30 Days of Night (2007)

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  TheMovieDiorama

  5 / 10

  30 Days of Night takes an interesting premise but doesn't execute it effectively. Utilising a weather phenomenon known as "polar nights" in which night lasts more than 24 hours. In this case, 30 days of eternal night where a small group of vampires take advantage of the darkness to massacre a town. It's up to the local sheriff and the remaining survivors to save the town from becoming ruins. Like I said, an interesting premise. It has all the right ingredients for a decent gory flick yet it never feels thrilling. Undeniably there is plenty of gore, with many scenes spewing blood out left right and centre. I'm talking hacking a guy's head off with an axe multiple times, many many many scenes of neck feasting and one vampire being pushed into a grinder. Suffice to say, genre enthusiasts will love this. Others though may find some difficulty. A B-List cast results in mediocrity acting. Unfortunately it shows here, I mean Josh Hartnett and Melissa George tried their best but they just come across as wooden. The more emotionally involved scenes of dialogue were delivered monotonously. Danny Huston as the vampire coven leader was excellent. Surprisingly being a vampire suits him. He was menacing, ominous and down right creepy. It's a slow moving film, which is mostly where the narrative fails. It takes a good thirty minutes before we see the legion of vampires. A good five minute scene of carnage is then followed by fifteen minutes of survivors talking in an attic. The characters had no emotional depth and were completely one-dimensional, so all these scenes of building backstory and development were wasted. Slade's direction was pretty solid, liked the shaky cam when the vampires were attacking. Great use of lighting to enhance the silhouettes of vampires in the background. Oh, and the last ten minutes were absurd. I'm sorry but I hated the ending. Felt like a chapter in Twilight! Apart from that, it's a competent horror film that will appeal to a select few, just needed more interesting characters and a better conclusion.

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