30 Buckets of Fake Blood and CGI Splatter

Rating: 3/10 (2 October 2008)

Around its time of release and another while after that, "30 Days of Night" was an extremely popular topic of conversation around Internet film forums and it also received quite a bit of media attention as well as favorable reviews from eminent critics. Now, barely a year later, nobody hardly even mentions it anymore; so I guess we're not dealing with an instant cult classic after all. Personally I wasn't in such a hurry to watch it on the big screen or even straight away when it came out on rental, because I'm not a big supporter of vampire movies and I'm definitely not too keen on computer-engineered splatter effects, which this large-budgeted movie was obviously stuffed with. But hey, allegedly this was the most original and innovating vampire movie in decades, with a noteworthy cast and mouth-watering gore effects, so if you're a fan of the genre you do have to see it sooner or later eventually. I'm the first to admit the rudimentary concept actually does have a lot of potential and actually is innovating! Vampires invading the most Northern little city in Alaska where the sun sets for 30 days straight? Awesome! How come nobody ever thought that before? It's so simple, yet so effective and rich in possibilities. The problem, however, is that director David Slade and his three-headed team of scriptwriters don't make proper use of even one third of all the great potential here! The opening sequences are still terrific, with a human ally of the vampires destroying all means of communication on the last day of sunlight in order to make sure there's absolutely no escape. The actual invasion is reasonably exciting as well, but it goes wrong immediately after that. Approximately 95% of the town's population gets exterminated during the first day of night, but are we then really supposed to believe that the handful of remaining survivors remain entrenched in an attic for 29 more days and with a posse of bloodthirsty vampires outside? After the virulent first half hour, director Slade hasn't got any script material left to work with and thus the story suddenly leaps from day 7 onto day 18 and forward to day 27, completely ruining the solely unique gimmick this movie has. Believe it or not, but once the vampires invaded the town of Barrow, "30 Days of Night" honestly turns into a largely dull and monotonous B-movie. The rest of the film is rather weak as well. The vampires easily rank amongst the least menacing ones I've ever seen. They wear cheap-looking suits (!), screech like teenage Goth-girls and speak in a ridiculous and sissy Romanian dialect. Especially the lead bloodsucker (Danny Huston) evokes more chuckles than frights, mainly because none of the things he says make any sense. The blood and gore effects might appear extreme and incredibly exciting if you're an overanxious horror-rookie, but they're not likely to impress anyone else. It's really just a whole lot of CGI splatter but in the end we don't even witness one half-decent moment of genuine carnage. Although he started out in the genre (with "Halloween H²O" and "The Faculty"), Josh Hartnett now obviously feels too good to star in a horror flick and his performance is in proportion. Ben Foster depicts a terrific and genuinely uncanny character, but sadly his role is too brief. "30 Days of Night" isn't worth checking out but  like I said  you're going to end up watch it, anyway. Just do yourself a favor and keep your expectations low.