A fantastic adaptation

Rating: 9/10 (4 November 2007)

Like many nerdy comic fans i am always worried when Hollywood casts its gaze upon one of my favourite titles however I'm glad to say with 30 DAYS OF NIGHT I needn't have been. For one thing the screenplay came from creator Steve Niles himself and David Slade's direction captures the bleakness of Barrow perfectly along with the animalistic nature of the vamps. Because the original comic isn't very long it was necessary to add a lot of characters and completely original scenes thankfully all of these are fantastic and add to the drama of the film rather than detract from it- won't spoil it but I felt there were some really tense emotional scenes for a horror flick that I think enhanced the already good story a lot. Because it's such a good adaptation I hope they don't ruin it with a poor sequel based on one of the later comics. While the other important 30 DAYS comics DARK DAYS and RETURN TO BARROW feature great story lines and are quite creative I can't imagine them being translated very well into film. Anyway I enjoyed the movie immensely and for my money it is one of the best comic adaptations in years. Purists may not enjoy a lot of the changes but those people should loosen up and enjoy one of the darkest mainstream horror movies in years. As for the ending I wondered all the way through how well it would be done.....just one word for that... AWESOME.