a gripping, brutal, bloody and very good vampire movie

Rating: 8/10 (2 November 2007)

30 Days Of Night, is based on the graphic novel by Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith. It has a brilliant premise : a town that suffers a month without sun is attacked by vampires. Can anyone survive the month alive....? The movie is directed by David Slade, who made the impressive Hard Candy, and produced by Sam Raimi. I don't know how faithful it is to the graphic novel, but the movie is very good indeed.
One of the reasons for this, is that it does something that very few movies do recently....build up the tension at the start slowly, by allowing the characters a chance to develop before the action kicks in. Once the vampires do unleash their reign of terror, the movie turns brutal and bloody as the vampires rip, bite, tear people apart for food. This movie makes the creatures fearsome and terrifying, which they haven't been in movies for a while. I think the last truly scary vampires were in Near Dark and this lot are a match for them.
Led by Danny Huston, they at times are almost playing with their 'food'as they hunt them down, with a brutal scene where a lone woman screams for help while being followed by the vampires, while the survivors hide in buildings unable or unwilling to save her.
There is a fantastic set-piece where from an above shot, the camera moves over the town as the humans and vampires battle it out. Slade handles the action well, although at times it does seem over-edited during the attacks.
The survivors, led by Josh Hartnett and Melissa George are not your typical group. Led by the town sheriff and a fire marshal, they are simply a bunch of normal people hiding and praying they can last the month. In a typical movie they'd probably all turn into fearless killers, but not here.
The acting by the whole cast is impressive, with special mention to Danny Huston as the vampire leader, and Ben Foster almost unrecognizable as a stranger in town to cause disruption within the town to prepare for the vampires arrival.
The language of the vampires is well thought-out. Not English, but something different entirely.
If there is a criticism to make of the movie, it's that for obvious reasons it skips days as the movie progresses. As a result, it does feel like there are scenes missing. Also, although there are some good set-pieces within the movie (inculding a terrific one with a little girl), you would like to have seen more of the carnage inflicted on the town. As it is, it's mostly off-screen leaving it to sounds of gunshots and screams, although this does add to the tension and atmosphere.
The ending too is a slight let down, but to give credit it gets away with it by not giving you the Hollywood ending you'd expect, but a proper and slightly haunting end.
There's not much humour in the movie, which isn't surprising considering what's going on which is a rarity these days.
This is a serious horror movie, one of the best this year and certainly the best vampire movie for a long time.