30 Days of Mayhem

Rating: 9/10 (4 November 2013)

30 Days of Night An isolated town in Alaska is preparing for the annual "30 Days of Night" when the sun is below the horizon for an entire month. The film begins by focusing on Eben Oleson (Josh Hartnett) the town's sheriff investigating a series of crimes which all seemed to be attempts to cut off the town's communication and means of travel. Following these events, a large gang of brutal, ruthless vampires began to strategically massacre the town. Eben and his estranged wife Stella (Melissa George) lead a small group of survivors to hide from the vampires until the sun comes back up. After almost a month of hiding Eben realizes the only way for the survivors to live is to fight back and it becomes a struggle of good versus evil.
The major theme of the movie is good versus evil, which is displayed through symbolic imagery and camera angles, specifically to emphasize light and dark images in the cinematography. This is very similar to the movie 28 days later, in which symbolic imagery and camera angles are also used to represent a struggle between good versus evil.
Very specific camera angles and black/white imagery symbolize evil throughout the film. The main symbol of this evil is the 30 days of night which represents the 30 days of evil they experience. The scenes leading up to the 30 days of night make it seem like a very ominous time of year as people rush to leave before they miss the last flight out of town for the month and wide camera angles are used to show how isolated the area they are in actually is. Even though the camera angles make the audience feel very secluded, the scenes in the film are bright day scenes with lots of white snow, which represents the good spirits of the people and once the night comes all of the scenes are very shadowy and eerie. Once it is dark, the camera angle is in such a way that rooms appear dim and shadowy, which sets the mood for the film. More symbolic imagery is utilized with the vampires, who are all dressed in black clothing and their eyes are black, which is not a usual trait of vampires in most films today. It makes them seem much more sinister than the traditional vampire of today's films, who are romanticized and have human characteristics. When a person is turned, they remain themselves for a while until the black completely covers their eyes and they turn into evil, losing any goodness they once had. The darkness in the scenes and imagery surrounding these creatures make them out to be pure evil. The townspeople who are there have hope because of the snow- an element they feel they overcome and embrace, so the white snow becomes a symbol of hope. They choose to move between buildings during the whiteouts, as their cover, but these scenes of white are very symbolic of the good trying to overcome the evil or darkness. One of the most memorable scenes from the film was the overhead shot of the vampires brutally attacking the people of the town. The camera angle in this part of the film displays all of the killing and death happening. It shows how large scale the attack is, as 30 or so vampires massacre the town and quickly the once white snow becomes covered in red, symbolizing loss of purity and the death this evil will bring. Once the daylight returns, it goes back to wide camera angles and bright white snow, now that the evil and darkness have been defeated. This film is a more dramatic version of the traditional good versus evil theme we see in most vampire films, focusing on symbolic imagery and camera angles to demonstrated how much more evil this particular version of a vampire is.