Good to see nasty vampires back, but it's a shame about the predictability

Rating: 5/10 (20 January 2013)

Having heard plenty of good buzz about this vampire film, I sat down to watch the DVD with high expectations. I was left both satisfied and disappointed. Disappointed, because it in no way breaks any kind of new ground. Stylistically it's heavily indebted to THE THING, conjuring up the same kind of icy wasteland backdrop and eerie isolation that goes along with that.
The vampire action is gory indeed, full of arterial sprays and bloodied fangs, along with severed heads galore, but that's all stuff that's way old. This even reminded me of the BLADE films, especially the ending of the first Wesley Snipes movie and the ending of this one. Kudos to the filmmakers for bringing back vampires as they should be – feral, ferocious, and frightening – but other than that, 30 DAYS OF NIGHT is simply more of the same.
What it does have is an interesting cast. I usually dislike Josh Hartnett, but here he's given the chance to show warmth as the town sheriff who leads the fight back against the vampire menace. Melissa George is a lovely actress, and she shines as Hartnett's ex. The villains are led by a creepy Danny Huston and Ben Foster, delivering another of his psychopathic roles as the mysterious Stranger. The special effects are, for the most part, very good, with only the occasional lapse into cheesy CGI acting as a detriment.
The pacing is spot on and the segment where the characters are holed up inside a hidden antic is well handled, with plenty of suspense. But I didn't care much for the 'twist' ending, which made little sense, and other elements just seem to be thrown in to shock the viewer (the little-girl-vampire reminded me of the zombie baby in the DAWN OF THE DEAD remake: just there to be unpleasant). It's a fun throwaway film that doesn't outstay its welcome, but would I want to watch it again? I don't think so.