30 Days of Night

30 Days of Night

A shadowy stranger is seen walking around the streets of Barrow, Alaska with a message: “That is not cold weather. That is Death in your face.” Because Barrow is reputed to be the northernmost town in America, it’s 300 miles of empty wilderness from its nearest neighbor, and thirty sunless days and nights are about to start, I sort of expected someone to say, “You almost had me there; I thought you were talking about the weather.”

Yes, it does get really cold enough to kill you. In “30 Days of Night”, Barrow is about to be invaded by vampires who seem to have walked over the hundred-and-fifty-mile ice fields in nothing but their normal clothes. You might think that they would go somewhere in Fairbanks or Anchorage for easier access to blood, though sunlight will destroy them hence a month-long night at this place resembles a call for Canadian tourists.

Their method of attack is the standard one in creature features. They move with then without thunderous noise on their heels when you cannot quite see them fast and with awkward steps when you can see them. They are an unhappy bunch too. At least Count Dracula had style and some idea that fate was part of his plan; these guys are only interested in what they will eat next time around.

Furthermore these people do not even speak proper Hammer Films English; they talk backwards like garbled transmission that says: “Qwent Raquel*gg brow sit!” The movie has subtitles for them since it speaks their lingo. Having freshly turned vampires attend language classes at Berlitz intrigues me because I don’t believe Chomsky’s theories work where the Undead are concerned.

But I could keep doing this all day night actually if need be. There’s something about vampire movies which makes me come out with one liners unless they’re directed by Dreyer, Murnau or Herzog. To be honest, David Slade’s “30 Days of Night” is an above average genre piece but nonetheless follows the well-worn path of having a macho male lead who gathers a few hardy others inside while the vampires sniff around outside.

Josh Hartnett plays the local sheriff who teams up with Stella (Melissa George), his estranged wife and another cop that missed the last plane out of town. (For some reason planes don’t land in Barrow at night. I don’t know why.)

Survivors hide in attics and rob from supermarkets as they plan to outwit the vampires; there isn’t one old man saying he will make a run for it because between him and safety is 150 miles of snow etc. Marlow (played by Danny Huston) leads them through freezing streets.

The most interesting part about this film is not even its vampires, but Barrow itself. People tend to become closer when they live in such difficult situations though how they support themselves remains unclear to me. What about oil drilling? The pipeline maintenance? Missile attack defense systems? Whaling? Scrimshaw carving? They must just be perverse because I bet they all sell something to each other.

I would give the movie two and a half stars because it is well made, well photographed and plausibly acted, and better than it needs to be. I have seen this director’s previous picture “Hard Candy”. The vampires knock out the town’s generators almost as soon as they come across them but for a month there is one full moon shining on all coldly lighted streets. Otherwise it would be just audio drama. I hate vampire movies by now but that doesn’t apply here. If you haven’t seen many vampire stories, you might like this.

If you like horror, however, then brace yourself for some chilling moments ahead because you will love it; and in fairness to all sides, let me conclude this piece with Tristan Sinns’ five dagger (out of five) review on DreadCentral.com: “’30 Days of Night’ has grabbed this age old monster by the throat and has pumped so much pure lifeblood into its veins that it has been hurled at you ready to devour you whole, drenching the world in showers of red from countless new opened arteries.”

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