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30 DAYS OF NIGHT
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They’re intelligent without drawing our sympathies, and with their rows of razor sharp teeth and dark eyes, they’re a force to be reckoned with. The vampires in this story are also very much cut in the cloth of the infected from “28 Days Later.” Once bitten or scratched, the victims are doomed to quickly become one of the vampires, as their humanity is depleted in a pool of dark eyes that peer out at prey in utter longing for blood. Slade uses his signature chaotic wobbly camera during true scenes of carnage, paired with the utter darkness and desolation of Alaska that acts as a wonderful accompaniment to the vampires who communicate in their own vicious growl laced language and always plan ahead. Mostly, though Slade does include scenes of the vampires communicating, they’re always monsters first and individuals second. They walk around growling in hunger, they’re always scouting for food, and they gain a larger sense of their surroundings than actual residents. Much like “The Thing,” the story deliberately builds on a slow increase of tension and anticipation, as Ben Foster pulls in yet another excellent performance as The Stranger, a man who arrives into town the day before nightfall, and is intent on antagonizing the residents unaware of what is coming to their town. There’s also Josh Hartnett who is very good as the humble and flawed leader Eben who is overwhelmed when bodies begin to appear, but is forced to keep his friends safe. “30 Days of Night” is heavily based on a routine of cat and mouse with the humans trying their best to remain in doors and find a way to survive, while the vampires lurk in the sub-zero cold awaiting the next meal, and with it comes some truly gruesome imagery including gross decapitations, and a few beastly characters that are quite disturbing. Either way, Slade has the tension down pat.
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Vampires. I’ve suffered for many years of sheer abysmal vampire
sub-genre crap thanks to the likes of different “twists” that was dead
in the water. From suffering through the frilly angst ridden vamps
thanks to Anne Rice that bred a thousand MySpace emo teens, to the
Matrix carbon copy leather clad models a la Len Wiseman, it’s nice to
see vampires be horrifying creatures (on film) once again. Thanks to
David Slade, and Steve Niles, “30 Days of Night” makes a great
transition from the page to the screen. David Slade who made his debut
with the masterpiece “Hard Candy” shifts tones and completely amps his
energy with what is one of the better horror movies to come around in
years. In the vein of “The Thing,” Slade brings us down on a group of
workers in the Alaska who prepare for the month of eternal night where
the land is shrouded in darkness. But as the hours pass, mysterious
events occur around the town. Cell phones are found burned, animals turn
up dead, and helicopters are dismantled.
One of the more consistent problems of Slade's film is his inability to
actually make the situation before us feel like thirty days. Even with
the title cards appearing every so often to notify us of how much time
has passed, it still all felt like one night in hell, rather than a
whole month. I just couldn't be convinced that this entire story took
place in thirty days as Slade really never pulls off the mock length
well enough. I just wasn't buying that this was all in thirty days. The
feeling of excruciating length never quite rose to the surface.
In spite of the chronological problems, “30 Days of Night” is a tense,
creepy, and nihilistic vampire film that redeems the vampire sub-genre,
yanking it from the abysmal depths. I enjoyed every bit of its blood
soaked story.