Film Review #7 : 30 Days Of Night

     Following my recent trend I thought I would continue to watch graphic novel based vampire movies and today I worked up the courage to watch 30 Days Of Night...

     30 Days Of Night is as I understand it is a survival horror based of a mini-series of comic books written by Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith. Again I only had time to read the first comic before I watched the movie, but it appears that the movie at least attempts to follow the story line.

     Lets jump straight to the plot, this is a franchise thick with backstory and imagination. Our story starts in Barrow, Alaska, the town "at the top of the world", just as the townspeople are preparing for a month long night, 30 days of night. The town population drops by about four hundred people as most of the residents leave for other cities. The few that stay behind are greeted by a stranger (Ben Foster) that wandered into town covered in dirt and grime, strangely after all the sled dogs were murdered. As soon as the stranger asks for a bowl of raw hamburger meat things start going downhill. Small things at first, vandalism, a couple violent deaths, a head on a stick or two, then the power goes out, and the town is plunged into total darkness. The local sheriff (Josh Hartnett) discovers the first body, or lack there of, and urges the townsfolk into their homes and to prepare their weapons, it does them little good of course as the town soon erupts into an orgie of blood and fire, you see a band of vampires has followed the stranger into town.

     This franchise completely redesigned the classic vampire. Gone are the suave, romantic bloodsuckers, these vampires are the ultimate apex predator, six times faster and stronger than a human, with a mouth full of razor sharp fangs and claws sharp enough to punch through a skull. This I believe is the closest a vampire can get to reality. These vampires led by Marlow (Danny Huston) are more than a match for a town of a hundred and fifty humans, and now that the sun has set the town is theirs for 30 days. All survivors have to risk it all just to last the month.

     As I sit here stirring coffee and cream into my sugar I realize that the movie isn't about the vampires, its about human nature, about sacrifices and the lengths of which we will go to protect those we love. Throughout the movie the characters are forced to put aside their lives and push themselves to the limit just to survive, when their friends and family are dead or undead is when they find their strength. It takes a bit to see past the darkness and find the moral of the story, but the darkness is what makes the movie.

     Darkness, yes, as the title states the sun has set, turning the town into a veritable hell, the dark sky and pure white snow are often contrasted beautifully by the stunning red of blood and fire, brightening what is otherwise a bland colour palette. The acting is refreshingly believable and for I never quite figured out if the film was completely CGI or if the picture was just that sharp even on my horribly old SD TV.

     My final judgement is that the acting was near top notch, the characters were believable, the vampires were fresh and the plot was thick enough to create a beautifully complex story, so pick it up but make sure you leave the lights on...