30 Days of Night is the latest entry into the storied vampire sub-genre. Adapted from a graphic novel, the film tries to establish its own edginess by re-imaging the vampire figure, a la Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later zombies, and putting a new restriction on the characters the vampires terrorize in the film: this haunted house is hundreds of miles wide, with no hope for escape.
In Barrow, Alaska, vampires eagerly descend when the sun sets for 30 days, as happens in the Arctic Circle. It’s up to a team of locals to fend off the slaughter until the sun’s rays can come to the rescue.
David Slade, the latest music video director turned Hollywood film director, makes his feature debut with 30 Days of Night, and brings a deft visual touch. He creates a dark, stylish and oddly claustrophobic environment, and he saturates the screen with a muted color panel- allowing the viewer to feel the cold.
Josh Harnett, playing the town’s heroic sheriff (Interesting Fact: Alaska does not have sheriffs: they have state troopers. This is also inaccurate in the graphic novel and really bothers me for some unusual reason), is blasé and his estranged wife, played by relative newcomer Melissa George, offers very little as well. The two real stars are Ben Foster in a cameo role and Danny Huston as the head vampire. Huston, who has made a career out of playing off-the-wall supporting roles, is legitimately menacing- the audience in the theatre actually screamed at him during appropriate moments.
The technical aspects of the film are where the money and work seemed to go. The cinematography, make up and special effects are very finely crafted. The music is unobtrusive and dissonant, a must for horror films.
But there are noticeable problems: The dialogue is not terribly crisp and leaves the viewers incapable of completely identifying with the townspeople. The script, written by Steve Niles and Stuart Beattie (Who has achieved a lifetime free pass in my book because of Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl and Collateral), also creates more questions in the plot than it answers. And the film’s final scene will incite laughter from many people in the theatre, no matter what arresting visuals preceded it.
A valiant effort from Slade, who tries to emulate David Fincher to a varying degree of success, in crafting 30 Days of Night for the big screen. It’s just a shame that the film’s villainous undead have more life than Hartnett’s usual blank-eyed stare.
When to See it: On DVD
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