30 Days of Night (2007)

This Movie Is About the small town in the northern-most region of Alaska. Here, for 30 days in a year, it is cut off from civilization as it bears the harsh snow storms and the perpetual darkness. But what's more dark than just darkness? Darkness with vampires! That's the brilliant concept of this movie as this small town is razed by a group of vampires hell-bent on destroying all forms of life in order to prove that they are more than just myth. The surviving group of people left must hide out for 30 days of night before the sun can come up and the vampires go away. It's a race against evil, time, nature, and themselves.

You Should Watch This Movie Because: there really hasn't been a good horror flick in a while and a monster horror flick at that. These vampires are badass, and they tear apart in the town in no-time leaving the survivors led by Eden Oleson (Josh Harnett) on the verge of extinction. Every sound, every movement these people make may result in death. This makes the entire movie very very tense and fear is right around the every corner these guys take. And oh the blood! If you are a fan of blood on shirt, then you will like this movie for sure. There is indeed a lot of blood on shirt, pants, jacket, mouth, teeth and in the general vicinity of everywhere. Other than the fear, the lead character is very standard but also very deep. His other dimensions comes off his relationship with past love interest Stella (Melissa George). They were together in the past and although you never really find out why they separated, their sub-plot raises some interesting questions and adds more conflict to the story than just vampires.

What's Hot: The vampires are very well done and definitely very distinct in their appearance. The fangs are intense as are the finger nails. The pupils are all the way black and fills up most of the eyes. And they are hardcore. There is a scene which shows a overhead shot of what's going on in the city when the vampires are owning and oh, it is so grim but so beautiful at the same time. But let's not forget about the humans. They pretty much take the vampires' shit for a good half of the movie but in the end, they realize that they have to get mad, they have to get angry. And oh, man do they ever get angry. There are a couple of scenes where some guy just loses it and goes off on a suicide mission and owns a couple of vampires before getting done. Other than that, there is some constant axe ownage which is very well done and very graphic.

What's Not Hot: There are plenty of stories in this movie and it all adds to the immense depth and message in this film. The problem with that in a horror film is that it's easy to get lost in the story lines while trying to keep the main story going and make it scary and make it interesting without losing the audience. This movie kind of fell trap to that as it tried to put a little too much story into the action. The backstory with Eben and Stella never really gets flushed out in the end as well as the history of the vampires and what happens to them in the end. The ending is also an area that could have used a lot more work. They set up the climax brilliantly and it is one of the best I have seen in a long time, but they just didn't pay it off properly. I have not read the graphic novel but I am almost sure that it ends much darker and grim than the movie. Perhaps they were pressured by the Hollywood brass for a happy ending but it will be disappointing for the hardcores.

Breaking It Down:
Story: 7.0 (Steve Niles & Ben Templesmith: grahpic novel, Stuart Beattie & Brian Nelson: screenplay)
Directon: 8.5 (David Slade)
Acting: 7.8
Cinematography: 8.5
Music/Sound: 7.5

Entertainment Value: 8.2