| Product: |
30 Days Of Night (DVD) |
| Date: |
29/12/07 (117 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Well acted, dramatic
Disadvantages: Nothing major
I'm not much of a traditional horror film fan - I don't like blood and gore as a rule, and it is so easy to make me jump that is just embarrassing to watch a film in the cinema with me unless you want to be showered with popcorn. Having said that, I'm going to contradict myself completely and say that I do like a good, contemporary vampire movie! 30 Days of Night just happens to be a good contemporary vampire movie.
The film is set in the small town of Barrow, Alaska. The town is in the far north and for thirty days of the year gets no sun at all. This is really where my one of my very few gripes comes in. In the film it is depicted as one day there is sun and the next there is complete darkness, with the sun coming up again in thirty days time which of course is not realistic - in reality days would just get shorter. On the last day of sun, many of the town's inhabitants leave to go to south for a month, and a hundred and fifty so remain. It is on this last day that Sheriff Eben Oleson (a baby faced Josh Hartnett - law enforcement officers are getting increasingly younger on screen, as well as in real life!) finds some burnt mobile phones out in the wilderness, this is followed by all the sled dogs in the town being killed as slowly all communications with the outside world are cut, as is the power, and there appears to be a stranger in town.
With Eben and his estranged wife Stella (Melissa George) seemingly the only remaining figures of authority in town and few people starting to turn up dead, they gather together a few stranded townsfolk in the local diner and make plans to survive these attacks. The residents are unsure of who these extra strong people are that are raiding their town, and it takes a while for them to accept that there really are vampires in their midst (I guess they haven't read any Anne Rice books lately). Of course there are casualties along the way, and there is fun to be had trying to guess who will survive to the end of the movie.
My other minor gripes include the time frame which sees the film jump a week every so often where presumably nothing of note has happened and they are all hiding safely but with seemingly no access to essential resources like fresh water or toilets. But then, I guess you have to suspend your disbelief to some degree if you are going to watch such a movie! What I did like is the depiction of the vampires, led by Danny Huston, with their own language, distinct facial features, super strength and modern, slightly glamourous, yet gothic dress. I also liked the townspeople's reactions to the vampires and how they dealt with them, which seemed realistic and viable in the situation. They tried to avoid falling into the trap of the stereotype mythical vampire and there was no fannying about waving garlic and silver crosses. We pretty much got straight into the serious business of decapitation and murder by snow-mobile.
I think all the cast put in a good performance and were convincing in their roles. At worst I would say Hartnett seemed too young for his part, as he looks about 14, but that aside he was convincing as the sheriff feeling the weight of responsibility for his family and the town on his shoulders. Danny Huston had the build and subtle, but necessary, menace to be a suitably scary vampire leader; Melissa George, Mark Rendall (Eben's younger brother Jake) and Nathaniel Lees (town resident Carter Davies) also put in notable performances.
Overall I would recommend this film to fans of the genre and also to people who might not normally watch such films. The film did get a 15 certificate although there is some gore it is not as obvious and gratuitous as it could have been. It is also not that much of a make-you-jump type film (to be safe I didn't buy any popcorn) but it is thrilling and exciting. The nearest vampire movie I can compare this to is John Carpenter's 'Vampire$' for the action level and the modern day setting. Vampire$ did get a bit silly in places (not least with the title) and they did flap about with silver crosses, and I have to say this is a lot better and well worth a watch.
Summary: Excellent contemporary vampire movie
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