DVD Review: 30 Days Of Night

Just as Samuel L Jackson could star in the biggest box office turd of all time and still come out clean on the other side, so vampire movies can be terminally cack and still stake a place in the hearts of cinemagoers.

A case in point is the Blade trilogy that people liked so much we got a TV series full of lunatic plotlines and enough fake fangs to restock the NHS. Heck, even John Carpenter’s Vampires managed two sequels and that had James Woods AND Daniel Baldwin.

They’re not all bad though, and while the prospect of a new bloodsucker flick starring master of the middle distance stare Josh Hartnett may not fill your soul with glee, we have some shocking news for you. 30 Days Of Night is actually not that bad.

OK, that’s hardly a poster quote (although please feel free to use it), but after Lucky Number Slevin the omens weren’t good for this one. Also, the plot is another to jump on the comic book adaptation bandwagon (there’s a copy included with the disc), and the female lead is Melissa George. Yes, that’s right, Angel out of Home and Away.

So just how have these factors combined to produce a decent film? Well it’s partly the fun premise. Josh is the sheriff of Barrow, Alaska; the northernmost town in the US, isolated in 80 miles of wilderness. As if that weren’t enough, the town is plunged into darkness for 30 days each year and alcohol is illegal all month.

That’s a real bummer, but nothing compared to the horror movie standards that follow, including mysteriously killed dogs, strange drifters and unresponsive phone lines.

Before you can say ‘I’ll check the basement’, a gang of dead eyed Vampires led by Danny Huston (surely only here for the cheque) have appeared, talking in a strange dialect and declaring open season on the town’s inhabitants.

Another draw is the skull cracking, torso tearing, eye popping violence that ensues, and the DVD release even gets upgraded to an 18 certificate from the original release’s 15.

Of course, a film about blood drinking beings was never going to be cutesy, but this is fairly graphically violent in a ‘several-blows-of-the-axe-to-sever-your-best-friend’s-head’ kind of a way.

It’s pitch black fun though, and as the vamps pick off anyone who so much as makes a noise, everything goes a bit Tremors on ice with a touch of The Thing as friends begin to turn on each other.

It’s a shame that Danny Huston features so little, with good moments including playing a record with his razor sharp fingernails, and there’s precious little back story other than a rushed romance between Hartnett and George, but that’s hardly the point.

As long as you can enjoy the simple pleasure of a few neat twists (like the ending), and the rarity of a solid Josh Hartnett performance, then this should at least bridge the gap until Samuel L Jackson signs on for Blade part four.

Buy 30 Days Of Night at Amazon

[story by Tom Atkinson]