A film by director David Slade, reviewed by Twila Mynhier Brooks (aka The Death Dealer)

As the wife of reviewer Eric Brooks (aka Zombie Boy) and friend of Mr. B-Movie Man himself, I see quite a number of horror and vampire movies. This one was exceptional. While I am no expert (and definitely not Zombie Boy or B-Movie Man), I very much enjoyed this movie. I had read a number of mixed reviews on the movie so I was not certain what to expect of it, but it turned out to be an almost new genre of vampire movies. Most vampire movies one sees are at best predictable and at worse silly and predictable. This one was not like the typical vampire movie. Leaving the theater I could only compare it to “Pitch Black” in the newness of the movie. I have a terrible ability to predict the next scene in most movies and I was unable to do so in this one.

The movie keeps your interest throughout. As you did not feel anyone was safe from the vampires hunger. You feel as though this could happen to any one (who lives where there is 30 days of night). There was not your typical clichés and the movie seemed as ‘real’ as possible given the subject matter. One particular moment of creativity was when the sheriff (Josh Hartnett) kills a vampire using a sun lamp (used by his grandmother to grow medicinal marijuana). I do not recall any uses of crosses or stakes to the heart. The characters seemed to not believe what was occurring because it was unbelievable that vampires would come to your town. As such, they did not seem to know what to do to kill them. The use of the sun lamp was a decision based on the characters movie viewing and the use of the machete was almost an accident in its discovery.

The setting of the movie was wonderful. I could not keep from asking why had no one else thought to explore the idea of 30 days of night for vampire feedings? The feedings were great and very scary. The setting was so remote and the steps to cut the town off from communication were very well planned and they made total sense. Many people really take for granted that they can just pick up the phone or a cell phone and reach anyone at any time. We from Eastern Kentucky know this is not true of coarse and we from Lexington who lived through the great ice storm of 2003 also know this.

The ending was also not predictable yet made perfect sense. In classic storytelling, we come full circle at the end with the sun raising just as it set at the beginning of the movie and the main characters’ marriage woes being resolved in an unconventional way. I particularly liked the manner in which the vampires planned to ‘cover-up’ their feedings. It would be perfectly logically to have a gas line explosion, fire and everyone die. Since the vampires would not want anyone to know about what occurred in Barrow, so they can eat at another town the next year.

In regard to the characters, the main characters of the sheriff, Eben Oleson played by Josh Hartnett and his estranged wife, Stella played by Melissa George were ok. However, the best characters were the creepy stranger (who was a familiar not a vampire) played by Ben Foster who we really did not find much about during the movie. Yet one could think all kinds of creepy things as it is sometimes best to not know all the details. The best one was the leader of the vampires Marlow played by Danny Huston. He was awesome. He did not do a lot but he was very scary. His quotes could be Vampire Philosophy at best or Vampire Haiku at worst. In either case, they are short but right to the point (no pun intended) and provide great moments of enlightenment (again no pun intended). The portrayal of the vampires was one of tortured souls not cool immortals that just happen to drink blood to survive. You do not want to live forever like these folks. The language (my friend and I determined) of the vampires must have been vampire speak with eastern European origins (which makes sense if you believe the vampires started in Transylvanian) which was also cool.

 

As with all good moral plays (which some would say this is) there is a lesson to be learned from this film. The most important one is to have your estate plan in order and your original documents in a fire proof safe (they would survive the fires) since I am an estate planning attorney (I can almost hear the blood-sucker analyses from the reader right now) who really does deal in death I had to add that note of wisdom. Since you never know when you are doing to die. The next one is take better care that your cell phones do not get stolen by a vampire familiar if you live some place where there is 30 days of night. Duh!!

This is a great movie that scares you for days. It is well worth 112 minutes of your life.