113 Minutes of Disappointment

Rating: Null/10 (20 October 2007)

30 Days of Night
113 Minutes of Disappointment
Total- 4.4 out of 10
Sound- 7/10 Vision- 4/10 Design- 5/10 Acting- 3/10 Story- 3/10
I love horror movies in general and specifically I enjoy vampire and zombie movies. From The Lost Boys, to I Was a Teenage Vampire, to Dracula with Bela Lugosi and the Hammer Film version with Christopher Lee, I like vampire movies. When I first saw the trailer for 30 Days of Night, I was excited for it since the premise is very original. After I thought about it, I'm surprised it's not been done in either a short story, novel or a movie previous to the graphic novel in 2002 ever explored this interesting and genre defying concept. I went to the theater excited to see 30 Days of Night. Don't get me wrong- I am more than willing to check my suspension of belief in the theater lobby before a movie- any movie, but if a movie is just too much it ruins the movie for me as a viewer. That's what happened with this movie.
30 Days of Night is probably one of the most disappointing I've seen in a long time, even with its new twist on the clichés of the vampire in films. Considering that David Slade directed Hard Candy, one of the most original movies in years that makes this movie doubly disappointing. Overall, the film has so many holes and ridiculous inconsistencies in the plot and story at the most basic levels that it becomes difficult and tedious to watch. One thing on the check list for me was that all these people are in Barrow, Alaska which is 320 miles north of the Arctic Circle, and you never see anyone's breath at all during the movie? I didn't care about the vampires or for the people trying to survive the vampires since you never really get to know much about either group on any kind of level since there was no real character development. Most of the human characters are little more than stock horror characters waiting for their chance to get killed by the vampires who never speak and never seem to clean up, apart from their leader who speaks in an unknown language. The gore and the violence never stops in this film and that seems to be the point of the film more than anything else. The last third of the film simply was ridiculous and totally unbelievable, leading up to an ending that made me shake my head in disappointment.
Technically, the best part of the movie was the make-up for the vampires which was very impressive and different. I did not like the herky-jerky, shaky hand-held camera which began every time there was an action sequence, that's just awful in general since you really can't see what's happening with the fight since the camera is shaking around. The shaky cam wasn't too bad with this movie, as compared to many other recent movies, but it was just another distraction. It seemed like half of the shots were either close-ups or 3/4 shots and in the beginning there was a bad two shot that just was annoying. There was one interesting but far too short shot of the vampires as they began their attack on the town. The music complemented the film and the sound effects were particularly good- I even heard the Wilhelm a couple times. The design and costuming were fine and were quite passable.
30 Days of Night is a great idea but a slightly below average movie. There were too many problems with the movie for me to just sit down and enjoy it. Wait for the DVD or to see it on Cable if at all. Better yet, watch either version of The Thing, which 30 Days of Night seems to have copied a little from.