30 Days of Night (2007) *Snap Judgement*

Director David Slade
Writers Steve Niles, Stuart Beattie, Brian Nelson
Starring Josh Hartnett, Melissa George, Danny Huston, Ben Foster
Genre Vampire
Tagline They're Coming!
Country

Talk us through it

The Alaskan township of Barrow suffers though one month of total night, that would be 30 days, each year. By night I think Director David Slade is really meaning twilight or something, as this movie sort of isn't set at night really. Regardless it's perpetually dark, or sort of in the glooming, for 30 days which must be a pain in the arse for locals. Things are about to get a whole lot worse when a gang of crazed blood thirsty Vampires decide Barrow is one heck of an inviting smorgasboard. So how's your week been?

Head Vamp Marlow, the bald dude, decides they aren't going to turn anyone and no one is going to be left alive. Which sort of points out sloppy children of the night organisation as a few locals get turned, people managed to hide out from the Vamps, and well there has to be a morning after.

Going up against the Vamps are local sheriff Eben Oleson, his estrange wife Stella Olsen, who gets caught up in affairs due to a road accident, and assorted locals. Where's Buffy when you need her!

Ready to check if something wicked this way comes?

Review

“Mr. and Mrs. Sheriff. So sweet. So helpless against what is coming.” - The Stranger

Guess you all have been wondering if the Jman is slacking off when it comes to reviewing the latest horror flicks hitting cinemas Downunder. Heck there's a Vampire one and where the hell did the review get to? Fear not I was just slightly miffed at general lack of preview tickets to be honest. Seems there was a mix up over at the Magazine place and yours truly missed out. If reading Sue, high priority item needing your personal attention, blame it on your minions. Anywise helpfully Icon decided to send on over a preview copy of the Black Sheep R4 DVD, so not wanting to hold a grudge, hehehehehe, I decided to blow the cobwebs off the old wallet and sling $15 at the movie as the trailer looked pretty impressive. So did I get my money's worth?

David Slade opens his follow up to the excellent Hard Candy (2006) with one of the great prologue pieces in modern horror. We get some unknown dude, picking it was “the stranger” character, trudging over snow covered hilltops. The first surprise is one honking big Icebreaker behind him, that's a ship Rusty, not moving in the Alaskan ice flows. For quite sometime I was confused about the ship, it didn't seem to make any sort of rational sense in the context of the rest of the movie. Think I finally figured it out while sitting down to knock over this review, hey people are slow where I come from. The Stranger and the legion of the Undead arrived aboard the ship, Sheriff Oleson later in the movie is at pains to point out there is no known route The Stranger could have taken to arrive in Barrow. Why is the ship dead in the water? - a freaking huge reference to the “Demeter”, you know that Russian ship which Dracula uses to get to England in Bran Stoker's penny dreadful. You just can't beat this sort of stuff for getting a movie out of the station in good order.

The second money shot Director Slade lays down is our unknown dude topping a hill and looking down on the township of Barrow, caught in the endless night with all lights blazing. I simply knew I was in good hands with this sort of stuff opening out a movie, the Director had me on side, and I was munching my popcorn and ready to get into the groove.

Slade then spends a good part of the movie's running time introducing his characters, giving us enough of their backgrounds to get us behind them, and slowly raising things in terms of the horror stakes. No pun intended friends and next Holloween victims. I was digging this like a wild bourbon night down the Cross. Through the middle part of 30 Days Slade really ramps things; look for some fly copter overhead shoots as the carnage hits warp factor nine. There's a number of tension filled scenes and the action drips off the spatula like the grease residual from a MacDonald's hamburger. I was having a total ball, and was well primed for the final act. Don't ask me what happened to the final third as I have no friggin idea. Director Slade has got his balls into the air, and then proceeds to let every one of them plummet to earth. Ham fisted doesn't even coming close to describing it. I spent the final 30 minutes of run time checking my watch in the vain hope the end credits would roll soon. Though to give the Director and Writers their due, a pretty decent resolution to the whole fandango. What was with that final scene? Melodramatic BS at it's worse if I had to be truthful.

There's some wonderful individual elements that help elevate 30 Days from sinking into being simply a gore filled couple of hours of mayhem. I mentioned this one doesn't hold back on the claret right? You get the real feeling of the protagonists' fear and desperation throughout, Slade nails that aspect of the movie with some fine development scenes. The Vampires themselves transcend the sub genre. Normally in a Vamp movie we're talking seductive suave creatures with a sort of allure going down. Not in the hands of Director Slade and his writers. Vampires are blood thirsty monsters who don't give a crap about personal hygiene, screech and hit the blood frenzy like maniacs, and by heck don't mind tormenting their victims. If a slight bit of torture ain't your thing then you are going to be in trouble watching this movie. A plus for me was the Vamps having their own language. Wrap it all up in Slade's visuals and you are in for one heck of a surprising ride to the blood bank.

Slightly on the irksome side were a few scenes where Slade went post MTV on my arse for no apparent reason. You know, shaky cam looking like someone with poor eye hand coordination has grabbed the camera, and rapid action where you have no chance of working out what you have just seen. Slade keeps it to a minimum but really it should have hit the cutting room floor rather than showing up in the cinema release. Adding to the down side was a slight bit of plot foreshadow, thank you Enz, that you can spot a mile off. Hmmm huge grinding machine, wonder if a Vamp will take a tumble into it at some stage, yeap there we go.

On the writing side of the blood chalice we get the occasional clunky line that stands out like dog balls on an Alaskan night. But overall things are pretty sweet, you get the real feeling of the character's confusion about just what the hell is going down. When the stuff hits the proverbial fan the humans are playing catch up and have no idea of what they are dealing with. In one of those delicious spins on the U.S gun culture, Slade has everyone reaching for their fire arm only to discover it isn't going to help. That good old axe is used to perfection however. Should also add best use of vehicle destruction on the forces of chaos since that combine harvester took center stage in Evil Aliens.

Josh Hartnett (Sheriff Eben Oleson) goes low key and intense, it was working for me. Fine performance as the dude holding it all together. Aussie Melissa George (Stella Olsen), turning into quite the scream queen, didn't have much to work with but gave it her best shot. Problematic accent at the start of the flick for mine. Danny Huston (Marlow) went demented as the head vampire, if needing a psycho killer for your next slasher epic give his agent a call. And Ben Foster (The Stranger) stole every scene he appeared in.

Brian Rietzell went for a rumbling score that matched what Director Slade was trying to achieve with the visuals. Impressive and worth the price of admission alone.

Summary Execution

For about 70% of 30 Days Director Slade had me jiving to his beat with the visuals, overall concepts, and that awesome helicopter shot taking in main street as the mayhem erupts. However I did find the other 30% slightly disappointing; the last scene, some post MTV shenanigans, and what was with the jerky camera work in places? There's a sort of unevenness to the over all movie. Slade is coy with the gore through the first act and looks like he is shooting for a PG13 rating, for the rest of the movie he locks and loads. Didn't quite work for me as the end credits rolled. So I got about $10 worth of my $15, and was pretty happy with life as the end credits rolled. Not the best horror flick of the year, but by no means the worse. Will definitely catch Slade's next flick on the balance of 30 Days.

Sony went to the well with this one and to date have achieved $38.5 in North America and $11 from the various International markets. The movie is into it's second week Downunder with a last reported total gross of $1.4. The Production budget was a cool $30 so Sony are going to see a profit in the near future and possibly will green light a sequel. Slight note on the Australian market, darkness has fallen and we are in the midst of a horror rampage of biblical proportions down Hoyts. A new one is hitting screens on a weekly basis, not a good thing for overall results on individual movies.

Sort of a recommendation on 30 Days there's enough to get down and dirty with, but the movie does have it's flaws. If you like vamp or even werewolf flicks then you are going to want to catch up with this bad boy, if not then you can probably hold off till the DVD hits shelves. Slade lets the blood flow in 30 Days suck some of that up.

ScaryMinds Rates this movie as ...

  Excellent Vampire flick that could have been a hell of a lot better.