A few plot flaws and a poor portrayal of the passing of time are a slight hindurance !
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
30 DAYS OF NIGHT
The northern most town in the United States - Barrow, Alaska - is preparing for perpetual darkness. Every year, as the winter sun sets over the isolated settlement, a period of 30 days of night reigns over the snow covered backdrop. But as the days of night are due to begin strange and bizarre circumstances are afoot. Sheriff Eben Oleson (Josh Hartnett), carrying out his daily rounds, locates a cluster of residents' mobile phones charred and burned in a fire on the outskirts of town; one local finds all his huskies butchered in the evening twilight; and a stranger (Ben Foster) at the town diner is intent on causing trouble. It's only when the settlements power is cut off and the screaming starts to pierce the night air that the townsfolk realise they're merely lunch for a pack of merciless vampires who have popped over to feast on them for the next month...
Vampires seem to be the movie producer's horror icon of choice. Always available for a fresh riff on the mythology of bloodsuckers, it has resulted in a multitude of variations on the titular beast. From the gothic and sexual overtones of Interview With a Vampire and Bram Stoker's Dracula; to comic book indulgence with Blade; and those with an austere sense of cool and modernity (if 'cool' and 'the eighties' can be used in the same sentence) in The Lost Boys; the vampire is a creature that continually sheds its skin to fit comfortably within new surroundings. Rarely, however, has the vampire been portrayed in a thoroughly terrifying manner, which makes 30 Days of Night somewhat refreshing. Here, we have a group of vampires with real bite (ahem) and menace to provide a brutally brilliant, yet tense and terrifying horror film.
Merciless is the key word here, for what director David Slade has achieved with 30 Days of Night is a return to 70's styled horror themes where the monsters are truly monstrous, with no saving graces. There is a sense of psychotic glee from the vamps during the maelstrom of carnage - all big joker styled smiles on their pasty white and blood drenched faces as they toy with victims before feeding. Slade has also instilled a degree of terror by making these creatures of the night virtually unstoppable. Crosses and stakes through the heart are about as effective as a napalmed orchard here, with vampires regenerating instantaneously after having their heads blown clean off to revel in immediate retribution. Blink and you'll miss them quick and inhumanely strong; the survivors of the onslaught can only hide and pray for the return of sunlight. By creating vampires of real menace, most brilliantly portrayed in Danny Huston's snarling and intelligent pack leader, half the battle for providing a nerve-jangling film is complete.
Importantly, whilst there is a fair amount of gore, 30 Days of Night stays the right side of the increasingly prevalent 'torture porn' that makes up the majority of modern horrors. There are a couple of grisly scenes - an axe full in the face (a superbly executed and unexpected sequence) is not for the squeamish - but whereas the likes of Hostel and the increasingly crass Saw franchise celebrate in such excess at the expense of genuine scares, Slade delivers on those much required frights.
Firstly, the claustrophobic setting and the contrast between the snowy pastures and the oppressive darkness are superbly realised, providing an eerie atmosphere that never loses its all-pervading sense of doom. Added to this are genuine jump out of your seat moments. Rather than building up a scene to an obvious 'you can see it coming a mile away' jolt, characters are simply snatched and torn apart during the middle of dialogue driven moments. Indeed, it's nice to be in the presence of a horror flick that provides the unexpected and doesn't take its audience for granted. And then there are edge of your seat sequences to provide you with the willies. A lone girl walking about the desolated town shouting for help whilst the main group of survivors watch on, unable to assist knowing the Vampires are tempting them to come outside is a tension sapping ordeal. Marvellous!
Think The Descent and you're just about there regarding the somewhat chilling nature of 30 Days of Night. But what makes this equally on par with said film are a couple of scenes of real balls out quality. The frenzied opening attack that wipes out most of Barrow is an outstanding sequence. Ineffective gunshots, people being ripped apart and chilling screams piercing the darkness are all part of a beautifully composed birds eye tracking shot of the chaos routed on the townsfolk. Likewise, one character's pay back on the vampire threat, utilising a snow plough with chainsaw attachment and plenty of bear traps, is rollicking good fun (the influence of Sam Raimi perhaps - he is the producer after all), as is a suitably fitting and novel finale.
However, what stops 30 Days of Night from becoming an instant classic are a few palpable and obvious flaws. The representation of the 30 days is poorly conceived on screen. A couple of flashes of 'Day 7' and the like just aren't enough to convince the passing of time. Additionally, it's unlikely the vampires wouldn't be able to locate the hiding places of the survivors, which makes the plotting somewhat tenuous at best. Still, what it does do well - the horror and gore - is masterful and elevates 30 Days of Night beyond mere issues with the plotting.
Despite this, there are certainly some aspects to 30 Days of Night that near enough make it a revelatory movie. Vampires are scary again, something not to be laughed at, and whilst it owes more than a casual nod to John Carpenter's The Thing, this is perhaps what makes it such an entertaining little horror flick. Take a well-known classic, extract that which made it memorable and stir into a new template for the modern audience. Vampires, The Thing style, and you know what, it works. The claustrophobic setting is gloriously observed, it features a decent ensemble cast (well the excellent Mark Boone Junior appears in a cracking role), has memorable gore laden sequences (axe in face may be grim but it won't be easily forgotten), an understated ending and most importantly, turns Josh Hartnett into a quasi-Kurt Russell. Seriously, Eben Oleson has the same old-school hero qualities as R. J MacReady where he uses brains rather than brawn and is forced, by virtue of his post in Barrow, to become an accidental hero. From having to do some fairly unsavoury things - running about the town to distract the vamps, lopping off a good friends head to prevent them from becoming a bloodsucker - the emotional edge also delivered by Hartnett ensures that despite his transformation into an axe-wielding bad arse he remains entirely human. A great turn indeed!
So, if you haven't really got the message, fans of horror films that have genuine chilling moments, an oppressive atmosphere and a steady dose of gore really should look into 30 Days of Night. It's the film John Carpenter's Vampires should have been, is devoid of the silly supernatural elements usually associated with such creatures and makes the typical horror movie guff from Hollywood look like typical horror movie guff. That it's also slickly made and downright entertaining is a fitting bonus. Well worth clambering over the hill for...
Overall - The best horror flick since The Descent and a cracking movie in itself, simply for making vampires ferociously scary again and for near enough turning Josh Hartnett into Kurt Russell. Not bad for someone who starred in the god-awful Pearl Harbour, eh?
Director: David Slade
Screenplay: Steve Niles, Stuart Beattie & Brian Nelson (Based on the comic book by Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith)
Cast:
Josh Hartnett... Sheriff Eben Oleson Melissa George... Stella Oleson Danny Huston... Marlow Ben Foster... The Stranger Mark Boone Junior... Beau Brower Mark Rendall... Jake Oleson Amber Sainsbury... Denise Manu Bennett... Deputy Billy Kitka Megan Franich... Iris Joel Tobeck... Doug Hertz Elizabeth Hawthorne... Lucy Ikos Nathaniel Lees... Carter Davies Craig Hall... Wilson Bulosan Chic Littlewood ... Issac Bulosan Peter Feeney ... John Riis
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