give yet more ominous signals for events ahead.

The murder of every sledge dog in town and events that lead to power and communications being cut quickly unfold and the evil aggressors are finally shown to us. Sporting a mixture of sleek black suits and trendy goth fashion the long nailed, sharp teethed villains get to work by playing with and feeding on the town residents in a very speedy fashion. The remaining humans meet in the diner and hatch an amazingly insightful plan to go hide in a loft until it all blows over.

I won't go into the exact details of what happens next, IMDB exists for this purpose, but I will say that overall it was an enjoyable movie that stuck well to it's genre constraints and presented everything in good a good dosage.

The Vampires themselves were very freaky and given a look which is a mixture between human and pure evil. Intelligence and explanation of their arrival in town was given to and heard only from Marlow, the leader of these evil creatures. Surprisingly he carried the most human traits. He looked like a businessman at the end of a hard week, showing a slight pot belly and a double chin gained from too much lunchtime drinking (of blood, I can only imagine!), he instructs his minions to devour the helpless, hapless townsfolk and gives them moral support! He is pure evil but you find yourself kind of liking him at times , you find yourself imagining that he was probably quite an amicable human. At one point he almost shows compassion, but opts to break the neck of the slim goth 'token' lady vampire, after she is burnt with a UV light, previously used for the nurturing of a small marijuana crop. He instructs the town to be burnt to the ground so that the humans who come back will suspect a 'terrible accident' (this idea shows huge disregard for modern forensics!) and the vampire myth will still be only the stuff of bad dreams. The other vampires all have strange appearance, from overly large mouths to strange tilted eyes or a striking resemblance to Marilyn Manson, if he had spent the last 5 years living only on water and celery. They never really get a chance to speak, however the make up for it in heartless murders, sometimes of townsfolk that you did not expect.

The special effects and cinematography were excellent. An Overhead shot of the devastated town with blood stained snow and vampires feeding and chasing really wowed me. Slightly off colour gave the film the loneliness feel and shaky camera scenes, such as the camera being followed by a vehicle, made you more than aware that evil was lurking. The cuts were well done and gave a chance for both the humans and the vamps to shine through verbally and visually, and they left you to imagine at least some of the slashes, murders and general mayhem.

Josh Hartnet did a better job than I expected but actors such as Mark Boone Junior (playing the big beardy snowplough driver, Beau) and Mark Rendell (as Jake, Eben's little bro) gave great performances. The people interacted with each other in an interesting factor and managed to appear scared enough to make you worry about them.

The end of the film has an almost unexpected twist but sadly there was no after credit revelation. I left the theater with the exact feelings I wanted. Satisfied with the gore and enough plot to hold me but not switch me off. I look forward to the next installment, of what I am sure will end up being, the '.......of Night' franchise.




Have you seen this movie? If so I would love to know what you thought?

Also how did you like my review and how could I have improved it?