I guess it’s just a cardinal rule from now on, but regardless of who you are, some comic books just can’t be movies. Because while “30 Days of Night” is a very good vampire film, it just isn’t the best I’ve ever seen. I wasn’t tingling, I wasn’t beaming, and I simply wasn’t connecting to these fanged fucks from beginning to the end. Granted, “30 Days of Night” is a great chaotic vampire film that puts the bite back into these demonic beings, but watching it a second time grants a better sense of clarity, and it’s just not a masterpiece. Watching it again also made me appreciate what I may have ignored the first time. David Slade has a great grasp on the concept and narrative presented here giving his vampires an utter sense of terror. They’re mindless, but they’re also calculating and clever without being homoerotic and mopey theater patrons. “30 Days of Night” is a valiant success at completely rethinking the vampire concept, and it works for what it promises.
Take a land where night lasts for thirty days, a small town in the middle of nowhere and freezing cold and it’s a recipe for pure chaos as a sheriff of an Alaskan town is faced with the walking undead who are merciless in their pursuit to suck the small town dry. The dynamic appeal behind “30 Days of Night” is mainly the fantastic special effects courtesy of Weta who add a beautiful variety of gore and gruesome bloodshed in the way of vicious decapitations, torn throats, and some rather horrific vampire effects that add a new spin to the bloodsuckers; one of the most disturbing scenes involves an appearance by a little girl who happens to be one of the ravenous hordes.
It’s a truly unexpected and rather disturbing little sequence Slade accomplishes; as well he also subjects our heroes to much more difficulties when breaking the horror cliché of one swipe of an axe taking a head off. Instead he presents the reality that it really takes about three or four whacks depending on the momentum and strength of the individual. Small touches like that make “30 Days of Night” an interesting experience. The monsters here communicate like primal animals with screeches and screams, and possess jagged teeth topped by their black as night eyes, and they’re a constantly morbid sight to behold even as they massacre the entire town in one night. Slade’s direction, while problematic, is also rather rich in visual appeal and a great mixture of special effects with an interesting mimic of the same desolate wasteland Carpenter gave us in “The Thing.” The land we set down on is endless, it’s barren and it’s the perfect entrance for the creatures of the dead to strike at individuals who can’t survive in a world they can.
Though the foreigners, they adapt more to the deathly cold than the humans can and this provides a strict sense of claustrophobia which Slade pulls off well. Our survivors have nowhere to run, nowhere to hide and are doomed to suffer death under the cold if not the vampires stalking their town. The performances from the small cast are very strong, including from Josh Hartnett who plays the flawed sheriff of the town forced to take control of the band of survivors, as well as Melissa George who is sublime as his ex who is stuck in the town after missing her plane, and must now fight her way through the hordes of seemingly indestructible night stalkers. Slade makes a great tonal shift from “Hard Candy” on to “30 Days of Night” and he provides a great horror ride, when all is said and done.
Still though the continuity problems, more particularly the chronological problems, are still bothersome. Sure, there are place cards reading “Day 7” and “Day 18,” but in the end it still just feels like one night and one night only. The thirty days of night really just feel like one whole disastrous night that is almost never ending and while the place cards work hard to convince us we’re experiencing this during a thirty day span, it just doesn’t succeed too well. As well, much of the CGI effects were sadly too blatant to really ignore, such as the massive blizzard our characters have to walk through, and the frosted air that bursts from their mouths when they speak. While putting disbelief on hold is suggested, for many, it will be just too tough.
As for the DVD, this has to be one of the worst DVD covers I’ve seen in years. Why not at least feature the original poster art as a slip case? Why squeeze in the stars, the town, the snow, and the vampires all together? It’s sloppy and really shoddy, and this movie deserves better. Watching “30 Days” again, it really does manage to show its flaws, but is still a very good vampire movie with great acting, direction and special effects, I just wish I could buy the chronology tricks. The DVD on the other hand has some great features, even in spite of the horrible cover you get with it.