Reviews of 30 Days of Night

They're Coming!

Posted : 11 months ago on 9 December 2008 08:12 (A review of 30 Days of Night)

The thought of not seeing sunlight for 30 days really freaks me out, not in a scary way, just a lack of faith for lighting. Imagining that in Alaska; isolated and slowly being picked off by vampires in the most grapihc of ways. Using the veins and other major sources of bloodflow as straws while surrounded by darkness really gave me an interest to see this movie, but i waited til it came out on video because of a great deal of mixed reviews. Upon seeing it, i formed my own opinion and it was a good one; seeing how i myself am not into vampire movies. Along with the movie "Near Dark", I appriciated the gore in this flick, not so much the sucking of the blood and the vampire languaege; but the blood itself. Including quite a few swings of that axe Sheriff Eben Oleson had glued to his hand, the conflicts of human survival from these bloodsuckers of the night really made me think... Could I kill someone that close to me if they happened to turn and want to drain my blood? Absofreakinglutley. I could see how there were mixed reviews for this movie; some more of a fan of the graphic novel, and some people just are not a fan of newer movies. Form your own opinion, I myself thought it had the shock potential to keep your attention and the bloodshed like a horror movie should.

[upon finding a bag of pot at the sheriff's station]
Sheriff Eben Oleson: What the hell is that?
Jake Oleson: It's pot. It helps her with her cancer.
Helen Munson: Didn't tell you I got a little greenhouse at home. Didn't want you arresting me.
Sheriff Eben Oleson: Now I know why you wanted to go live with grandma.

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30 Days of Fright Night!

Posted : 11 months, 2 weeks ago on 26 November 2008 06:42 (A review of 30 Days of Night)

''We'll sleep in shifts. We'll ration our food, and then we'll figure out the next step. We have two advantages - we know this town, and we know the cold. We live here for a reason; because nobody else can.''

After an Alaskan town is plunged into darkness for a month, it is attacked by a bloodthirsty gang of vampires.

Josh Hartnett: Sheriff Eben Oleson

30 Days of Night took 70 days to film, as scheduled. What dazzling results we get from the end product.
Writer Steve Niles originally conceived and pitched the story as a film for some years, but it was turned down by studios and thus reworked as a comic book. Eventually one of the producers who had rejected the original pitch worked on the movie adaptation.
According to the DVD commentary, Josh Hartnett was sick with mono for two weeks of film. During that two week period, he had to fly to Venice, London, New York and Los Angeles for the premieres of The Black Dahlia(2006).
Josh Hartnett did all his own stunts in 30 Days, and Melissa George did most of Stella's driving.
The scenes where characters are driving on the road out of town at night were actually shot during the day while most of the night shots were actually shot during the day, using the day-for-night process.

So as night descends upon the people of 30 Days of Night, for its thirty day bewitching over a small Alaskan outpost village, an assortment of mutated superhuman strong vampiric beings come to visit, a feast for the senses, in David Slade's adaptation of the graphic novel, 30 Days of Night. Ever since the sophisticated Interview with the Vampire, these beings of the darkness have been depicted as pale, handsome and seductively dangerous. Recently the idea of becoming a vampire is like becoming a goth or emo type. In 30 Days of Night the vampires are nameless, cunning, animal-like blood hunters and far from mindless creatures. Finally, vampires are shown in film as monstrous merciless enemies, to be feared and to be avoided at all costs, for your survival.

Sheriff Eben Oleson: Hell of a day.
The Stranger: Just you wait.

30 Days Of Night snares you from its opening shot of a lone man walking through a desolate snow covered landscape. Director Slade wisely avoids many of the trappings of recent horror films. Sure, there are the prerequisite quick cuts in the chaotic scenes of carnage, but there are also haunting wide-angled shots and one expertly executed bird's-eye-view crane shot when the vampires first begin dragging people out of their houses into the street. While successfully adapting some of the great imagery from the graphic novel, Slade is fully aware that this is still a film and shies away from using too much CGI and overly stylized lighting and effects that would detract from the sense of realism necessary in a far-fetched horror film.

Slade also makes good use of his cast. Danny Huston is perfectly menacing and merciless in equal measure as the vampires enigmatic leader. Josh Hartnett, who is typically miscast sometimes and emotionless, actually fits well the role of a wooden Sheriff of a remote Alaskan town. Ben Foster, who always overacts, is used effectively here in a bit role as an over-the-top Reinfield-like character who ushers the vampires' arrival in town. Melissa George is pretty and sympathetic as Hartnett's estranged wife. Like many serious horror films of recent memory, the film attempts some character development that is often TV Soap standard but mostly never overplays its hand.

''When man meets a force he can't destroy, he destroys himself. What a plague you are.''

Aside from being superiorly directed and better acted than your run-of-the-mill horror flick, 30 Days of Night is also fantastically gory. Decapitation appreciators will especially rejoice at proceedings. Refreshing, too, is the way it takes its gore and action dead seriously. There are no silly one-liners or graphic sight gags. The characters are deeply affected by what they witness and what they have to do to survive. This is pure horror, and it's relentless.
Yes, there are some missteps with the film's pacing and some huge leaps of logic in the amount of time that passes between events. However, for the shear originality of its central conceit, the intensity of the gore, and the haunting quality of many of its signature shots, David Slade's 30 Days of Night is the most exhilarating horror film since Danny Boyle's original 28 Days Later and the best vampire film since Francis Ford Coppola delivered Bram Stoker's Dracula back in 1992.

Overall 30 Days of Night is not just about brutal vampire killing and massacring, but about sacrifice and protecting loved ones regardless of the dangers. Particularly powerful scenes continually arise as the struggling survivors are forced to cede to unbearable situations to ensure the survival of others. Eben too must make difficult choices to provide leadership for the group and to preserve his fragile relationship with his wife Stella. While it's difficult to judge authentic reactions to a vampire outbreak, the characters all perform honestly and emotionally to any event that is thrown at them.

From beheading to animal violence, to the slaughter of children, to maniacal misuse of a snow plow, 30 Days of Night immerses you in blood and thrilling suspense. A few minutes into the film we are immersed in quick, gritty violence and intensity and it never lets up until the climactic conclusion. Never has a film been so white-knuckle thrilling and jaw-dropping shocking from start to finish. As a horror film, 30 Days of Night succeeds admirably due to its fast-paced, stunning visuals, and explosive action. Plus the ending isn't a typical Hollywood drenched happy ending, it's a more realistic venture that hits home and stays faithful to the Novel it's based upon.

''There is no escape. No hope. Only hunger and pain.''

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30 Days of Scare

Posted : 1 year ago on 31 October 2008 08:05 (A review of 30 Days of Night)

Everything about the zombies in this film is eerie. Their ugly faces, hungry insides, and their sudden attack really gave me the scare! And the protagonist died in the end: isn't that grand? I hope there'll be more sequels of this.

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30 Days of Night

Posted : 1 year, 3 months ago on 10 August 2008 02:04 (A review of 30 Days of Night)

Well I was all prepared for something horribly crappy but instead I was pleasantly surprised. It’s not exactly a stellar story line with a stellar cast but I thoroughly enjoyed this even with the fakeness of it, the ridiculous amount of blood and the fact that the vampires seemed to have fresh blood on them at all times.
I loved the look of the vampires with their gnarly teeth and their fingernails, lovely details in my opinion. Plus the acting wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be either, another thing I wasn’t expecting.
Sure it wasn’t scary, it didn’t make me jump, cringe or shock me in anyway but for some reason I still found it entertaining, especially the ending. I think the ending was the maker or breaker for me and I wonder if a sequel is a possibility.


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100 Minutes of Crap!

Posted : 1 year, 4 months ago on 19 June 2008 08:36 (A review of 30 Days of Night)

The Stranger: "Check on Gus. Board the windows. Try to hide. They're coming. This time they're gonna take me with them... honor me. Yeah. For all that I have done."
Sheriff Eben Oleson: "They? Who are they?"

In Hollywood, adapting graphic novels for the big screen will always yield some fascinating results. In recent years, filmmakers have achieved impressive success with films like Sin City and 300: graphic novels transferred into visually astounding films. The best part with most films using a graphic novel as its foundation is that even if you aren't familiar with the source material, there is room to help you find your footing. Not only that, they are great additions to the respective genre.

30 Days of Night is a visually astounding vampire horror flick. But only visually...in terms of script this is golden crap! This film cannot get close to matching the good preceding films based on graphic novels. Now, look, if you're expecting sheer brilliance like Nosferatu or the original Bela Lugosi Dracula then you've come to the wrong place. 30 Days of Night is not a groundbreaking portion of the horror genre by any stretch of the imagination: this is purely and simply a Hollywood blockbuster hack-job!

The film is set in an isolated Alaskan town that is plunged into darkness for an entire month each year. Most of the town's population vacate the area to escape the darkness: only the boldest remain to suffer through 30 days of night. We are soon introduced to the central character: Sheriff Eben Oleson (Hartnett). When the sun sinks below the horizon to signify the commencement of the 30 days of night, it seems like business as usual. However, a stranger (Foster) wanders into the town speaking crazy talk and begins frightening the locals. Before you know it, the small town is now under siege by a horde of blood-thirsty vampires who establish their new hunting ground. In a short period of time, most of the town's population has fallen prey to the vampires. In a manner quite similar to most zombie/vampire/creature flicks, a small group of survivors band together in the hope of escaping the malicious creatures.

The material that the filmmakers had to work with is simply killer - almost to the point that one must wonder why a film like this has never been tackled before. The originality of the graphic novel now preserved on film is something simply incredible.

Also, because the film is based on a graphic novel we must expect brilliance in the visuals. The filmmakers deliver in that department. The visual effects are nothing short of amazing! This is the sort of stuff we can expect when a movie is filmed in New Zealand, and then the post-production period is spent with Peter Jackson's crew! I also adored the blood effects. Loads of people are killed in explicit, creative ways with geysers of blood staining the surrounding area. Whenever a character wanders into a dark room and discovers puddles of blood, it looks outstanding. These blood and prosthetic effects cannot be faulted...and the visual style is a marvel to behold! On top of this, the design for the vampires is outstanding!

Okay, now that I've spent some time outlining the strengths...time to move onto the weaknesses. Take a seat folks, as this will take a while. With such killer material, I must wonder why the script is so appalling! All the characters are cardboard and one-dimensional. Each character is as conventional as the next! The characters as a whole are clichéd to death! There's the hero, the one that gives them away, the dumb characters who disagree with the group and get themselves killed, the diversions...it's giving me a headache just comprehending it all! I was embarrassed to see so many stereotypes emerging. Also, with a group of characters being bundled together for a month you'd expect it to bring out the best and worst in them and to flesh out back stories. If done right, this could equal some awesome results. Instead there is no character development and nothing to care about...no interesting dialogue apart from stating the blooming obvious, but the worst has yet to come: we don't even see the characters mentally coping with the situation. Instead we see the events of one day, then cut to about two weeks later and see more events...and quite frankly, from the stupidity exhibited by these characters I wonder how they even survived those days that the filmmakers didn't show. How did they manage to evade the vampires?!

30 Days of Night naturally succumbs to Hollywood's worst recent obsession: shaky cam. The choppy editing doesn't help this either. Instead of creating suspense and tension, there's gore and some poorly framed shots that seem like a monkey was actually holding the camera. The first "scare" of the movie is a blurred figure moving around in the distance while the audio flares. Then there's just a body count rise and frankly, there isn't any point! The vampires spew nonsensical gibberish with subtitles that confirm the vampire speech is approximately as dumb and contrived as the dialogue delivered in English.

30 Days of Night is thousands of examples of how not to make a movie all rolled into one. The only redeeming features are the visual style and the satisfying amount of blood and gore. This is the sole reason why someone would want to approach this movie: to see some blood being splattered around...and it looks spectacular! I truly wish that a better bunch of screen-writers were brought aboard to tackle the subject matter. As I said before, the source material and concept are utterly killer. There was lots of potential for this to be the best vampire flick since Nosferatu. Unfortunately, this is just another Hollywood hack-job that I would expect to see from Uwe Boll. If you're bored and need to get high on gore, go rent this. It's vastly disappointing but will keep the "gore instead of suspense" horror buffs happy for sure. A bona fide wasted opportunity!

4.0/10

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This is a great horror film.

Posted : 1 year, 8 months ago on 27 February 2008 07:25 (A review of 30 Days of Night)

"30 Days Of Night", is a great horror film. Josh Hartnett, did great, in his role, as "Eben", and the plot was entertaining. There was just one thing wrong with this film, it was rather slow. I mean, I caught myself waiting for more action and exciting scenes. Other than that, This film is great.

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30 Days of Night

Posted : 1 year, 8 months ago on 27 February 2008 05:18 (A review of 30 Days of Night)

This was one of the better horror movies I have seen for quite a while now. Quite brutal, lots of blood, and a decent story...as well as decent acting. I really liked it, and will definitely watch it again.

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Visually appealing

Posted : 1 year, 9 months ago on 9 February 2008 12:56 (A review of 30 Days of Night)

This movie is very visually appealing, but for some reason I don't think they carried a consistant tone throughout the movie. The exposition is weak, which I can forgive in a survival horror story; however, I think the acting was dreadful from most of the actors playing humans.

It did have a few nice touches other than the photography. I thought the sound design was excellent. The act of what can only be thought of as compassion by the lead vampire was a nice touch as well.

Worth checking out on video if you're bored.

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wow

Posted : 2 years ago on 21 October 2007 10:42 (A review of 30 Days of Night)

I didn't think Josh Hartnett would pull off the role of Eben, but he did. It was a great movie, although some parts were funny, this was the best horror movie I've seen in a long time. I just wish they'd stuck to the comic a little more. Mostly towards the end and where the stranger was concerned.

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