[MOVIE] 30 Days of Night

[Emperor]

30 Days of Night (Sony/Ghost House Pictures)

Starring Josh Hartnett, Melissa George, Danny Huston, Ben Foster, Mark Boone Junior

Directed by David Slade (Hard Candy); Written by Steve Niles (original creator of the comic book), Stuart Beattie (Derailed, Collateral), Brian Nelson (Hard Candy)

Genre: Horror, Thriller, Action, Graphic Novel

Rated R

 

Plot Summary: Every year, the town of Barrow, Alaska experiences a month without sunlight, and this year, a band of savage vampires show up to feed on everyone, forcing the town's sheriff Eben Oleson (Josh Hartnett), his estranged wife Stella (Melissa George) and the townspeople to fight back.

 

Review:

 

Summary:

Commendable for its daring, unconventional vision of vampires, but its erratic pacing makes it a jarring experience that's hard to adjust to, at least on first viewing.

 

Story:

Every year, the town of Barrow, Alaska experiences a sunless month in complete darkness and this year, a group of ancient vampires led by the ruthless Marlow (Danny Huston) have come to town with plans to prey and feed on the townspeople, forcing the sheriff Eben Oleson (Josh Hartnett) and his estranged wife Stella (Michelle George) to band together.

 

Analysis:

The original comic book "30 Days of Night" by Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith was such a revelation in that it helped revive the horror comics that were so prominent in the '50s and the '70s while also doing something different with the all-too-common world of vampires. This Sam Raimi produced movie based on the comic continues the reinvention of the horror mainstays thanks to the vision of "Hard Candy" director David Slade, but the end results may be too daring and unconventional for their own good.

 

The story opens and closes almost exactly like the comic book, but it's the stuff in the middle that's so obviously different. In this case, Eben and Stella are separated, likely driven apart by the pressures of the area's isolation and the annual month-long darkness, but Stella's attempt to leave Barrow before that occurs are cut short by an accident, just as odd circumstances start happening, cutting the town off from the outside even further. As gruesomely mutilated bodies start turning up, Eben realizes something is happening and it's not long before the town is attacked by bloodthirsty vampires who have 30 days without sunlight for a non-stop feeding frenzy.

 

Slade takes a lot of chances with his decisions and one can commend him for being so daring when exploring the often cliché-driven vampire oeuvre, but so many of the ideas are so foreign and unconventional that it might turn off those who have gotten used to certain ideas of vampires. Much of the film's focus is put on the characters and their relationships, which is honorable but not particularly interesting, because it slows the movie down and puts too much into the character developments, which is odd to fault when you consider how many horror movies have absolutely none. The best comparison for the movie might be a Pixies song where it's quiet, quiet and then all of a sudden, there's a really LOUD part and then it's quiet some more. Except that Pixies weren't exactly commercially viable when they first appeared, and it took some time for their audience to find them. The same can be said for Slade's vision of vampires that scream and shriek instead of talking when they attack their victims. Most of them look like the creatures from the comics, but they don't feel quite the same when moving in such rapid motion, creating a similar problem to the one diehard zombie fans had with the fast-moving zombies of "28 Days Later" and Zack Snyder's "Dawn of the Dead."

 

Granted, it would be nearly impossible to recreate Templesmith's abstract art that literally looks like red paint was splattered on the page even if one were to use the CG techniques perfected to bring Frank Miller's artwork to the screen. That said, the most effective shots are the bird's eye views of the desolate, snow-covered town with large splotches of red where people used to be, and some of the better scenes are the ones that have been taken verbatim from the comic book.

 

There are some great set pieces between the vampire attacks and a climactic battle between Eben and the vampire leader Marlow, a great scenery-chewing performance by Danny Huston, looking very dapper in his blood-covered suit as he waxes poetic and philosophical in some foreign vampire language, strange in its contrast to the shrieking and grunting of the other vampires. Ben Foster is also suitably loony as a harbinger to the coming violence, but sadly, he disappears from the story leaving you wanting more of him. Josh Hartnett and Melissa George are better than your average horror movie heroes, if you can even call them that, but neither of them add very much to keep things interesting when they're not fighting vampires.

 

The amount of wanton splatterific gore is commendable for this type of studio movie, although some of it looks cheap, especially when done "in camera", reminding us of the cheesier gore effects used by producer Raimi in his early movies. The movie isn't particularly scary either, because you're always expecting vampires to jump out at every turn, especially after an extended quiet passage. Other odd decisions include the omission of all musical scoring in favor of loud sound effects and bizarre ambiences designed by the talented Brian Reitzell, who tends to be very musical-minded.

 

A bigger problem is the lack of any feeling that time is passing over the course of the movie, although we're supposed to believe that an entire month has passed from beginning to end. The characters don't seem to go through that much of a change in that course of time, either physically or emotionally--or they somehow find a way to shower and shave despite being trapped in hiding for most of that time--and that greatly takes away from any realism that Slade has tried to create in this fantastical situation. Also, anyone who can't figure out what's going to happen with that "Utilidor", a machine with giant interlocking gears, from the second it's introduced, probably doesn't understand foreshadowing.

 

With three writers involved, including creator Steve Niles, the movie seems too much like a conglomeration of three different ideas, but much of Niles' personality is gone from the movie with the dialogue being somewhat trite, and his distinctive narration being completely removed. Then again, the movie's ending, also taken directly from the graphic novel, is a lovely scene that epitomizes what made the original source material so special, but it's just not as satisfying due to some of the changes made beforehand.

 

Why I Should See It: If you like vampires, this offers some savage bloodthirsty ones like you've never seen before.

Why Not: They might be too unconventional for those looking for vampires along the lines of any of the Draculas over the years.

Projections: $19 to 22 million opening weekend and $55 million total

[Cadsuane]

I'm not one for horror flicks, and won't go see this one, but I had to comment on the trailers for this that have been playing on tv. The first time I saw one, the end of it shhowed a very scared human female facing a male vampire. She whispers "please, God!" to which the vampire replies, in a creepy, accented, creature-like voice, "No God." I shuddered.

[The Outsider]

I'm not one for horror flicks, and won't go see this one, but I had to comment on the trailers for this that have been playing on tv. The first time I saw one, the end of it shhowed a very scared human female facing a male vampire. She whispers "please, God!" to which the vampire replies, in a creepy, accented, creature-like voice, "No God." I shuddered.

 

That bit looks awesome...

[Mendorah]

I'm hoping to see this this weekend.  I've never read the comic, so I have nothing to be disappointed by if the story's different.  But I Lurve Vampires, so I'm sure I enjoy it.  I wish my friend Ash was here to see it with me.  This is right up her alley too.

[reyler]

Like Caddy, I'm not much of a horror person, but I still might see this. The trailers have had me pretty hyped. And I love that "No God" moment  ;D At the very least it's something that hasn't been done before. Not exactly, anyway. And the genre is in dire need of that, especially in light of the constant stream of low-end horror remakes lately.

[Emperor]

More reviews pooring in... none great... but also not that bad either:

 

Some may contain a few spoilers so read at your own risk...

 

With remakes and needless sequels, a good horror flick can be hard to find. But when a film takes a new spin on old material, it can be very refreshing.

 

30 Days of Night made a promise to breathe life into the undead genre with its fresh approach to the tired and exploited vampire legend.

 

As a small town in Alaska is preparing for 30 days without sun, a group of vampires on the verge of extinction gets the dinner table ready for a month long buffet.

 

A small town sheriff (Josh Hartnett), his teenage brother (Mark Rendall), and estranged wife (Melissa George) must save as many townspeople as possible and survive until sunrise. The vampires have survived this long, because no one believes they exist. So not only are they going to feed on hundreds, they have to destroy all the evidence that they were ever there.

 

Now that’s a good concept!

 

Sadly, it is not enough. A film needs more than concept to achieve greatness. It needs guidance and a clear vision of the world and circumstance it wants to create.

 

Unfortunately, that is what it lacks.

 

Coming off the critical success of 2005’s Hard Candy, David Slade directs a script adapted by Stuart Beattie, Brian Nelson and Steve Niles, from the graphic novel penned by Niles and inked by Ben Templesmith.

 

The film takes too many cues from Sin City and 300. Those films were designed to play like an extension from their original medium. Night was not. It wants us to be terrified for the humans, by attempting character development and its more naturalistic approach to vampires. However, the ‘artistic’ shots of blood in the snow, headless hanging bodies and business-suit clad feral vampires achieve the opposite effect by throwing us out of the theater and into a comic book. Making matters worse, those shots are sparsely placed sporadically throughout, and peppered with scenes of supposed realism to try and get us not just back into the theater, but into the ‘real’ world. It confuses and strips the tension away when different thematic tools create vastly differing viewpoints.

 

However, there are moments that truly terrify and it does a great job of creating claustrophobia in such an open environment. Through gorgeous wide shots of the open barren landscape, you know the townsfolk have nowhere to go and little chance surviving a day, let alone 30.

 

There was nothing notable about the performances, but the gore was disturbing in all the right ways and had me doing the ‘ants-in-the-pants’ theater dance. Even though the comic book look hindered the film as a whole, it looked gorgeous.

 

Right about the time I was wrestling with whether the disjointed themes were going to ruin the film for me, the climax made up my mind.

 

Unfortunately, fantasy, not horror or reality won the battle of the themes. Everything it had spent 2 hours building up was thrown away with a derivative plot device seen in almost every other vampire film ever made. This made its attempt at originality a gigantic waste of time and ruined what could’ve been a great spin on the vampire genre.

[Yveva]

Well, we went to see it last night, and it was... ok.  I like movies that draw me in, that make me suspend my disbelief and make me enjoy the story.  I really liked the premise of this movie, vampires in the arctic?  Why hadn't anyone thought of that before?!  And that part of the movie worked to me, the vampires deciding to hide the evidence they had been there, and making plans to return the following year, brilliant.  But there were too many things that pushed me away from suspending my disbelief. 

 

First, there was light everywhere.  Yeah, I know they have to figure out how to light scenes, but why ont have some moonlight/starlight/aurora borealis outside?  Why make such a big deal about the streetlights being cut and then have the outdoor scenes lit almost as bright as day?  And if people are hiding, why light their hiding place brightly?  They could have made it much creepier with dimmer lighting, or if they had shielded the light before looking out the window.  Also, Pait, you can correct me on this, but when the sun comes back isn't there a hint of light around the horizon at first, and then a day or so later actual dawn? And that dawn doesn't have the sun way up in the sky, they made the returning light seem like flicking a switch.

 

Second, I loved that the vampires were fast and smart.  I enjoy it when people play with the monster genre.  I liked that they worked as a team.  BUT, every now and then they acted so incredibly stupid.  When there are obvious discrepancies it pushes me right out of following a story.

 

Third, the passing of time, the cold, etc are elements that could have been used very effectively, but they just weren't

[Paityr]

Also, Pait, you can correct me on this, but when the sun comes back isn't there a hint of light around the horizon at first, and then a day or so later actual dawn? And that dawn doesn't have the sun way up in the sky, they made the returning light seem like flicking a switch.

 

You are correct. About a week before the sun actually rises, you start to see some brightening of the southern horizon around noon (sort of like the morning twilight). Then, on the day the sun does actually rise, it pokes up above the horizon, but just barely, for about 15 minutes, then sets again. It takes a good month or so before the sun actually rises UP into the sky (instead of sideways along the horizon).

 

First, there was light everywhere.  Yeah, I know they have to figure out how to light scenes, but why ont have some moonlight/starlight/aurora borealis outside?  Why make such a big deal about the streetlights being cut and then have the outdoor scenes lit almost as bright as day?  And if people are hiding, why light their hiding place brightly?  They could have made it much creepier with dimmer lighting, or if they had shielded the light before looking out the window. 

 

Well, I've actually been to Barrow, and I have to say there are lights and light poles everywhere. And it's a pretty big town (for Alaska bush standards) of about 6,000 people, so that means there's a LOT of light. But you're right, Yv. If they cut the power, it should be totally dark, unless there's a full moon lighting up the snow, which can make it incredibly bright. But from your comment it looks like that wasn't the case.

 

I will probably never see this movie (I'm kind of over the whole vampire movie thing), but I do have one question. Were there any Native Alaskans at ALL in the movie? Every actor I've seen in the previews was white. And in Barrow, about 95% of the population is Inupiaq (and that's a low estimate).

[Yveva]

well, in the movie they were claiming it was a town of 350 people, and down to a hundred something during the month of no light.  And it went from a full daylight "normal" day straight to dark, and then snapped back to light.  It was really irksome!  I think there were two or so people who looked as though they might be native alaskan. 

 

Also, they made a big deal about the power being cut and only having generator power left, the cell phones were mysteriously burnt for several people and then the cell tower was taken out the sled dogs were killed, but no one said anything about the trucks or snowmobiles being dismantled... why kill the dogs then? (by knife, the vampies didn't eat them)

 

It was an ok movie, if people were watching it I wouldn't leave the room or anything, I just feel like it didn't totally life up to it's potential (it had a lot of potential imho).

[Mendorah]

I see your point on the light stuff, Yveva.  I didn't think about that when I was watching the movie at all though.  In fact, the thing that bothered me the most about the movie didn't hit me until this morning.  There is No Way that the passage of time portrayed on that screen was 30 days.  Just No Way!  It was more believable as maybe a week or a week and a half.  Oh, and the "no God" part in the movie, wasn't NEAR as creepy as in the trailer.  In fact, I think the whole trailer was darkened a bit more than the actual movie.

 

But other than that, I loved the movie.  However, I went specifically to see vamps tear people up and those were some pretty cool vamps.  I really liked what they did with them.  I loved their scream, I loved their movement, I loved the subtle yet strange way they distorted their faces, I loved how they remained covered in blood, een  on their messy faces during the whole movie, I loved the leader and wish I had a clue what language he was speaking if it even IS a real language.  And the beheading scene and the demise of the vampire leader were worth the price of the ticket to me, honestly.