Film Reviews

30 Days Of Night

• Rating:
• Director: David Slade
• Starring: Ben Foster
• Details: US / NZ / 113mins (16).

"Why didn't we come here before?" In the small town of Barrow, Alaska - the northernmost town in the U.S - Sheriff Eban Oleson (Hartnett) keeps tabs on the quiet inhabitants. Barrow is about to descend into a month of darkness, and the gloom brings some unwelcome visitors - a gang of vicious, itinerant vampires. They set about the townsfolk with plans to wipe everyone out - they can't have any survivors blabbing or the game will be up - while Hartnett and co. keep low, buying time to figure out how to defeat them. 30 Days Of Night, adapted from the comics by Collateral scribe Stuart Beattie, is a moody and stylish horror from director David Slade (Hard Candy). There are a lot of things to admire: Slade brings an overbearing sense of isolation, something akin to The Thing or Alien, and keeps the tension high throughout, while throwing in some truly gruesome deaths (that beheading will stick in the mind for some time) and inventive shots (the aerial view of the street battle). There are two major problems, however. Like Hard Candy, Slade's film lacks a decent ending to an impressive set-up, and it's a little unbelievable that the vampires, who are searching for a whole month 247, couldn't find a few survivors in a town that isn't exactly a metropolis. Helen Keller would have found them in that time. But if you're in the mood for a different vampire flick along the lines of Near Dark or 28 Days Later, 30 Days Of Night just might satisfy the thirst for blood.

Review by Gavin Burke