Alecc B. on "30 Days Of Night"

Vampire movies are tough to make these days. Lately, they're either campy fun like From Dusk Till Dawn or action flicks like the Blade and Underworld series, but they're rarely scary. The truth of the matter is, there's not too much else you can do in a vampire movie that's original anymore...except set the movie in Alaska of course. This is the setting for 30 Days Of Night!

PLOT

The last day of sunlight is coming to an end in a small town in Alaska, and nightfall will be all anyone sees for 30 days. You know what else they'll see? Mutha fuckin' vampires!

ACTING

Josh Hartnett takes the hero-role as the town sheriff, Eben. Surprisingly, Hartnett didn't bore me to tears this time around like he usually does and handles most of the ass-kicking. Melissa George plays his wife Stella. STELLA!!!!!!!! I had to. Anyway, Eben and Stella are having problems and the two lead actors do their best to show us that. They succeed for the most part. There are an assorted group of people trying to survive, but I'll just talk about a couple of the stand-outs. Mark Rendall plays Eben's brother Jake. He's scared for most of the movie but never annoying. As the town loner Beau, Mark Boone Jr. looks as scruffy as always, but he kicks mucho ass here. Danny Huston plays the head vampire Marlow. He doesn't do much but look creepy, and does a pretty good job. When he does speak though, it's some other language like French...or Chinese. Just kidding, it's sounded Russian to me. I could be wrong though. Ben Foster plays The Stranger, a man who comes into town and starts to cause trouble before the vamps show up. Foster has done nothing but play crazy people this whole year. Can you say...typecast?

WRITING & DIRECTING

30 Days Of Night was adapted into a film by the original author of the graphic novel, Steve Niles. He got some help from Stuart Beattie and Brian Nelson. The story works very well. Imagine living in a place with no sunlight for a month. Then imagine that place is being populated by hungry vamps. Not cool. The setting of Alaska puts a lot of exciting scenes in place that wouldn't work if the film took place anywhere else. I do think that the story moved a little fast at times, making it seem like it wasn't complete hell during these 30 days. I could of dealt without a bit of dialogue that came from a little girl in the second half of the film as well.

Director David Slade gave Night a very cool look. It's dark and gray, but still vivid. I kind of got the vibe I felt while watching John Carpenter's The Thing. The editing is tight and there are quite a few scares. Slade also did not hold back on the gore. There is plenty-o-blood shed throughout this film, and a couple of very graphic scenes involving decapitations. I know what you're thinking...COOL!

The ending for this flick was ripped right out of one of the Blade movies. I won't say which one in fear of ruining it for you guys. Then again, I never read the novel, so the ending might be faithful and Blade could have been the one who stole the idea. I'm thinking way too much about this.

If you're looking for an entertaining horror flick for a late Friday or Saturday night, 30 Days Of Night should deliver the goods for you.

Overall Review: **1/2 stars

Best Line:

Hartnett: Come on mother fuckers!