I generally don't trust famous film critics when it comes to two genres; comedy and horror. What's funny and scary and therefore good to me often doesn't seem to resonate very well with guys like Travers and Wilmington. I actually doubt the pro's take on a lot of modern films, but entries in these two genres in particular seem to inspire a good deal of scrutiny and distaste from the establishment, and I'm not exactly sure why. I've often thought it has something to do with the age difference; I'll be 21 in a few months, while most of them are at least as old as my parents (50+). Old people don't seem to like brutal violence unless it is in some sort of a war or historical setting, and are never very amused by the inappropriate sexual and drug-related humor that accompanies my favorite comedies.
I can't help but think, though, that when studios put out massive, serious, boring looking dramas like "Gone Baby Gone," (which has a tomatometer freshness of 92% at the time of this posting) they grease the pro's palms a little bit because they know that nobody would be interested in such fare otherwise. And when they put out something like "30 Days of Night," a survivor-horror-thriller involving Arctic vampires and former Alias cutie Melissa George, they count on bloodthirsty, horny college guys like myself to come out in droves no matter what the reviewers say. I think I am living proof of at least the second part of that theory, but who knows? I bet "Gone Baby Gone" is pretty dece, and I'll probably end up seeing it and enjoying it at least as much as "30 Days of Night," which reminds me that that latter title is supposed to be the subject of this post and I'd better get onto it.
Adapted from a graphic novel of the same title, and produced by horror-comedy phenomenon Sam Raimi, "30 Days of Night," is about a bunch of rural Alaskan villagers in the present day or thereabouts trying to survive a vampire attack on their fictional home of Barrow during an annual, month-long period where the sun fails to rise, presumably due to the extreme northern geography. Don't let Raimi's involvement fool you, however, this film is never funny and nothing like the Evil Dead series.
"30 Days of Night" begins with an incredible but brief shot that I wish would have been expanded upon in more detail; a lone man trudging through snowdrifts away from a cove where an enormous, ominous, jet-black, Russian-looking icebreaker ship lies still on the water, cloaked in fog. We are supposed to infer, of course, that this the means by which the vampires have come to Alaska.
Barrow itself is a quaint, frontier-like town filled with lots of wooden buildings, large vehicles, fur-hooded jackets, and of course, a nice fatty oil pipeline, clearly the foundation of the local economy. With a docile population of just over a hundred, Sheriff Josh Hartnett aka Eben Oleson (who's name I thought was "Evan" until I looked it up on IMDB, what the fuck kind of a name is Eben, anyway?) doesn't seem to have much to do when the film opens except be glum about a recent separation with his Fire-marshal wife Stella (Melissa George), who is trying to finish up inspecting some fire-fighting supplies and get the hell out of the town and away from Eben/Evan as fast as possible.
However, as the 30 day period of darkness descends, and Barrow is effectively "cut-off" from the rest of civilization (all flights in and out cease during this time), Stella misses the last plane out of Barrow, and Eben/Evan finds himself called upon to investigate a series of petty but strange crimes, including a kennel full of butchered dogs and a pile of burned cell phones. His investigation, however, involves little more than brooding while he drives around the town and talks with various residents.
One thing I didn't like was that although there were some brief, establishing shots of the town that showed local Inuits, the cast itself was highly Americanized, with everyone speaking perfect English. How fucking ethnocentric do the creators think we audience members are? The vampires, once revealed as characters in their own rights, as opposed to just fast, murderous silhouettes, (an event which occurs about 20 minutes into the film) do have their own made-up language, so I guess that counts as some diversity.
This language also sounds cool when the vampires speak out loud, but their scary voices are undermined by subtitles revealing they have the thought-processes of grade school children.
Then again, the whole idea of "30 Days" is kind of a revisionist take on the vampire legend, and the vampires are supposed to be more feral and unsophisticated than your traditional Bram Stroker, Anne Rice types, so I guess it goes with that whole theme. Still I would have preferred NOT being able to understand what they were saying and just leaving it up to everyone's imaginations. This would have created a much greater aura of mystery and wildness around them. Aside from this, the vamps make pretty frightening villains, and it was awesome to watch them run around on the rooftops of Barrow's wooden buildings and pounce like tigers on unsuspecting victims.
Unfortunately, this R-rated film lacks any even slight depictions of sex, which I definitely think would have improved things overall. But alas, nobody- not Melissa, not a hot young pipeline worker (yes...thats correct), not even Joshy boy gets their mack on, even though I'm sure it's one of the best ways to pass 30 days of relentless, cold, darkness.
I don't want to spoil the whole film for anyone that is interested in checking it out of course, so I'll refrain from going to much further into the plot. Sufficed to say, it is paper thin, and character development and acting are of typical B-movie quality, i.e. say quite minimal. These, and the aforementioned defects, are countered, however, by noble attempts at intensity and suspense, a fair amount of gore, and a brilliantly unpredictable ending that manages to be compelling but not gimmicky or Shyamalanesque.
Overall I'd say that as a pre-Halloween movie, this definitely got my in the spirit of the season, and was worth the price of admission (Although we did go during the afternoon, so it was only $4.75.)
"30 Days of Night" won't go down in history as a horror-classic. But it won't be remembered as a massive, unwatchable, failure either. In fact, I enjoyed it despite its numerous flaws. It delivers nearly exactly what the trailers and the concept promise.
I've also read somewhere that the studio has already announced the intentions to make a sequel, which could easily use this first film as a springboard to be much better, but will likely, (blood)suck big some big balls (nice imagery eh?). Oh well.
In Sum: Check it out if you dig seeing people being bitten and axed (and don't mind that there is basically nothing else worthwhile going on).
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