Not For The Romantic Dracula Fan

Rating: 7/10 (25 October 2007)

Looking for love from the Ol' Toothy Guy? Want desirable vampires that women can't resist? If that's your take on Dracula, you best look elsewhere. This is a true, blood-and-guts, horror film, so that's what awaits you when you pay for your cinema ticket for 30 DAYS OF NIGHT.
Director David Slade of HARD CANDY fame is becoming known for the psychological aspects of his films. The aforementioned Hard Candy was shockingly excellent, with the story turning the tables again and again on a pedophiliac relationship that made viewers squirm in their seats.
And here, again, Slade shows us that he can jump into an old legend and put a new spin on things. Vampire movies are a dime-a-dozen, most of them severely romanticizing the toothy villains. But Slade gives them no sway. In 30 Days Of Night they are brutal, strong, extremely old, and after only one thing: fresh meat to satiate their insatiable hunger.
The unfortunate victims of their bloodthirst is the Alaskan town of Barrow. Anyone who knows anything about geography and oil knows that Barrow is at the "top of the world," cradled on the edge of the arctic ocean where the Alaskan pipeline is the dominant feature. It also means that this little shanty-ish town is well above the arctic circle, a place where the sun disappears entirely for many winter weeks. Sounds like a buffet brunch for the ancient fanged cohorts, no? I mean, they don't have to worry about the sun, and there are hundreds of these weak humans running around in the dark. What's not to love! Problems quickly become evident as Sheriff Eben Oleson (Josh Hartnett, LUCKY NUMBER SLEVIN) runs into a sudden rash of crimes. All of the cell phones in town are discovered burned on a hillside. Every last sled dog is found murdered. The sole helicopter in town is found dismantled and destroyed. And a lone Stranger (Ben Foster, HOSTAGE) wanders into town with gloom and doom surrounding him. This Stranger runs afoul of the local constabulary and is rushed to a jail cell ...which is when things really start going downhill for the people of Barrow.
The last day of sun comes and goes, and a Russian ship sits idly in a hidden bay. Off this ship comes pure trouble. With no need to hide from the sun, these ancient vampires are free to roam and kill at their leisure. The people of Barrow are easy pickings.
During all of the ensuing chaos, Sheriff Oleson is also battling a separation from his wife Stella (Melissa George, DARK CITY), who is forced to stay in Barrow after having an unfortunate car accident. It is her, her husband, and a small band of survivors who are the final holdouts within Barrow. Discovering that the only way to kill these vampires is to behead them, the Sheriff and his shrinking townspeople are forced to do the unthinkable, sometimes to friends who have been "turned" into vampires.
The ending is a bit sappy but filmed pretty well. The psychological aspects of it are impressive considering what the Sheriff is forced to do in order to save the town and the wife he now loves again (who needs marriage counseling when you've got human-devouring bloodsuckers to worry about?) But this film isn't without its problems. From the very beginning, it is obvious that the film makers spent zero time researching how the sun sets above the arctic circle (it doesn't come straight down onto the horizon but slants into it at an extreme angle). And the sun doesn't stay up for long during the last day before it vanishes. It's probably up just a few moments before it sinks below the horizon again and is NEVER up very high in the sky.
The acting is so-so with Hartnett pulling in an okay lead performance. Ben Foster as "The Stranger" is creepily menacing and filthy, enough to send a few shivers up your spine. The vampires themselves were the most interesting, their communication often being more of a clicking sound than words, and some of them looking almost neanderthal-ish, giving them a very ancient appearance.
But the film is good in that it doesn't spoonfeed the audience any information. We're not exactly sure how old these vampires are, nor exactly how many are left (although it appears these are "the last of their kind"). We're also never privy to the Sheriff and his wife's marital difficulties, it being internalized by the characters and only felt via them (which was quite refreshing ...we didn't need to know this information, only how they were going to survive for a month against these monsters).
This is a gore-fest, too, with plenty of crimson for the hardcore horror fan. But it doesn't go over the top. Only one beheading is truly shown and it was a powerful scene meant to shock you. And, like the movie, it's an assault on your senses. A good assault, that is.