Review 30 Days of Night
- Ethan Cole

Vampires of the rabid ‘ghoul’ variety figured they’d have themselves a 30 day cookout in the merry isolated old town of Barrow, Alaska – this sucks (obligatory/expected generic vampire pun out of the way) for the residents.  Some annoying survivors try and last until the sun eventually rises, and it’s up to us as the audience to se if we can survive the movies short comings.

The intro is pretty slick, with the black on white introductory text complimented with a haunting and ominous score, smoothly transitioning into the movie with some visually impressive expansive shots of frigid landscapes effectively establishing the isolation.  The color palette; cold and sterile, yet still bears the industrial grit and grime underneath.  In addition to appearing oddly clean the characters are effectively lit in a stylized use of film darkness – not disappearing into shadows, this is saved only for the vampires – cause these pale-faced-freaks gotta hide somewhere.

These positive visuals are tainted by a lack of geography – none is established, which leaves the characters ‘who know the town’ better than the vampires do, operating in vacuum as far as the audience is concerned, they might as well be moving room to room, which due to the editing; seems as if they are.  This crosses into the realm of conversations, where the line of sights don’t always connect, further exacerbated by the abundance of close ups and jumping between multi-camera setups.  This material practically begs for a steady cam sequence.

Initially the movie doesn’t waste time lingering; rather quickly building up the setting and establishing the town for the imminent chaos to follow.  To some degree the pacing suffers from this, as the scene changes are more jarring than suspenseful or mysterious.  One reason why John Carpenter’s The Thing worked well and still holds up, is the lulling and unearthly drifting into the sleepy isolated location.  Of course the mass populace of drones and “I don’t want to think, I just want to be entertained” dumb-fucks wont go for it, simply quick to boredom, waiting to be put back to sleep into an eventual coma where they can be drained for as long as their worthless pulses beat.  I doubt even the likes of them will be able to tolerate the increasingly intolerable pacing, in which slow/ominous scenes generate atmosphere, then cutting away from it – losing the suspense, not generating more.

The narrative structure takes a hit in terms of the chronology which operates more in a paper-media format.  For instance:

INT. ROOM – NIGHT

CUT  TO:

EXT. SOMEWHERE IN THE TOWN WITH FUCK LOADS OF SNOW

The words “DAY 7” appear on the screen.

CUT  TO:

INT. ROOM

They’re still in hiding…

Whilst there isn’t an indication of the passage of time in the in the comic, this is something that works in a text based medium, even a comic book format since it’s a compressed time frame, limited to single monthly issues.  Here, not so well, as it just kills any form of anticipation.  Whilst it’s understandable that they could ration out their current supplies for a week, it doesn’t do much for the pace, which effectively stagnates.  It’s only later after a predicted blizzard hits that they head to the store, where again, the above is repeated, except this time they’re in the store.  One would have thought Hollywood was so used to ignoring comics as a source material they’d have the sense to use some movie styled pacing and structure, as this start stop scenario doesn’t build up tension, it builds up boredom.

The most peculiar editing exhibited is evident in the last sequence, the point of no return, which is cut together almost as if it’s a promo or trailer.  It does generate a sense of suspense, funnily enough, being the only time in the movie there is suspense – but it’s not real suspense, so much as it is building towards something, a degree of excitement… that typically is thrown away… effectively wasted.  To cap it off we’re treated with an under powered punch out which eventually leads into what could have been a high powerful final act.  Instead, all that’s left is a highlight punctuated with a grand musical cue… and that’s it.  Blade 2 features a more powerful and poetic finale complete with better ashings and burn effects.

The sound design is great for the most part, mostly because there isn’t much of a score, which in effect enhances the desolate atmosphere; cold, barren – the distant bass howls of the tundra, right down to the whistling winter winds – essentially a good use of atmospheric silence.  This cool sound scheme is ruined when the vampires attack, which suffers from the generic ‘jump-scares’ and overblown rapid cuts.  Rather than expanding the soundscape, a cacophony of drums begin to beat which comes across more disjointed than an atmospheric enhancer.  It’s reminiscent of Silent Hill’s music cues in regards to the attacks and tension, just not anywhere near as good or successful.  The screams and the foley work are excellent for the most part.

As for the gore: it’s great.  That is, when you get to actually see it – most human deaths or injuries are off screen, it’s only when they become a vampire can they be mutilated.  It’s bizarre that the vampire’s attacks on humans shy away from bloodletting – “les is more”.   Bullshit.  ‘Less is more’ for the most part only applies for cat and mouse horror, this isn’t the case here – violent attacks on humans is what would have further elevated them to feral creatures, as opposed to convulsing freaks offering up ghoulish love bites.  Unlike the comic which featured a Nosferatu styled vampire; complete with a lore of keeping their existence a secret, the movie uses a purely animalistic variety, like a monkey raped a shark and some human decided to ingest its monkey brains and somehow castrated himself in the process; here’s the result: a bunch of black-tiny-eyed-beak-nosed-shark-mouthed-high-pitched-screaming-
mutant-freaks, with simian curiosity and a hive-mind mentality… for some reason I’m thinking of football… These brand of vampires have the ferocious attack frenzy much like that of a horny-drunk with their is ass on fire – imagine that shot with either a 45 shutter or dropped frames, now you’ve got a pretty good image of their attack scenes.  Whilst the rapid attacks of the vampires might work conceptually, it’s marred by the fact it looks ridiculous.  Therefore they hold no vicarious threat whatsoever; the only fear is seen through the caricatures on screen.

Some excellent shots and setups are in motion when town massacre ensues, but is typically Hollywood chop edited into tiny fragments sandwiched between shakey-cam medium shots.  It is a shame because the aerial view of the town’s massacre is an awesome spectacle.  So much potential wasted.  Nice one guys…

The plot’s progression consists of a series of failed experiments for the survivors – in which a few of them die off and then continue on.  Only with a few high notes, courtesy of a vampire destruction derby by resident “I can kill ‘em all” guy Beau – characterized with the appropriate energy by Mark Boone.  It’s a fun, albeit short sequence, with nice splatter gore effects – but doesn’t make a whole lot of sense in the general scheme of things.

Outside of this, most of the rest of the structure consists of sappy talky moments, followed by inevitable carnage – I say: “good riddance”.  Just a shame all of them don’t die at once.  The cast, is serviceable for the most part, not having much to work with they’re decent as inevitable fodder, though there’s no reason to care about any of them – let alone enjoy their deaths, since it’s much akin to watching a meat sack get ripped apart by bored starving dogs.

Melissa George acts scared strong enough, but is only given the opportunity to make sad faces for most of the movie – which remains consistent throughout.  Josh Hartnett, as Sheriff Eben, delivers lines with enough conviction and conflict, but it’s not till the final act where he has the opportunity to do something, to compensate for a lack of characterization: he’s got asthma.  In the comic Eben and Stella weren’t separated, but mad for one another, which elevates the last scene – technically, the change works, given there’s no development of the relationship over the time that’s passed.  The same could be said of all the characters – a disagreement is played out, but a lack of real dynamic results in a mere glance at the watch until their inevitable slaughter.  There are some moments where an impending doom and mystery is in play, mostly in light of Ben Foster as ‘The Stranger’ who bears a latent otherworldly omnipotence – effectively instigating a tension between himself and the sheriff.

The rest of the characters are forgettable, yet simultaneously annoying; being of the meek and frail variety; cannon fodder where pity is expected of the audience.  Enter natural selection.  Problem solved.  Moving on…

Despite veering away from vampire lore, a logic gap is still prevalent – one that could have been ignored had they cut the few lines addressing the vampires enhanced senses.  The fact they couldn’t find a bunch of meek and feeble underpowered humans hiding in trashed houses with these enhanced senses is a stretch, regardless of how well these humans know the town – not to mention they rarely use this gem of information to their advantage.

At roughly 1 hour and 50 minutes these elements begin to grate as opposed to a slow drama with intense stress and overwhelming suspense.  Thankfully, the end credit sequence is appropriately stylish – strange that most of these movies opt for cold openings, particularly given the strength of some of the featured end credits.  These are worth sitting through evocative imagery, which captures more of the comic’s style than the actual film.  What made the comic interesting was the art and concept, the writing was forgettable.  Unlike 300, boring source material was not adapted into something entertaining.    Whilst it’s not a bad movie, it’s not a good one either, in effect falling somewhere in the middle-ground of watchable mediocrity.

Recommended For:

• Insomniacs

Alternate Viewing:

• John Carpenter’s The Thing
• Blade 2
• Read the actual comic

Rating: 6.0/10
Cumjackulation Rating: 7/10
(ratings explained)

(C) 2008 FANBOY KILLSWITCH