2007
Josh Hartnett as Eben Oleson
Melissa George as Stella Oleson
Danny Huston as Marlow
Ben Foster as The Stranger
Manu Bennett as Billy Kitka
Screenplay by Steve Niles, Stuart Beattie, and Brian Nelson; comic by Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith
Directed by David Slade
Barrow, Alaska. Arctic circle. Deepest winter. The sun doesn’t even come out. Hence the name. So now, not only is it really cold, it’s really dark. All. The. Time.
Eben (Hartnett; Penny Dreadful, Blow Dry) is the sheriff in Barrow and is helping the town get ready for the annual 30 Days of Night—that fun time of year in the extreme north when the sun goes down and doesn’t actually come up again for a month. His estranged wife Stella (George; The Amityville Horror [2005], Mulholland Drive) was supposed to catch the last plane out of town before the darkness sets in, but missed it. Then the Stranger (Foster; 3:10 to Yuma, X-Men: The Last Stand) shows up and starts sabotaging everything. Why? Well, there’s a horde of vampires (led by Danny Huston; Wonder Woman, Marie Antoinette) on their way and he’s been sent to prep the town—making sure that no one can reach the outside world.
Then darkness settles and all hell breaks loose.
This was not ever on a list of mine, I don’t think; it may have been one that looked a little interesting when it first came out, and then I forgot about it (that was during the end of my college career and the very beginning of my professional teaching career, so I didn’t have a lot of time to remember movies). It was recently brought back to my attention, and I’m glad it was. This movie is cool.
How so?
- Josh Hartnett. I really like him a lot. You need to see Penny Dreadful if you haven’t started it already. He’s not just Danny Walker from Pearl Harbor—he’s actually talented. And he has a good fight scene.
- Ben Foster. Yikes. It’s not a big role, but he’s really creepy. He’s come a long way since playing Angel in X-Men 3. Danny Huston’s pretty hot here, too. In a weird, supernatural way, of course.
- The makeup is amazing. The vampires look less like traditional vampires here, other than the pale skin: all of their teeth are pointy and they really rip into their victims. Messy vampires. Their eyes are black. It’s all so subtle, which I think makes it more terrifying—they still look relatively human. Until they start shrieking.
Scream Meter: 6/10 It’s got a few solid jump scares, and the shrieking vampires and the burning and the darkness do well at keeping you uncomfortable the whole time.
Buddy Meter: 4/10 It’s vampires, after all. But they’re wiley. If you scare easily, maybe your score will be higher.
Overall Rating: 7/10 30 Days of Night is no Twilight, that’s for sure. And thank goodness. Because ECH. It’s also no Interview with a Vampire, but it works. Check it out.
© 2007 Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
See a movie OUTSIDE your comfort zone. 