30 Days Of Night: Genuinely Creepy

Rating: 9/10 (15 September 2008)

Vampires, gore and Josh Hartnett. What more could you want? Well, that's what you get in 30 Days of Night. Hartnett stars as Eben, a sheriff living in the town of Barrow, which is annually plunged into complete darkness for 30 days. This is the perfect place for a gang of vampires led by Marlow (Danny Huston) to feed on its inhabitants for the month. Eben and his estranged wife Stella (Melissa George) are forced to fight for their lives along with a group of survivors until sunlight appears again.
Modern horror movies are usually just looking to make you jump but 30 Days of Night is genuinely creepy and scary. It manages to tap into the audience's element of fear and also makes them think of what they would do if in the character's situation, which is most common with zombie films. The scariness of the movie is because of the terrifying, not-your-typical vampires. These aren't the charming, handsome vampires we've seen a thousand times before but are merciless creatures that would tear you apart in a matter of seconds, strangely making them more believable.
30 Days of Night is most definitely not for the weak-of-stomach. Once the vampires appear and start to feed, the gore kicks off with a big bang. The over-the-top amount of blood is necessary but it's shocking at some points, even for a vampire film. The most shockingly violent scene has got to be when a girl vampire gets axed in the neck twice.
All of the cast give excellent performances, especially Hartnett and Huston. I really didn't think that Huston would be able to pull off a menacing vampire leader but after seeing him play the character I realise that he was perfectly cast. I do have one problem with Josh Hartnett and that is he doesn't really convince as a sheriff due to his young age.
Brian Reitzell's music is the perfect score for 30 Days of Night. Consisting of mainly hollow noises, it sounds extraordinarily creepy. Also, the melody in the last scene is great.
My favourite part of the film is the breath-taking aerial shot of the chaos brought by the vampires. Amazingly choreographed, it shows people running, shooting and being killed by the merciless monsters. It's really effective in that it makes you realise how fast they can take over the town.
There's one scene near the end that I felt was very disappointing. I don't want to ruin it for those who haven't seen the movie, but it's the Danny Huston battle sequence. It was pretty pathetic after the rest of the film and I think it could have been a lot better.
Despite that scene, 30 Days of Night is bloody brilliant. I give it 9/10.