modern marvel's Review

Summary - Great 4.0

Based upon the graphic novel, 30 Days of Night is the tense, bloody, and downright vicious story of a small Alaskan town sealed off from modern society for the solstice and the clan of vampires that choose such a moment to gleefully destroy the populous before the sun makes its return 30 days later. From the opening moments you’re filled with foreboding, and every scene bubbles to the top with tension as if at any given moment you could be thrown from your seat (metaphorically, because if thats happening you should stop watching the movie immediately and alert your local authority) and assaulted by the action and horror filling the screen. For a long time I claimed this is the best vampire movie in the 2000s (arguably replaced by Let the right one in AND its remake Let me in) and watching it for the first time in a couple years the other day randomly enjoying a scary movie as Halloween fast approaches, I was still taken aback at how good the film is and how well it stands up to the test of special effects and the short attention span trending of horror. If you want to be legitimately surprised and frightened by a vampire movie, this is a solid choice as it truly is one of the best of the genre during this more modern and jaded era.

Acting - Very Good 3.5

Nobody read the memo when they signed onto “30 Days of Night” stating that it is a horror movie because the normal overacting, underacting (?), wooden and/or forced acting, and ridiculous line reading that tend to make a lot of scary films laughable are nowhere to be found. Every member of this cast brought their A-Game and it helps to allow for easy immersion into the film. Casting Josh Hartnett as a small town sheriff (he was still a big star in 2007) seemed like stunt casting a name actor but this may be his best performance to date; understated, frightened, vulnerable but with a strong will to survive. A leader and yet a hesitant one considering the circumstances, you truly watch a full range of emotion and it never once feels less than genuine. Ben foster as the drifter is a bit on the animated side but once you realize his story and purpose in the film, you believe it wholesale. the vampires themselves have a difficult job, communicating with blackened eyes, an indistinguishable language, and mostly physical movements, which works for making them the more animalistic bloodsuckers that they are in this film.

Film - Really Great 4.5

Somebody needs to drage David Slade out of “movie purgatory”, get him away from television episodes (although they are well done), and allow him to film whatever genre picture he wants because WOW this film looks magnificent. Beginning his career with the squee-inducing and hard to watch but ultimately amazing “hard Candy” and following it up with this film, its a wonder to me that he allowed his genre career to (hopefully temporarily) disappear (its because he directed the third Twilight movie, isn’t it? c’mon a guy’s gotta eat!). Directing tension isn’t easy, and in this era of horror filmmaking doing anything slowly and without musical cues to get the scream ratio up is certainly not taking the easy way out financially, this movie is artful and quiet when it needs to be and a ferocious explosion of fast paced violence when it needs to be…in fact realizing that doing such without nagging pacing issues may be his buiggest triumph. the colors, with the snowy white being captivatingly violated by the bloody splashes by 30 days end and the growing dreary atmosphere set in stone by the dark of night are a wonder to watch and possibly never done as well. Kudos to the cinematographer because this film is beautiful. upon first viewing and upon the most recent viewing, i was swept by how gorgeous every scene looked, even as it tempted you to look away in places.

Edge - Sordid 2.7

The most “sexiness” that stems from this movie is a couple kisses, maybe a rude joke here or there, and the knowledge that "hey, some of these people are married! Or dicvorced in the case of our main characters. The violence, however, is pretty nonstop, realistic, and bordering atrocious in places; not for people who dislike the sight of blood, jump easily, or are planning a movie night with senitive types. The red stuff gets everywhere, body parts are severed and displayed and detail, and the sense of dread that “Yep they’re dead” is almost more painful to watch than anything the special effects department can muster. But hey, at least we’re not getting pretty vampire mayhem, right?

Reality - Supernatural 3.2

Which hurts your sense of realism more, vampires or the idea of josh Hartnett as an alaskan lawman? jokes aside, this is a perfectly realized concept even if and when it borders on the fantastic, and you’re going to get fantastic when you’re dealing with the vampire mythology. the most stunning part about its sense of “reality” is how well it plays everything as possible (well, the end is a bit far fetched but meh! still cool) and even within the realm of “damn what would you do if that really happened?” that a lot of fantasy or horror movies don’t seem to be able to instill into your thought processes.

Then again, i think i read somewhere that the solstice doesn’t last that long or exist so darkly… i better google it. ;-)

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