Summary: This is the story of an isolated Alaskan town that is plunged into darkness for a month each year when the sun sinks below the horizon. As the last rays of light fade, the town is attacked by a bloodthirsty gang of vampires bent on an uninterrupted orgy of destruction. Only the small town`s husband-and-wife Sheriff team stand between the survivors and certain destruction.

Despite Some Bad Casting, a Well-Made Film
Reviewed by Gavin Schmitt

In Barrow, Alaska the sun sets for an entire month and the villagers are given 30 days of night... most of them are smart enough to leave for Anchorage, giving this town a population of 152 brave souls. But this year, they have visitors: a clan of ancient vampires has staked out the town and wants nothing more than to spend the next thirty days gnawing and clawing through every living thing in sight. How do you kill the undead? This film received some unbelievably high ratings. For my first viewing (in the theater), I was expecting a decent but not amazing film... with the excessive level of advertising, I had to figure they were going to inflate the box office numbers (something often reserved for less than wonderful films). I left the theater unfulfilled: a film that seems to have one of the best ideas imaginable made by a team that seemingly did not know how to make a horror film. Too stylized, too clean... We have Josh Hartnett as Eben Oleson and Melissa George as Stella Oleson, the husband-wife sheriff combination, who are having marital problems. They are just annoying. The pretty boy marries the pretty girl and they run the town full of ugly people? Thanks, Hollywood. Oh, they have family problems but are forced to love each other by a crisis? Thanks, Hollywood. Oh, Hartnett is going to be clean-shaven and wearing a light coat in sub-zero temperatures so he looks cute? Thanks, Hollywood. By far some of the worst casting... The vampires were a major problem for me. They walk around with blank stares on their faces, over-acting their parts (what are those faces). The leader occasionally spouts a line of nonsense philosophy. They screech and screech non-stop. Okay, I get it, you screech. You are annoying me. And they run really fast (which would not be bad, except a sizable bulk of the action happens so fast you never see it). I prefer sleek, intelligent vampires (Anne Rice or Bram Stoker variety) over ravaging monsters. I am also unsure about the "thirty days"... the film really only takes place over about four days. Where are the other twenty-six? Apparently they sit for five days, act on one day, and sit for another five days. Am I really to assume no one tries to fight the vampires for long periods of time? I understand the concept was "thirty days" but this really did not play into it (nobody was starving or thirsty, for example). I have ripped on it enough, let me say a few good things: Ben Foster plays the Stranger. I am not sure if I loved his acting, but I loved his character, and could have used more development on him. Early on he comes across as a Crazy Ralph knock-off, talking about death, doom and gloom. But he becomes a Renfield-like character and gets interesting. I wanted more of this, but never really got it. The music was good -- actually very good (I liked the battle march), and as my colleague Greg Roberts says, the cinematography was nice. I do not know about great, but one scene really stood out as awesome -- an overhead shot of the city being destroyed. It was amazing and made me want to play a video game version of this film. There is also a good shot of what an ax does to a man's head, but that only made me wonder why I did not get more of that action if they were capable. The most bittersweet scene was with a vampire girl. Children are good villains, especially evil vampire children. But they did not keep her around very long and introduced her with the most off-putting, unnatural line in the film ("Want to play with me now?"). I could understand maybe "Anyone else want to play?" or "I want to play with someone else", but her self-referencing herself as having turned into a killer was just really stupid and poorly delivered. Give me this film with more blood, more shots of actual violence (instead of doing it lightning speed or off the screen), less family drama, less slow build up. And do not give me Hartnett and George without at least dirtying them up (though I admit Hartnett was great in "Black Dahlia"). This film had more potential than most films coming out today, but squandered it all to be a Hollywood film. Update: Apparently my memories are fonder than my first impression. I went to my second viewing at House of Horrors in Oshkosh and sat down recalling a flawed but overly enjoyable film. After it was over, it was even better than I remembered. Reading this review, I am not sure what caused me to be so harsh on a David Slade and Sam Raimi film. I still think the casting was bad and the girl vampire was stupid, but the overall vampire feel is good and the cinematography is breath-taking. I had to bump this review up just a notch or two.

quick review
Reviewed by The Butcher

Vampires on steroids
Reviewed by GregMO ROberts

There is something about the vast snowy landscape of the north that lends to an eerie isolated type feeling. You know. The kind of feeling that sends a shiver down your spine just by envisioning the harsh yet tranquil environment. It’s surprising then that more horror films haven’t utilized this environmental plain more to their advantage. Outside of John Carpenter’s masterful, The Thing back in 1982, I can’t think of too many other thriller titles that used the backdrop of a a vast and snowy environment. Until Now. Welcome to 30 Days of Night the new exceptionally entertaining Vampires-in-Alaska flick based on the graphic comic by Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith. The premise is brilliant. Vampires take refuge in a small Alaskan town that is plunged into darkness for 30 days every year. I don’t think I need to spend valuable page space in explaining why a place without sunlight might be of interest to bloodthirsty vamps. Not only do the vampires have free reign of a sunless city, but thanks to a population of just less than 200, they have a buffet of jugulars to keep them as quenched as a connoisseur at a wine tasting convention. The mayhem all starts when a mysterious stranger shows up in town and is arrested by local sheriff Eben Oleson (Josh Hartnett – who has the acting range of William Shatner with Downs Syndrome) after making the townspeople feel a little uncomfortable with his desire for alcohol and raw meat. Uttering phrases like “That cold ain’t the weather, that’s death approaching”, doesn’t exactly lend towards a welcome wagon ceremony either. At the same time that the stranger is making himself known in town, strange things begin to occur. Well, if you call having all the sled dogs slaughtered, the power shut down and a local beheaded with his head being put on the top of a stick outside his work as being ‘strange’. These occurrences don’t allow Ebsen time to reconcile with ex-Stella (Melissa George – Turistas, The Amityville Horror) who is stuck in town for a month since she was unable to get the last plane out before the sun went away. The friction and backstory between these two main characters has to wait as the townspeople are slaughtered in mass. Stella, Eben and a small group of survivors hold up in the attic of a boarded up home in an attempt to wait out the massacre. The huddle quietly in the loft as they hear screams, gunshots and fights that would make ordinary people go mad. Not expecting to be in an attic for 30 days (well, who would?), they wait for the cover of storm to replenish water, food and medical supplies. But when they leave the safe confines of their hideaway they are thurst into a battle with a town now run by killers while other survivors join in the fight for their lives. 30 Days of Night is just plain creepy. It doesn’t offer really anything new to the genre, but it sure as hell is a fun, violent ride with plenty of scares even for the most hardened of individuals. The excitement is heightened by the fact that these vampires are not your run-of-the-mill movie type bloodlusters. These fang-feasters are fast moving mofo’s that can jump, run and fight like they have been sneaking into Barry Bonds’ locker and stealing his BALCO pills. If Peter Parker was a resident of the town, his Spidy sense would have his head exploding. Credit director David Slade who made the wonderful Hard Candy two years ago for taking a villain that has sees more movies per year than any other (sorry Zombie’s, but I looked it up). Not having handled horror before, he moves the camera around with ease and some of the shots – one of an overhead shot of the town while the vampires mercilessly kill tens of townsfolk and another of one of the best axe to the throat scenes that I have seen in…well, maybe ever – will resonate with me for long long after the screening. For those just looking to be scared, I can assure you than enough things jump and crash out at you that you will jolt at least five times in the tightly wound 113 minutes. With Hostel II behind us and Saw IV still to come, I am going to go ahead and crown 30 Days of Night as the horror film of the year not to be missed during the Halloween haunting season. And when that is over, get your orders in for the DVD now so that you can pause, rewind and relive the terror all over again.