Movie Review

30 Days of Night (R)

Brian Marder

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Hollywood.com Says
Over the course of two downhill hours, 30 Days of Night will have you clutching your neighbor in fear and telling him or her to wake you up when it’s over. Oh, vampires these days.

Story
In Barrow, Alaska, there comes a time each winter when sunlight fades out and darkness rolls in like an unwelcome visitor—for a month. Many people abandon the small town without hesitation, while those who stay brace themselves for a storm of inhumane, relentless frigidity and a test of sanity. But this year, one group keeps the town warm—with blood—for its 30 days of night. The town’s two remaining law enforcers, Eben (Josh Hartnett) and Stella (Melissa George), are forewarned by a strange drifter (Ben Foster) that “something’s comin’,” but before they can even finish scoffing, the sun has set and the vampires have descended, or ascended, upon Barrow for blood and recruitment. With only himself and Stella to keep the few living, well, alive, Eben is forced to go on the defensive for the full 30 days. But as he soon learns, these vamps are a smart breed with a perpetual case of the munchies.

Acting
Just when you think Josh Hartnett has finally chosen the right role to suit his dark features and limited range—he decides not to play a vampire. Still, 30 Days' constant darkness and overall chaos would seem to accentuate his positives by drowning out his negatives, much the way Sin City spun and sold his small role, but that’s not quite so. It turns out he’s capable of the quickie action or momentary drama, but the scenes in which he is to save the, er, night—well, it’s a good thing the Hartnett-as-Superman rumor was just that. As Hartnett’s partner in non-crime/estranged lover, George (Turistas) manages to create some tension without resorting to shrieking or the drama-school histrionics we’ve come to expect from supporting actresses in horrors. Also successful is the ever-versatile Ray Winstone (The Departed), playing a grizzly outsider-turned-insider who joins the anti-vampire crusade. In a role surprisingly tiny considering his current rate of ascension in the industry, Foster (3:10 to Yuma) is the best and creepiest this movie has to offer. And in the vampire corner is Danny Huston (The Number 23), who is horrifying as hell on first look, only to de-emphasize that appearance by crowing and chatting instead of simply chugging blood.

Direction
On the first day of night, the vampires will seem scary; by the 30th day, they’ll seem more like zombies—unless that’s just you projecting onto them. Director David Slade, whose previous feature (the indie Hard Candy) could not have been more different from this one, will initially win over horror-philes with 30 Days. After all, it starts off on a high note, with an almost apocalyptic aura to the impending darkness and its consequences. The story is set up adequately, and the scares to come are alluded to without getting too greedy. And Slade doesn’t let us down immediately following sundown, with jolting flashes of the beasts readying to overtake the small town. But once he gives them faces and personalities, it doesn’t take long for the suspense to die—and die some more. That’s almost midway in, after which point it becomes clear that the movie will consist only of a heavily abridged countdown to that 30th night and predictable bloodshed. As Slade nears the film’s climax, 30 Days nears videogame-like music and machismo before its slightly more compelling conclusion is reached. On a brighter note, the lightless Alaskan town—although obviously not totally pitch black for the movie’s sake—does look positively bleak, especially when the cinematography takes to the skies.

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