30 Days of Night

Dark. Cold. Starving. Isolation. Threatened. Unknown entities. Death.

Those are all fears of primal origin that every human being can relate to. It’s certainly been a theme in scary movies before, but probably not since John Carpenter’s The Thing (1982) has it been so bleakly, brutally, and bloodcurdlingly portrayed in a horror-on-ice film.

David Slade (Hard Candy) directs the action from a graphic novel by Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith, a story that follows a small stronghold of survivors in the far-flung Alaskan town of Barrow after a band of evil vampires have decided to stake their claim on that unique spot where every year the sun takes 30 days off.

The leader of the predator pack is Marlow (Danny Huston, using with Zen-like subtlety every fiber of his being) who is alluring… but in a way totally unlike Count Dracula. The ancient, intelligent and shrewd Marlow is a thirsty, cruel and motivated creature with no need or desire to seduce anyone, wear red velvet, drink his sustenance from goblets, or engage in chit-chat (I believe his only line spoken in English is: “No God.”). All he and his cohorts want is blood, and plenty of it. With cunning and military precision, these canny creatures bring down the weakest in the human herd until there are only a few huddled souls left alive.

Holed up in the attic of a desolate house that was once a home are a cross section of survivors (little girl, teenager, adults of both sexes, old man) led by husband and wife Sheriffs Eben (Josh Hartnett in his best, most nuanced performance to date) and Stella (Melissa George, a brainy beauty to who can play tough with aplomb). While we know that Eben and Stella were headed for divorce and are now forced to rely on each other for their very lives, not much is said about it.

Slade’s previous movie was almost all dialogue, while Niles’ novel contains very little. Having read the book and seen Hard Candy prior to 30 Days of Night, I was wondering how this would mesh – I’m happy to report it’s as beautifully balanced as a beach ball on a seal’s snout. We get just enough information, a touch of gallows humor, and whole helluva lot of horror. I will concede there are a few logic-leaps required, but remember: you are watching a vampire movie in the first place!

Now there’s the question of look and feel. The collaborators’ previous works have been quite static (Hard Candy wasn’t based on a play though it seemed that way, and the 30 Days of Night graphic novel… well, it was pictures on a page) but here they come alive. Scripter Niles and helmer Slade don’t romanticize the harsh environs, nor do they make it so ugly you don’t want to spend two hours there. The action is aptly injected with plenty of white-knuckle suspense followed by massively gory and unflinching, but economical and effective, payoffs. The score -- by turns music, sound design and judicious silence -- is also significant to the experience.

Not only is 30 Days of Night the first fright flick in a long time to be chilling in every way, it’s also the one to return our fangy friends to their rightful frightfulness. I love lavish Lestat and brash Buffy as much as anyone, but it is about time the vampire genre got a transfusion and 30 Days of Night provides the needle, tube, bag and blood.

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Reviewed by Staci Layne Wilson