30 Days of Night review by The Grim Ringler
30 Days of NightI can’t say I am a big fan of vampire movies. It’s not that these are bad films, really, but that I get bored with the way vampires are portrayed. I just don’t like the talky vampires that are more sex-appeal than scare-factor. Ah, but there are, from time to time, a few films that embrace the darker side of mythical beasties, and 30 DAYS is just such a film. If you’re in the mood for a quick and dirty romp, a film version of a one night stand, then darn it, you’re in for a treat.
For thirty days a year, Barrow, Alaska falls into night. For that month it is as if the town is on vacation and waiting for the sun to return. The film begins with a stranger entering the town from a ship in the waters nearby, and as soon as he enters the darkness falls upon the town. The stranger destroys the cell phones of the townspeople, cuts off their communications, and cuts off a mode of transport, and when the darkness comes, he is prepared for the coming of his masters. The stranger is a man who serves a clan of vampires who have migrated to this town because of their month of darkness, believing this to be a way to easily pick off the remaining residents. As soon as the vampires strike the town falls into chaos. The people don’t know who these killers are, where they come from, or what they want, but they know that, from what they can tell, they cannot be killed. The responsibility of protecting the people who remain in the town falls to the sheriff, who takes refuge with his estranged wife, younger brother, and several townspeople. All they can do, they decide, is to wait out the month and hope they can survive. Things are never as easy as just that though and as the week passes, the pressure mounts and it becomes apparent that things won’t be as easy as just passing the month, they will have to fight, somehow, some way, they have to fight if they are going to live.
30 DAYS is a beautifully grim movie. Shot in dark colors and with a heavy blue tone, there is a palpable feeling of dread and isolation the fills the film. When someone bleeds, that red lights the screen up and becomes even more ghoulish on the mouths and faces of the vampires. Reminiscent of The Thing, this is about isolated people surviving in the face of extreme conditions, against a horrible foe. The vampires are made all the more menacing because of the way they move, scuttling along rooftops and hiding in the shadows, and their very foreignness adds the xenophobia inherent in most of us. This is a film with gorgeous cinematography, and the use of the snow, the dark, and the isolation create some beautiful set pieces. The acting is good, though reserved and low key. This truly is the child of THE THING. You don’t get a lot of facts about where the vampires come from, or what their intentions are but the film doesn’t really care about those issues. This film is about surviving through thirty nightmarish days. The big issue I had with the film was the way the action was filmed. The action is all done with handheld cameras and with blurring effects (perhaps just the way it is filmed, with the camera always in motion) and this style just doesn’t work for me. In an action film, or martial arts film you can get away with a roving camera to add to the intensity but with a horror film, and this is a horror film, you want to use those moments of violence as a way to break the silence of the suspense. But if you are too obvious, too over the top, you lose the power of the moment. It’s not as shocking or horrifying for an audience if everything is a blur.
30 DAYS is a very scary, very intense horror film. It is a film with no irony, and which takes its subject seriously. Based on a comic book, it would appear that this is one of the growing numbers of adaptations done right. A fantastic film and great for winter.
8 out of 10 Jackasses