30 Days of Night

Review by Adam Weeks

So, I remember looking forward to seeing the planned adaptation of Steve Niles & Ben Templesmith’s acclaimed Graphic Novel, 30 Days of Night because I was such a huge fan of the series – but the nagging thought was that for a grand total of 3 issues, 30 was an extremely quick read, and not exactly the most dialogue heavy thing I’d ever seen.

To my surprise, Steve Niles, Stuart Beattie & Brian Nelson have actually excised two key sub-plots from the original series, and have chosen instead to add a slew of new characters, and changed up the key dynamic between the two leads – does it make it a better experience for me? Read on, dear, err…. Reader.

The basic story of 30 Days of Night is this – Vampires have discovered a small series of towns in the Northern most parts of Alaska that don’t see the light of day for 30 days of the year back to back. Of course, that means good eatin’ for our blood sucker pals, and they descend on the town of Barrow to wipe it out. Left to defend the town is the local Sheriff, Eben (Josh Hartnett), his estranged wife, Stella (Melissa George), and a group of “Red Shirts” that you already can guess probably won’t last the month in hiding from Marlow (Danny Huston) and his undead buddies.

OK – so that’s it, have no illusions about it, this is not Interview With A Vampire, this is last half of From Dusk ‘Til Dawn, all action, all gore, all creepy, and mostly all good – but (and there always is one but) the stuff that has been added to the movie is of far less consequence to what could have been left in there from the original book.

I won’t bore anyone to tears doing a side by side comparison, but for me, there was definitely something lacking to the story – having read the original so many times, and given the recent talk of a sequel (which is looking more & more likely when you open at the #1 spot in the USA), those missing elements tied in quite heavily with the follow up series, Dark Days – that being said, some slight elements of these storylines were covered in 30 Days of Night: Blood Trails, which was a web series that will likely wind up on the 30 Days DVD.

All of that aside, for someone who hasn’t read the books, and is looking for a good little horror film, then 30 Days of Night is definitely right up your alley. The Vamps themselves (with the assistance of WETA) actually remind me of the zombies from the Dawn Of The Dead remake – that shiny black eyes deal and quick movements make for some very creepy times – not to mention the fact that they’re almost constantly covered in blood.

Cast wise, I know it’s usually the cool thing to dump on Josh Hartnett, but I’ve always liked the guy, whether it was Halloween: H20, Pearl Harbor, 40 Days & 40 Nights or Black Hawk Down – he’s kept me pretty entertained over the last few years, and he certainly doesn’t disappoint with his onscreen time here – the fact that he’s getting a bit older helps him out – I don’t think The Faculty-era Hartnett could have quite pulled this off.

Melissa George….. look, she’s not given a hell of a lot to do here, Hartnett is front & centre, and Melissa is definitely background – but she cops a lot of shit in the various online talkbacks that’s pretty undeserved – OK, Turistas wasn’t awesome – but I like her, and she does good enough work here to warrant giving her another job (am I the only one who liked The Amityville Horror remake, by the way? That film gets trashed, baby.)

Rounding out the main cast would be the extremely creepy Danny Huston, who plays the nasty guy so well, and Ben Foster. Now, Foster is getting rave reviews for playing The Stranger and it’s….. well, he’s OK, I don’t know if I’m going to start a new fan club or anything, but I guess he’s sort of creepy in his scenes – I do miss his final moments from the Graphic Novel not being represented here though – may have been a little too Pulp Fiction for the audience.

At the end of it all, the honest truth is that I don’t get scared during films anymore – at this point I think I’m just way too desensitized by all the horror films that have come and gone – I tend to base my appraisal of new gore-fests on if I “jump” during the run time. On that count, I’m happy to say that 30 Days of Night has enough heart-pounders in it to make Richard Simmons proud of the cardio workout, and the fantastic visual work makes this little flick definitely worth your while.

3.5 out of 5

30 Days of Night
Australian release: 8th November, 2007
Cast: Ben Foster, Josh Hartnett, Melissa George
Director: David Slade
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