Screeching vampires get old....

Rating: 7/10 (20 October 2007)

I have been a "30 days" fan for a while now, as well as a fan of Steve Niles who consistently writes entertaining horror comics; needless to say, I was very much stoked to see this film. Of course though, i did catch wind of some reviews and was forewarned that this may be a vampyrrhic meltdown...and in some cases it was.
Josh Hartnett plays the lead Eben, not Evan, who is having relationship issues with his wife Stella, played by the too pretty to be taken seriously Melissa George, and as they are about to smooth things over, a stranger comes to town with some foreboding news.
It's not soon after this that Eben, his bro, his pothead granny, Stella, and a few other miscreants are running and hiding from a gang of Russian(?) nosferatus.
The blood flows pretty well in the film, as does the action, but there were a few times where I had to laugh and shake my head at some of the cliché plot turns/characters, ex: the old man who misses his dead wife and the worrisome guy who doesn't know how to shut the hell up!!! But the film had some nice direction from the HARD CANDY guy, and Josh Hartnett was actually pretty good. Its kind of fun to watch him lose his sanity.
But the film is saved by Danny Huston. He doesn't say much verbally in the film but his mouth and looks do a lot of talking on their own. He owns the film as the head vamp, with icy dead stares and a menacing gait, but the same cannot can be said about the rest of the bloodsuckers. They twist their heads constantly feeding like seizure victims, always show off their teeth to ill and un-scary effect, and do not stop screeching!!! Ever. Why do vampires need to screech? Ugh.
So all in all, nice cinematography at times(great shot of one bloody town), okay gore, bad ending, and too much screeching. I give it a wicked generous and lucky number sleven.