Melissa George in 30 DAYS OF NIGHT (2007).
© Columbia Pictures
Mania Grade: B-
Maniac Grade: C+
Reviewed Format: Theatrical Release
Rated: R
Stars: Josh Hartnett, Melissa George, Danny Huston, Ben Foster
Writers: Steve Niles and Stuart Beattie and Brian Nelson, based on the IDW comic by Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith
Director: David Slade
Distributor: Columbia Pictures/Ghost House
Maniac Grade: C+
Reviewed Format: Theatrical Release
Rated: R
Stars: Josh Hartnett, Melissa George, Danny Huston, Ben Foster
Writers: Steve Niles and Stuart Beattie and Brian Nelson, based on the IDW comic by Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith
Director: David Slade
Distributor: Columbia Pictures/Ghost House
30 DAYS OF NIGHT
By: Abbie BernsteinDate: Friday, October 19, 2007
Based on the first in what has become a series of graphic novels by Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith, 30 Days of Night is the story of what happens when a band of vampires invades a tiny town in northernmost Alaska, where the sun goes down for a month in midwinter. Director David Slade has done an extremely good job of recreating the look and feel of graphic novel artwork without going into Sin City-like replication. 30 Days of Night is cool (pardon the pun) to look at and somewhat fun to watch. On the other hand, parts of it don’t stand up to any scrutiny and, more importantly, it is surprisingly not scary.
In Barrow, Alaska, the population dwindles to 152 hardy souls during the annual 30-day night. Make that 153, as fire marshal Stella Oleson (Melissa George), estranged wife of town sheriff Eben Oleson (Josh Hartnett) is stuck there after missing the last flight out. It’s been a rough day – somebody has vandalized the town’s helicopter, killed every sled dog in the vicinity, committed other acts of sabotage and the lone stranger (Ben Foster) Eben has managed to capture isn’t saying much that makes sense. Then true night falls, and with it comes a band of fast-moving, black-eyed, long-clawed predators with a thirst for human blood, led by Marlow (Danny Huston), a guttural, melancholy and angry monster.
There are some great set pieces, with vamps moving with blinding speed and having a lot of fun in their stalking and killing. Slade and casting director have also come up with some intriguing faces to play the vamps, so that they look unusual beyond the fangs and claws. Stunt coordinator Allan Poppleton stages some really exciting vehicle collisions, crashes and flips, at least one of which produces a good jump.
And here’s where the problems come in. We don’t get enough on any of the characters to care about any of them specifically, and director Slade indicates and/or outright shows the vampires’ positions throughout, so that we feel neither mounting suspense nor even the fear of a “gotcha” scare. The relationship between Eben and Stella is given exactly enough friction to feel time-consuming and irritating without being involving – if our main characters are going to deal with a bad marriage, it should either get something more than some fairly rote sulky dialogue that doesn’t affect the plot before they inevitably work together, or be dispensed with altogether. Then there’s the matter of numbers. The filmmakers make a point of telling us exactly how many humans are in Barrow. We can see between ten and fifteen vampires in the gang. Given their habits of mass slaughter, how is it that they don’t wipe out everybody at once? Even allowing for supernatural suspension of disbelief, it also seems amazing that the vamps can’t sniff out a mass of unwashed humans who are hiding together in one place for days in such a small town.
