30 Days of Night
Starring: Josh Hartnett, Melissa George, Ben Foster, Danny Huston
Directed by: David Slade
Rating: R
Genre: Horror, Thriller
2007

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: When a small Alaskan town prepares for thirty days of night, a gang of vampires descend on the town, intending on preying on the townspeople. Only a sheriff (Josh Hartnett) and his former flame(Melissa George) stand in the way.

Review:

Tim: There's a lot to like about this film. I love the idea of setting a vampire story in the northern-most town in the United States, where it stays dark for thirty days at a time. This gives the vampires free reign to terrorize the town without having to disappear during the day. This is brilliant, and makes for a very exciting film.

Josh Hartnett does a surprisingly good job as the town sheriff. He gives a strong performance, but doesn't act like a superhero. He gives the impression that he is just a normal guy caught up in a terrible situation. Melissa George is quite good as well, and interacts well with Hartnett.

The vampires are pretty scary. I really like how they are portrayed in this movie. They don't speak much English, move about in a frightening manner, and look terrifying. The vampires are great villains. The story puts our protagonists in a nearly insurmountable battle against supernatural villains. For most of the movie, this works beautifully. The story starts to break down a bit. The film's conclusion is both clever, and a bit of a stretch.

30 Days of Night does some things well, including putting an interesting spin on the traditional vampire movie. However, despite its unique approach, there is still far too much that is recycled from previous vampire movies. The film ends up being good, but not nearly good enough.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 7



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: 28 Days Later, Vampires