Scary is back in the cold deadly way. This horror film contained all the necessary ingredients for a classic fright.
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
This is a failed fright flick that is so inspired by Stephen King that the famous horror scribe should consider suing.
...a horror film as dim as its prevailing palette, a graytoned fugue set in the blankness of the Alaskan Arctic.
The performers have little to do besides spill and drink blood in this tedious, inconsequential B picture. The sun doesn’t rise nearly fast enough.
It's the Bourne Ultimatum of horror movies... It is Ghost House Pictures' first great film. Actually, it's their first good film but it's a great one.
The producers just had to give the material to director David Slade, a hack filmmaker of the worst kind, who drowns any promise this nihilistic tale of frosty survival held by smothering the picture in excessive, pedestrian visual gymnastics.
A bloody bore that utilizes lots of CGI blood and rapid-fire visual glitz in a doomed effort to cover up the fact that there is nothing going on here that even the least committed consumer of vampire-related entertainment hasn't seen many times before
For a horror picture being released only weeks before Halloween, 30 Days of Night doesn't thrill and it definitely doesn't spook.
Why see the same old Saw when you have a chance to see the best and scariest vampires you have seen in a long time?
So the remaining survivors huddle together. A few get bitten and turn. Some splatter kills in-between. Remind me again of what exactly is 'groundbreaking' about this.
...a breath of fresh air amidst the relentless deluge of watered-down, teen-oriented cash grabs and remakes.
proves there’s still a lot of life left in the horror/thriller genre with an imaginative, terrifying movie that doesn’t let up until the final credits
With such a good concept for a vampire movie, it's hard to believe it turned out to be this boring.
30 Days of Night sparks with crackling energy. It's a symphony of shocks.
Latest News for 30 Days of Night
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...
May 08, 2008:
Kim Newman on... Hotel
RT Obscura, the exclusive column by renowned critic Kim Newman, sees the writer plumbing the depths of the RT archive in search of some forgotten gems. In his 16th column, Kim... More...
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