30 Days of Night Review

Written by: alex1176   

Basically a John Carpenter film without, well...John Carpenter filming it! Yes, I know that "30 Days of Night" was based on a graphic novel, but as I was watching it, "The Thing" and "Vampires" immediately shot through my mind. Those two Carpenter films seemed to have heavily inspired this violent bloodsucker flick.

In it, Josh Hartnett plays the sheriff of Barstow, Alaska, a town which doesn't see sunlight for an entire month. Unfortunately for him and the rest of the community, hungry vampires show up the moment the sun goes down. The movie isn't very original, but it is atmospheric and extremely bloody. Director David Slade has given the movie a great visual look and there is one cool camera shot of the town's residents being terrorized by the vamps (you'll know what I mean when you see the movie).

My main problem with the film is the lack of originality. If you've seen a survival-horror movie before, than you know the drill: a group of everyday citizens work together to survive a horrific ordeal. Of course, they usually have a leader, but by the end of the film, most of them will die. In "30 Days", when the group gathers in an attic, I was reminded of "The Diary of Anne Frank" and the real life horror of the Nazis who "cleaned" out Jewish ghettos during WW II.

Anyway, the movie maybe standard stuff, but if you enjoy John Carpenter's work, than you'll probably like it. The performances are decent, the direction is slick and there's plenty of red stuff that is spilled on the plain white snow. I'll give it a thumbs up!