Horror Movie A Day: 30 Days of Night

 

Today’s film is 30 Days of Night, The film pitch that became a comic that became a movie. Its a great modern vampire horror story with a twist. In all myth and legend Vampire are severely affected by Sunlight. Either they are severely weakened or destroyed when Dawn breaks. But what if there is no sunlight? In 30 Days of Night, renegade vamps tired of hiding in the shadows and feeding on whatever comes their way, decide to lay siege to a Northern Alaskan town where there is no Sun for you guessed it, 30 days.  The film plays out between your usually human squabbles, the towns sheriff is going through a bad breakup with the towns fire marshal. He doesn’t seem to get along with his little brother and everyone else is wondering why the fire marshal is leaving the sheriff. The Vampires don’t give a crap about any of this, and neither do we, the human are just cattle for them to feed on and for us to watch fall one by one with no emotional attachment to them.  The town’s initial destruction is great fun, But then the movie settles into your typical Zombie film, when they are all laid up in an attic, like the people in The Diary of Anne Frank, the film then collapses. There’s no real plot anymore beyond survival. Everyone’s get sick of the old guy’s whining and the macho men keep butting heads. The real danger isn't the vampire horde waiting for them outside but the stupidity of men inside. Even under life threatening situations we can’t get along. Where we should be as one, their tiny community starts to break down, and the survivors start to drop like flies. It’s been done many times before, so these situations they find themselves in are just asinine. You start to wonder if the people in these types of horror movies have EVER seen a horror movie. Because their fate is always the same.

The movie not only has its share of fright, but fast paced action too, with chase scenes full of destruction and mayhem. it’s beautifully shot in a remote Alaskan location most of us will never have the chance of seeing.  I liked movies that bring you something new, even in this day and age.  The movie works on many levels but it also fails on a few too. Mainly we don’t give a rat’s ass about any of the characters.  The leads are just too damn pretty to sympathize for. Josh Hartnett who usually delivers okay performances, just seems weak as the heartbroken sheriff. So your wife is leaving you, boohoo your Josh Hartnet, there's plenty of hot Eskimo babes to console you, I assure you of that my friend. And the fire marshal leaving him? Oh so you're tired of him being  withdrawn and not feeling a real connection. He’s a damned small town sheriff in Alaska. He went there to get away from people, cut him some slack. He probably is incapable of connecting to other humans. The rest of the supporting cast offers no comfort. They are interchangeable with every horror movie cast ever made. The most interesting characters are the Vampires, and they don’t even speak English. They just Grunt, shriek and speak in some ancient language. But they at least show a full range of emotions, from disgust and contempt to sorrow and vengeance.

I definitely recommend this movie. The vampires aren’t pretty, they are grotesque, immoral and they kill with impunity. There’s plenty of action and gore. The film brings us fresh ideas into Vampire movies, such as the town with no daylight, and the ending where one character willingly changes into  Vampire to put an end to the madness. There’s even a great scene with a child vampire feeding on corpses. Any Vampire and action fans will like this movie despite its flaws. The film also look fantastic in BluRay Hi-Def the colors are vibrant and pop out at you. Especially the red blood against the white snow.  

I give it Two and a Half Trade paperbacks.