30 Days of Night: Vampires with Bite

Vampire films are hard to do well. Usually, they're done like a different movie, such as Blade being action or Bram Stoker's Dracula being half operatic in its drama. 30 Days of Night doesn't need to bend its genre; it compliments it.

Based on the graphic novel, 30 Days of Night focuses on the town of Barrow, Alaska, where the sun doesn't rise between November 18th and December 17th. It is a small, sleepy town with nothing in 300 miles each direction. The movie opens with the entire sheriffs' department (all two of them) staring at a pile of burnt cellphones. Next, the town's helicopter is gone. Then the sled dogs. Finally, a bloodthrusty gang of vampires move into the town to enjoy taking their time feasting on the townsfolk. A isolated town without sunshine is the vampires' Miami beach; an ideal vacation spot. A band of survivors gather to hide, raid the store for supplies, and weather out the blizzards and bloodsuckers.

The movie is great horror and emphasizes the point the remake of Dawn of the Dead missed: trying to outlast the seiging horror. This is the underlying theme, but there is much more to it. Under the supervision of the original graphic novel writer Steve Niles, Hard Candy director David Slade, and The Grudge producer Sam Raimi (also directed Evil Dead), they make every horror and suspense possible with style to emphasize the isolation and graphic violence invoked by sadistic vamps. The vampires are the unstoppable kind, where it requires a shotgun blast to the head to stop them. Their undying hunger makes them maniacs for taking bullets for blood. This leads to some painful moments of seeing people killed easily and a beautiful fight of an expert trapper against plenty of vampires. I won't ruin how the fight goes, only it doesn't disappoint.

Characters do not go unnoticed. Danny Huston plays a convincing Marlow, the head vampire, who makes the most of a small role speaking gibberish (vampire language is subtitled). Josh Hartnett (Black Hawk Down)plays Eben, the sheriff. He holds onto a human side, as he beats the crap out of the only person he can blame for the first murder and barely holds onto himself. His estranged wife (Dark City star Melissa George) and brother are alongside him, and he takes most of the burden upon himself simply because he is the most able. Mark Boone, Jr. is the real treat as Beau Brower, the expert trapper who is brave enough (or just crazy) to fight off some of the bloodsuckers.

A few things hurt this movie. It pretty much defies logic that the vampires don't look for the survivors very long. It is a small town, yet if they know there are still people and don't look for them, what does a vampire do all day... er, night. Other times, the survivors run around town sneaking supplies too easily. The bites tend to look cheap, and I'd suggest a new makeup department. Better gore comes from the vampires deaths than the bites.

Is it entertaining? Very. It kept my attention from start to finish. Although there's not much climax, only one character is truly wasted. All of the others are noteworthy and interesting, rather than yawning by the fifth death.

Is it marketable? Very. The trapped feeling reminds me of zombie movies where the survivors take up a strict manner of keeping alive. The creatures have plenty of horror to them and survivors don't rely on the usual luck. Even the critics against vampire movies admit this one has more to it. Action and all horror fans will enjoy this.

Is it memorable? Not too much, athough I believe it would be a very good start to a series, espically as the comics already have a series lined up.

My suggestions? Go out and see it.