30 Days of Night

In Barrow, Alaska, the northernmost town in the U.S, the winter sun sets and does not rise for 30 days and nights. From the darkness comes an evil force that strikes terror on the town, and all hope is pinned on a husband-and-wife cop team.

30 Days of Night is a film that could, and should have been so much better. There's nothing here that's particularly new and the movie's USP is almost completely wasted.

The Vampires are a seriously underwhelming bunch, sure they'd be pretty bloody terrifying if you met them whilst taking the dog for his nightly walk, but on screen they're just shrug-worthy. Danny Huston's head bad guy just looks bewildered most of the time. Hardly the stuff of celluloid nightmares. There's not much in the way of gore or action - most of the former being off screen and most of the latter being spunked early on in a hard to follow, shaky cam, spurt of not much at all.

As mentioned above the main selling point of the movie - a month of darkness, is just not used to any kind of advantage to the film. Days, even weeks, go by at stroke with no indication of anything going on, other than a lot of people hiding. It could have been condensed without any harm to the story at all. These scenes are lacking in any kind of tension and it's hard to give much of a damn about any of the heroes. It doesn't help much that the cast is solid but hardly inspiring, Hartnett not much more than a stereotype and Melissa George not having much to do other than look good in a furry parka. Timescales aside, the film just doesn't flow that well. It does seem as though it's been chopped quite roughly to cut the running time. The ending would be far more effective if it didn't so closely resemble that of Blade 2.

It's not all bad though. The build up is great, and the overhead sweep of the town under attack is stunning. There's just not enough quality - or simple good old fashioned scares (or gore) for this to satisfy.