#249. 30 Days of Night (2007)

Directed By: David Slade


Starring: Josh Hartnett, Melissa George, Danny Huston, Ben Foster





Tag line: "They're Coming!"


Trivia:  Sam Raimi was originally going to direct this film, but decided to produce it instead.

I was intrigued when I read the premise for 30 Days of Night. Based on a series of graphic novels published in 2002, 30 Days of Night tells the story of an Alaskan town besieged by a band of vampires just as the sun goes down. Unfortunately, being so far north and in the middle of winter, this particular town won't see the sun rise again for another 30 days, giving their new "visitors" plenty of time to feed on every man, woman and child! 

As I said, it's an intriguing premise, and in the hands of director David Slade, what was a solid idea for a comic book becomes an exceptionally entertaining horror film.

Barrow, a small town situated near the Arctic circle, is preparing for its annual “30 Days of Night”, during which time the sun will disappear from the sky for a solid month. Those who are unable to handle the prolonged darkness leave before sunset, but this year, the people remaining behind will have more to contend with than a longing for daylight. 

Once darkness descends on Barrow, so does a band of ancient vampires, intent on draining the blood from anyone and everyone. The leader of these vampires (Danny Huston) instructs his followers to kill every resident, but Eben Oleson (Josh Hartnett), the sheriff of Barrow, has other plans. With the help of his estranged wife Stella (Melissa George), Eben leads a small group of survivors to an attic in an isolated house, where they hope to remain hidden until the sun returns again in 30 days.

Director Slade shows us early on just how secluded Barrow is; at one point, we're given a birds-eye view of the town, where we see for ourselves the nothingness surrounding it on all sides. Yet the unsettling isolation pales in comparison to the sheer terror generated by the vampires themselves. These creatures are a far cry from Bela Lugosi's regal Count in 1931's Dracula. 

Unable to talk, the vampires in 30 Days of Night shriek instead, and take great pleasure not only in drinking blood, but also spilling it as violently as possible. In an early scene, three pipeline workers (Amber Sainsbury, Jared Turner and Kelson Henderson) have just finished their shift, and are trying to decide whose house to go back to for the evening. Before they can make up their minds, one of them is snatched away into the darkness, and as the other two are trying to figure out what happened, their friend's body drops from the sky, his neck sliced open. 

The leader of the vampires, played wonderfully by the oft-underrated Danny Huston, does speak, but in an archaic language, leading us to believe these monsters have been around for a very, very long time. Even still, they're giddy with excitement over the smorgasbord about to be served up in Barrow, which is surely more impressive than any they've encountered before. “We should have come here ages ago”, Huston's lead vampire says to his minions, and from the smiles on their faces, they obviously agree with him.

I chuckled a little at the above line of dialogue, but that's about as close to a humorous moment as you're going to find in 30 Days of Night. There are no facetious asides or witty one-liners. In fact, there's nothing at all thrown in to relieve the audience's tension. From star to finish, 30 Days of Night is a bleak film, loaded with lots of darkness, lots of blood, and a hell of a lot of screams.