Review of 30 Days of Night (2007) by Stuart K — 05 Aug 2013
Based upon the short-running comic book series created by Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith, directed here by David Slade (Hard Candy (2005) and The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (2010)) and produced by Sam Raimi.
This is a taut, cold (literally) and claustrophobic horror film which is a good idea, but it does become derivative before long. Which is a shame, as it does have some good moments, outweighed by run-of-the-mill horror cliches.
The town of Barrow is in the most Northernly part of Alaska, which for 30 days every year, goes into darkness for around a month due to the positioning of the earth, meaning it's night 24/7. In the run up to this natural phenomenon, Sheriff Eben Oleson (Josh Hartnett) has been investigating how a stranger (Ben Foster) came to Barrow.
He didn't arrive by plane, and walking would have killed him. The Stranger tells the townsfolk that they will be killed, the Stranger is locked up, and no sooner after, the power goes off as does the phone lines to the rest of the world.
It's a group of feral vampires wanting the blood of the town, but Sheriff Oleson won't give in without a fight. It's a daft horror film, but it manages to do quite a bit with a low budget, it's much more of an effective vampire film than I Am Legend (2007) turned out to be, but this manages to be cheesy fun and any snowy, dark town will never look the same again.
This review of 30 Days of Night (2007) was written by Stuart K on 05 Aug 2013.
30 Days of Night has generally received positive reviews.
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