30 Days of Night
Tuesday, 06 Nov 2007 12:59
Vampiric vengeance in new horror 30 Days of Night.
Directed by David Slade, out in cinemas November 1st, starring Josh Hartnett, Melissa George and Danny Huston, running time 113 minutes.
In a nutshell...
Blood-suckers feast upon town people
What's it all about?
The tiny town of Barrow in Alaska, USA, faces a month without natural light every year. Probably not too big a deal most years; perhaps the odd person gets vitamin D deficiency, but easy to keep a lid on.
This winter will definitely be remembered in Barrow – as soon as the month-long night arrives, vicious razor-toothed creatures leap out of the night with a penchant for the red stuff.
The local sheriff rounds up the survivors of the initial onslaught and the quest of living through the darkness, cold and the slaughter begins.
Who's in it?
Josh Hartnett stars as the local sheriff Eben Oleson, who struggles to keep the remains of his town alive. Josh is, well, 'Josh', not acting so badly as to attract serious woodlice, but definitely inspiring hilarity more often than chilling the audience to the bone with the desperateness of the situation. It all unravels on the very first line: "Strange... " he muses staring off into the distance. Good lord Josh, you weren't actually that far away from stroking a bearded chin, straight from the Actor's Handbook of Really Obvious Facial Expressions.
Melissa George does perfectly well as Eben's estranged wife – nothing scintillating, but completely satisfactory for an ex-Home and Away star.
Danny Huston revels in what is obviously the premium role as Marlow (well, who wouldn't want to play the Vampire Pack Leader?). Huston easily manages to be both disturbingly violent and eerie, obviously glorying in the sticky stuff and yet glad not to be in the voluminous cape.
As an example...
Kirsten Toomey (face-to-face with Marlow): "Please no. Please no, God... "
Marlow: (shakes head) "No God."
Likelihood of a trip to the Oscars
About as likely as Hostel 2 being nominated – zero.
But then there are films made for awards and films made for fans and for fun, and 30 Days definitely belongs to the latter. Critics will probably only enthuse if they happen to belong to the second group themselves.
What the others say
"With 30 Days Of Night, Slade has laid the groundwork for a true vampire renaissance. His is a new breed of vampire, one that cares nothing for crosses or garlic and will drag you screaming from your house whether you invite them in or not." – Empire
"Sure, the corn syrup is chucked about, but few of the action spasms really get the blood racing. There's more pulse in the stillness. And while you'll feel pity for the protagonists, they could use a charisma infusion." – Total Film
So is it any good?
The graphic novel roots can clearly be seen throughout 30 Days – the stark bareness of the endless snow, the dark slashes of shadow encroaching upon it, and the shocking scars of crimson splattered liberally about simply scream stylish horror.
The vampire design is the greatest success of this film; forget seductive neck-prickers wafting about in traditional frocks, these claret-cravers are brutal, savage and almost alien. Heavily influenced by Nosferatu, these vampires have jagged teeth filling their mouths, long curved nails, dead black shark-eyes and twisted, almost bat-like, features. Unnaturally agile and immensely strong, the pack leap from victim to victim, picking off the most vital and strongest community members first.
But there is more than the merest hint of movies such as Pitch Black, The Thing and 28 Days Later about 30 Days, all of which succeed with much greater satisfaction than anything that this vamp flick attempts. In particular, the scene with the young girl lapping blood from a dying victim was strongly reminiscent of a boy infected with the rage virus, although the latter was far more horrifying.
Some of the horror devices are genuinely disturbing, with the distressed shrieks and gurgles of other unfortunate town-folk offscreen particularly unsettling. But most are below-par for the modern horror, even including the world-worn venturing-outside-to-investigate-the-strange-noise scenario.
However, the style of 30 Days simply cannot overhaul the many errors within. The month-long night certainly adds something extra to the vampire-horror-subgenre, but it feels almost wasted as the timeline jerkily misses out huge chunks, jumping several days at a time. More annoyingly, the ending is dismally disappointing – the limited amount of back-story was no issue until the climax demanded some feeling behind it, a problem that could have easily been avoided by a no-tears no-witnesses conclusion.
30 Days of Night is a visually slick addition to the vampire flick – but, as with so many horror films, it has plenty of blood but lacks any guts.
5/10
Melanie Green
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