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30 Days of Night

(No longer in theaters)

Rating: R — for strong horror violence and language
Director: David Slade Cast: Ben Foster, Josh Hartnett, Melissa George, Danny Huston, Kate O'Rourke
Running Time: 113 minutes
Reader Rating: Write a Review

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Genre

Horror, Suspense/Thriller

Producer

Sam Raimi, Robert G. Tapert

Distributor

Sony Pictures/Columbia

Release Date

Oct 19, 2007

Release Notes

Nationwide

Official Website

www.30daysofnight.com

Review

Are vampires a healthy or unhealthy fantasy? I go back and forth but was eager to see 30 Days of Night, based on a graphic novel about bloodsuckers (or, more precisely, throat-rippers) that arrive in Barrow, the northernmost Alaskan town, after its last sunset for a month. Not to get all Hannibal Lecter, but there’s something about blood glowing black on white snow in the moonlight ï¿½ The director is David Slade, who made the amusingly perverse two-character pedophile psychodrama Hard Candy, and who works here mostly in fast, tight close-ups broken by showers of gore. The vampires are big Slavic rats that howl and shriek and tear out jugulars with their long talons. I like my vampires less feral, but Danny Huston is screamingly funny as the alternately finicky and savage Head Ghoulï¿½he’s like something spewed forth from the bowels of the Politburo. The problem is structural. After the invasion, we’re marooned with the dull survivors (led by Sheriff Josh Hartnett) in an attic for long stretches while the titles read ï¿½Day 17ï¿½ ï¿½ ï¿½Day 21ï¿½ ï¿½ The vampires, meanwhile, mill around doing ï¿½ It’s never clear. They act like beach-house renters with lousy weather who won’t leave until 11 a.m. Saturday no matter how bored they get. Moviegoers who’ve paid $11 will probably stay in their seats for the same reason. — David Edelstein