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 "30 Days Of
Night: Dark Days" is the follow up to the 2007 zompire flick "30 Days Of
Night" based on a graphic novel of the same name by Steve Niles, and Ben
Templesmith. In the first film, a sleepy Alaskan town is invaded by a
horde of bloodthirsty vampires (zompires) during a 30 day stint of
complete darkness. Some sources blame Sarah Palin for the event, but as
of yet that is strictly speculation. The source material has possibly
given birth to a new breed of vampires. No longer will the ghouls attack
with precision to extract your blood, they'll just tear your ass limb
from limb and lick it from their chops. they are quick, mean, dirty, and
vicious, and at no point to they sparkle. Before the film even gets
started, it already has a few strikes against it. The setting has been
changed from the dark, desolate Alaskan location to sunny Los Angeles.
Much of what made the first film what it was was the sense of isolation.
It managed to take a wide open space and turn it into a claustrophobic
nightmare. Gone is this aspect, having been replaced with a bland urban
terrain.
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Strike two is that none of the original actors have returned
to reprise their roles. The story centers entirely on
Stella, and does so sans Melissa George. I'm sure this all
boils down to money, as this time around it's a complete
straight to video affair, but seriously, Melissa George
couldn't have taken a day out of her busy schedule? Was she
working too hard on her unimportant cameo in three episodes
of the TV series "Lie To Me"? |
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Whatever the case, and however interchangeable her presence was in
the first film, recasting is never a good thing, and it does hamper the
experience a bit. Strike three, and the most unforgivable flaw in my
opinion, is the use of ridiculous looking CGI for most of the FX in the
flick. No squibs or blood packs are used for bullet hits, it's all been
added in post production. There are some scenes of practical gore, but
it sandwiched in between some of the worst looking CGI blood splatter
I've seen since Romero's "Survival of the Dead". Decapitations are also
handled this way, and it's completely laughable. I realize it's become
cheaper to use digital effects than to mix up a batch of kayo and food
coloring, but if you're already hindered by the lack of "star power"
from the first film, and being dumped directly to DVD, why not pay a
little extra attention to the effects, since that is usually the saving
grace for flicks like this. Films like "30 Days Of Night" are a guilty
pleasure for most of the horror fans I know. We're not looking to the
series for deep prophetic life lessons, we want to see some fuckers
eviscerated.
Kiele Sanchez, though she looks like the skanky crack-whore version of
Amy Smart in "The Butterfly Effect", does an okay enough job as Stella
this time around. After the initial annoyance of her recasting, she's
generally easy to absorb. The story follows her as she travels to Los
Angeles, trying to alert people as to what actually happened in her
town. Along the way she meets up with a diverse, ragtag group of
survivors of other attacks, so naturally they join up to hunt the
vicious demons that they narrowly escaped once before. One of the most
annoying characters in the film is Amber, played by DIora Baird. Amber
is a shit talker, and insists that Stella will get them killed if they
get into vampire combat. Of course, at the first sign of vampires, Amber
flips her shit, screams and runs costing a team member their life. In
fact, the entire cast of characters portray themselves as some kind of
hardened veterans, but when the shit hits the fan, most of them are left
with their cocks in their hands.
As a side story, the gang are being pursued by a dirty FBI agent, whom
is apparently working with the vampires in order to be turned. Troy
Ruptash plays Agent Norris, whom is apparently dying of lung cancer, and
trying to be turned vampire before it happens. There actually isn't much
pursuit, and his character isn't really pivotal to the rest of the
story. Much like the rest of the characters, he's never developed, and
is ultimately hanging around as a bit of cannon fodder. The ultimate
goal is to find and kill Lilith, played by Mia Kirshner. Lilith is
apparently the horde's "queen" as it's stated numerous times that the
horde doesn't make a move without her say so.
The odd thing is, if
she's so important, why is it she's running around out in the open when
the "battle" is taking place. One would think you would protect your
queen. Maddeningly, Lilith is never developed either. As for what her
purpose is, other than showing off her naked, blood covered ass, I'm not
sure. The lack of character development makes this film play out like a
video game, and not a good one. Even as guilty of a pleasure as the
first film was, "Dark Days" can't even find it's way to that status.
It's not all bad, there's a tad bit of fun to be had. It's good to see
vampires being vicious and dirty once more, I just wish it was handled
with a bit more finesse. Some script tweaks, a few returning actors, and
some practical gore FX could have turned this into a must see. As it
stands though, it falters in at a flick you may want to see if there are
nu re-runs of House MD currently on one of the 10 different channels
that run daily marathons.
Fans of the first film
will be annoyed, but likely be able to stomach their way through to the
end. Those that hated the first, will no doubt hate the sequel even
more. "30 Days" was a solid premise, and appeared to be a franchise with
promise, but in the end, they went the cop-out route, and just vomited
some shit on paper to try and cash in on the success of the original.
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