Decent vampire movies are few and far between, and I'm having a hard time remembering a recent one that impressed me like 30 Days of Night.
30 Days of Night (2007)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:150
Fresh:73
Rotten:77
Average Rating:5.5/10
Consensus: While 30 Days of Night offers a few thrills, it ultimately succumbs to erratic execution.
Rated: 15 [See Full Rating] for strong horror violence and language.
Runtime: 1 hr 53 mins
Genre: Horror/Suspense
Theatrical Release:01-11-2007
Synopsis: Located in the northernmost part of Alaska, the town of Barrow experiences a complete lack of sunshine for an entire month once a year. The town is populated with tough, hardworking, and generally... Located in the northernmost part of Alaska, the town of Barrow experiences a complete lack of sunshine for an entire month once a year. The town is populated with tough, hardworking, and generally law-abiding citizens, so there hasn't been much for Sheriff Eben Olesen (Josh Hartnett) to do except brood over his separation from his fire marshall wife, Stella (Melissa George). As darkness descends for its annual 30-day day, though, a series of bizarre discoveries rocks the town--and very soon vampiric Marlow (Danny Huston) and his minions arrive, slaughtering and sucking on everyone they can catch, safe in the knowledge that they have much longer than usual until sunup. Eben, his little brother Jake (Mark Rendall), Stella, and a handful of others are forced to hide and fight for their lives until the sun returns. Clearly inspired by the sprinting zombies of Danny Boyle's 28 DAYS LATER and Zach Snyder's DAWN OF THE DEAD, Slade makes these vampires lightning-fast creatures of destruction. With ratlike makeup design indebted to NOSFERATU, they are effectively spooky. This is as much an action film as a horrific one. The lead-in time until the tale's initial fireworks is brief, and the pace thereafter is relentless. The script, co-written by Niles, is tense and avoids tension-killing humor that ruins so many contemporary studio horror efforts. 30 DAYS OF NIGHT never plays it safe; primary characters bite the dust, children fall into harm's way, and a lot of pretty white scenery turns red before our eyes. [More]
Starring: Josh Hartnett, Melissa George, Danny Huston, Ben Foster
Starring: Josh Hartnett, Melissa George, Danny Huston, Ben Foster, Mark Boone
Director: David Slade
Director: David Slade
Screenwriter: Steve Niles, Stuart Beattie, Brian Nelson
Producer: Sam Raimi, Rob Tapert
Composer: Brian Reitzell
Studio: Sony Pictures Entertainment
Reviews for 30 Days of Night
Gone are filmdom's traditional seductive vampires, but '30 Days of Night' still contains chills and thrills galore.
Slade doesn't skimp on the gore, or on the disturbing imagery of these fast-moving vampires... hunting the townsfolks through the snow.
You may not believe there's any more blood to suck from the shriveled corpse of the vampire movie, but you'd be wrong.
30 Days of Night redonne ses lettres de noblesses à monstre édenté depuis des années, pour ne pas dire des décennies.
Your enjoyment of Hollywood's latest vampire flick, 30 Days of Night, is largely going to depend on how forgiving you are towards the flaws of the Underworld movies.
In order to enjoy the best, you have to put up with the worst... and rarely have "best" and "worst" commingled quite so completely.
The most impressive effect in 30 Days of Night is Danny Huston's haircut.
At its core, 30 Days of Night is a siege Western relocated to the frozen north.
The premise of this film has just got to be the ultimate wet dream for your average vampire.
Director Slade has fashioned a horror film that, for all its narrative shortcomings, succeeds at what it set out to do: make vampires scary again and terrify audiences doing it.
30 Days of Night is the kind of gruesome but entertaining survival guide you pray you never have to follow: how to stop vampires killing you during the darkest days of Alaskan winter.
30 Days of Night manages to do for the vampire genre what 28 Days Later did for the zombie flick: give age-old monsters a modern-day makeover.
Vampires stage a blood orgy in a tiny Alaskan town that spends a month of every year sunk in the darkness of polar winter in this gory adaptation of Steve Niles' popular graphic novel.
It's clear the film script has gone through the standard Hollywood death-of-a-thousand-rewrites wringer to emerge as shadow of its former self, drained of much of its creative synergy.
Fleshing out their minimalist story in a way that won't cause the blood to drain from fans' faces, it's one of the better recent efforts as both a comic adaptation and a fright flick.
30 Days of Night is the well-paced and entertaining horror debut of Hard Candy director David Slade, who captures the coolest parts of Steve Niles' comic book series on the big screen.
Latest News for 30 Days of Night
November 26, 2009:
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The Twilight Saga: New Moon has been in cinemas for almost a week. So, depending on your feelings towards sparkly vampires and extremely buff werewolves, you will either have... More...
September 02, 2009:
30 Days of Night Sequel Director Revealed ![]()
According to Bloody Disgusting's sources, the "30 Days of Night" sequel will roll in October, with Ben Ketai behind the cameras. More...
November 06, 2008:
30 Days of Night Sequel Confirmed ![]()
Following up on reports from the spring, Bloody Disgusting has confirmed that a sequel to "30 Days of Night" is on its way. More...
October 21, 2008:
David Gordon Green Heads to the Heartland ![]()
Overture has hired David Gordon Green to direct "Freaks of the Heartland," an adaptation of the horror graphic novel from "30 Days of Night" writer Steve Niles. More...
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