Review of 30 Days of Night (2007) by Jonathan B — 09 Apr 2011

Oh man, bought this because I have a simple vampire fascination. I know, most vampire movies are lame as all hell, poorly written/acted and a lot are straight to dvd cliche ridden drivel.

This one had a slight and effective twist. Yes, this entire town is above the arctic circle and has to endure 30 days of straight darkness. The vampires then come down to feed (rather haphazardly and without care) to their hearts content.

That was one thing that bothered me, the vampires seemed to waste a lot of food within the first few minutes. All I could think in the overhead blood pillage scene ,where we see quite a few of the townspeople getting decimated, was man....how are they gonna have enough people to last a whole month? Turns out they didn't really have to, the dang movie skipped from Day 7 to Day 27...uh really. 20 days, of what? thats like 67% of the title...we get nothing.

A few more qualms: why do the vamps shriek soo much here?? why? it's irritating and seems to serve no purpose.

Why do they not run after Eben when they flipped his car? They just stand in a circle and stare at him as he runs away.

Does there always have to be an idiot in the group of survivors? The one guy who decides that running into the street and yelling "Daaaddd!" at the top of his lungs is a good idea.

Why do the survivors run through the middle of the road all the time? aren't they trying to lay low?

Again, what was the point of the UV light scene? It accomplished nothing at all, and also the same thing played out when Beau went on his tractor rampage....why? again, no one escaped because of it. In fact none of their ploys to distract the vampires served any logical purpose or resulted in anything beneficial. Even Eben's in final gamble, Stella doesn't run away. Why? And where did all those townspeople come from in the end? From the buildings engulfed in flames?

Why not go to the Utilador thingy earlier? It was like 100 yards away....it took them 20 days to decide to walk there...with no cover...

I'm sure there are more. But I found myself questioning a lot of the actions of the characters. And yes, the characters ended up being very 1 dimensional. Hartnet does a decent job, but nothing to write home about. Ben foster is a standout again, and yet again the psychopath.

On the plus side, the action was great. The effects were pretty sweet and there was a nice deal of tension in the air. The atmosphere was definitely a boon. I think the feel was right....

I have soft spot for vampire flicks though.