30 Days of Night (2007)
They're Coming!
A certain bloody vampire show is back for another season on Netflix on the day of writing this, so I decided I’d celebrate with a family movie! Ha, just kidding, I decided to do a bloody vampire movie! I know, I know, I’m so unpredictable aren’t I? You know, people always complain that comic movies didn’t get good till the modern marvel flicks, but there was actually quite a few enjoyable ones out there before those days - and this is one that I frequently forget had anything to do with comics until the opening titles throws it up on there. Get your low-light filters on and stay out of Alaska, tonight we watch 30 Days of Night.
So probably my favorite part of this movie is how perfect the premise fits the setting. Vampires, in Alaska where the sun is nowhere to be seen for a straight thirty days. It has everything just laying on the table to be something phenomenal - the isolation of the desolate snowy tundra, the ever-lasting fall of darkness in which monsters hide, and near un-killable monsters bent on turning any person they see into a snack. Before this thing even hits the screen, you are totally all in on the premise pitch. It could be a horror movie and kick all your closet into the garbage, it could be an action movie fueled by jump scares and violence - heck, it could even end up being a romance movie with a bloody twist. Admittedly, what we get might not live up to all of those expectations - and yet somehow, it oddly does play them all in way form or another. Our plot is as basic as the pitch on paper - most a town leaves to get away from the month of nighttime, after which the remaining locals are cut off from escape and the outside world as they are plagued by a vampire menace, leaving them to do whatever they can to try and survive.
As mentioned though, it does play into those other ideas - you have that human element of things, the “terror of emotions” if you will. How do different people hold up against insurmountable terror and a horrid death of being eaten alive creeping in from all sides? You also get that somewhat weird and unnecessary romance in there - between two humans though, keeping it sort of simple in that “these two split and we never really know why” sort of ways. We also get that climactic showdown in the final stretch between man and monster, where the body count rises (mostly on the human side but occasionally also on the vampire side). It stays simple with it’s premise - it doesn’t spill answers out everywhere, and the most story-filling line simply a vampire commenting on how long it’s taken vampires to make humans believe they are a fairy tale. It leaves a lot to the imagination - which could be honestly one of it’s biggest downfalls to some - but what it does better is making use of rather grounded decisions with the characters and setting. The fact no transportation really exists to leave this isolated place feels natural and well thought out on the side of evil. When a character decides to flee, hide, or fight it seems reasonable within that character’s context. This helps pump the horror elements up more, as it helps ground things in some realism despite the events taking place.
Of course, the environment helps the horror more than the decisions do. It’s cold, it’s dark, and it feels so desolate seeing any character on the screen almost seems bizarre and out of place. Much like the arctic isolation of the research base in The Thing did nothing but help the story, the same happens here. Who would ever know it was vampires who did in such a remote town? Of course, the darkness can at times be a bit of a downer for the movie - at times it’s a bit muddy when everything is so dark when it comes to details. One probably can see everything meant to be seen just fine, but some might miss some things - like color - because of it. Some of that falls more into the effects category, and I’ll make sure I talk about it then, but let it be told that despite the environment being a cool one for the story, some might prefer giving it the cold shoulder when it comes to being innately interesting to look at, regardless of if that’s the point.
What’s this all a-boat?
Actors largely do a good job. Most the performances here aren’t exactly the most top of the line convincing acting jobs ever, but for largely feel like they either fit the movie or are bad in that intentional and not pain-causing way. The main does a pretty good job of emoting, although at times his emotions seem as though they might be a bit overdone - granted that’s not coming from someone whose lived in the same small ice-covered little town with the same people and watching them getting picked off by some crazy menace. It’s all largely believable, and the largest affront to the common viewers sensibilities will probably be the vampires themselves, who outside of the leader largely act by doing a hungry smile, intent stare, or screeching loudly like a pack of birds vying for attention. Don’t get me wrong, the fact that the vampires in this are less sexy Dracula and pals and way more like a pack of screeching land sharks is what I believe they wanted, so the details aren’t really lost on me there. Still, it’s not going to be everyone’s jam - some will find it terrifying, some will find it annoying.
Effects has a lot to do here, but there’s one thing that stands out above the others - the filter. This thing squashes color like a beast, making everything feel rather muted, including a bunch of the blacks, while also making some of the whites seem blown out. This is most noticeable on teeth, where at times it almost seems like everyone has some reflective grills on to make those puppies shine - but also has that affect earlier mentioned in making things at times a bit muddy. Sure, some of the mud is probably just the age-old viewing problem of watching a 1080 video on a 4k projector, but it bears mentioning that I think that’s more a cause of the visual static that at times can be noticed flickering about then it is necessarily the sole proprietor of mud slinging. The vampire makeup looks good, giving them all very angular facial lines as well as full-mouth rows of sharp teeth - again, heavily giving the implication of sharks, even down to the way they shake about when biting people. The blood and violence looks good in the ways that blood and violence often does in horror, although it also all feels a bit more surreal due to the muted colors. I know nothing of the source material - big surprise - but I do think this was meant to try and emulate some of the comics (which I did take a quick peek of a few images on the web out of curiosity). Even the ship in an opening scene looks great, invoking the old matte painting technique used back in the day (although I can’t speak to if that’s what they did or not).
Audio is… well it’s there. Lines are heard fine, balancing is good. Music, well, it’s not exactly the highlight of the movie in my opinion. The opening song actually grates my ears in the wrong way, although most any music that might pop up outside of the get amped song for the final fight largely escapes my recollection despite me being sure it’s in there. Beyond the music, the effects actually have a pretty wide spread of adequate sounds, The movie also gets that cold wind sound quite right, which is handy when it’s the only sound at times besides the distant screams of another meal. Line deliveries are fine, packing some emotion when required even from the many side-characters. The subtitles can be a bit odd, and honestly I didn’t notice I even had them on for most of the movie - up until the first vampire line in a “foreign language” where the subtitle actually blocked out half the on-screen hard baked translation. After that, I noticed some interesting things, such as using the pound sign (#) anytime someone was talking on a walkie talkie, or occasionally just showing silence by throwing to square brackets next to each other.
Like shark ninjas, hanging on the ceilings.
Is this the best movie? I’m sure plenty would argue that it’s not - a 6.6 out of 10 would speak to that. Still, I do feel this movie is more enjoyable than some give it credit for. It handles it’s elements all pretty well, without being able to fully execute on them all flawlessly. It’s a decent little spooky survival flick to check out, particularly begging to be watched in the winter. It’s serviceable as heck, providing an enjoyable watch at least the first time. The premise alone is a golden pitch, and I can’t attest to how it holds up against it’s source, but as far as the casual audience looking for a bloody scare, there are - and I guarantee this - worse options out there. Heck, I almost subjected people here to a review for Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter - you should all be thanking me for choosing this instead!