Throughly entertaining horror film with Vampires.

Rating: 7/10 (22 January 2008)

30 Days of Night is set in the (very) small town of Barrow in Alaska which has the distinction of being the northern most town in the U.S., it is isolated in 80 miles of road-less wilderness which is cut off & plunged into total darkness all day every winter for thirty days straight. During this time the population of Barrow drops from 563 to 152 as most of the townspeople head to somewhere more hospitable for the winter, the few that do stay this particular winter are in for a rough time as a group of blood drinking Vampire like creatures descend on the town in order to kill everyone & drink their blood. A small group of assorted survivors lead by Sheriff Eben Olesen (Josh Hartnett) & his wife Stella (Melissa George) must try to hide & make it through the 30 days of night until helps arrives in the form of the sun...
This New Zealand & American co-production was directed by David Slade & this horror film did pretty good box-office back in 2007 & I have to say I rather liked it, I didn't think it was any sort of classic but I definitely liked it. The script by Steve Niles, Stuart Beattie & Brian Nelson was based on the Dark Horse graphic novel of the same name by Niles & is a pretty grim 'base under siege' type horror thriller that is best described as a cross between The Thing (1982) & John Carpenter's Vampires (1998) (coincidently both of which were directed by John Carpenter which means absolutely nothing, come to think of it it's not to dissimilar to Ghosts of Mars (2001) also directed by Carpenter...) as it's set in a freezing snow covered isolated location & features hordes of blood drinking vampires, it certainly takes itself very seriously & there isn't a light hearted moment in it but it is quite often very intense & I did like it's conviction. The character's are slightly better than what one would expect, both Sheriff Oleson & his wife have personality which makes the downbeat ending a bit of a bummer. I mean after watching a fairly grim & intense Vampire flick for 100 odd minutes featuring plenty of death & destruction I would have liked a bit more cheerful ending but that's just me. There's enough action & gore to satisfy hardened horror addicts although not all aspects of the story are as good as I would have liked. For instance who were the Vampires? Where did they come from? If it was blood they were after why did they kill people in such a way all their blood was splattered over the wall or floor? Why did that main Vampire at the end fight Sheriff Oleson? Why did all the other Vampires just stand there & watch as their leader was killed? Why didn't they then kill Oleson?
Director Slade does a very good job here & films with style in full 2:35:1 widescreen, some of the opening shots of the Alaskan horizon as the sun sets over the snow covered landscape looks great & he thankfully keeps his camera nice & steady so we can actually see the carnage. I loved the aerial shot from above the town as the camera moved over the main street as the vampires attack, there are huge red splodges of blood everywhere, fires burning & Vampires attacking people all viewed in one continuous cool looking shot from the sky! The special effects are impressive, both the CGI computer variety & the more traditional prosthetic make-up effects sort. The Vampire creatures look very good & quite intimidating, I love how they walk around with old blood stains from their victims on their faces & clothes & don't bother to wash it off. There's some good gore here as well, there is plenty of blood splatter with chopped off heads, decapitations, slashed & bitten out throats, gunshot wounds including Vampires having their heads literally shot off, blood drinking & a real crowd pleasing moment when a huge trench is used to carve up several Vampires as well as a cool scene at the end when a Vampire falls into a masher & is suitably mashed. The film has a good atmosphere & a real sense of isolation, there's some nice jump out of your seat moments too.
With a supposed budget of about $32,000,000 30 Days of Night is well made with high production values. Although set entirely within the snow covered confines of Alaska in the U.S. 30 Days of Night was in fact filmed entirely in New Zealand. The acting is good from all involved, in case any football fans from the UK are wondering the main Vampire played by Ben Foster is not the same Ben Foster who is currently one of Manchester United's goalkeepers! Credit where credit is due Melissa George is nice & easy on the eye too.
30 Days of Night is a really good horror thriller that I enjoyed a lot, the story isn't quite as tight as I would have liked (how did that kid who popped up at the end survive for so long?) but it makes for good late night entertainment which might even give you a few scares. Followed by the made-for-TV mini-series 30 Days of Night: Blood Trails (2007).