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David (
Hard Candy) Slade directs this nerve-jangling adaptation of the popular graphic novel series about a mob of vampires that overruns a remote Alaskan town in the grip of
30 Days of Night. Josh Hartnett and Melissa George are the film's de facto heroes (he's the stoic town sheriff and she's his estranged fire-marshal wife) but the picture's real MVP is Slade's camera (along with cinematographer Jo Willems), which careens across the town's snowy landscape to detail the vampires' horrific assault on its inhabitants, which are quickly pared down to a hardy few. The script, co-written by the source material's creator, Steve Niles, along with
Pirates of the Caribbean's Stuart Beattie and
Hard Candy's
Brian Nelson), proudly wears its influences on its crimson-stained sleeve (Bram Stoker's
Dracula, natch, but also
'Salem's Lot,
Night of the Living Dead, and John Carpenter's version of
The Thing) and boils down the graphic novels to a series of tense and extremely bloody standoffs between Harnett and George's band of survivors and the vaguely Slavic and ferocious bloodsuckers led by Marlow (a feral and frightening Danny Huston). And if the characters seem stock and the finale begs suspension of disbelief, the set pieces leading up to it are sufficiently supercharged with suspense and violence to please most horror fans. Standouts in the supporting cast are Ben Foster as the film's Renfield figure and Mark Boone Junior; the disturbing score by Brian Reitzell also merits a mention.
--Paul Gaita
On the DVD
For a film steeped in dark atmosphere and darker violence, the supplemental features for
30 Days of Night have a surprisingly light-hearted tone, but still manage to provide a wealth of information about the picture's challenging production. Commentary by stars Josh Hartnett and Melissa George with producer Rob Tapert establishes the relaxed and friendly feel of the extras with amusing and observant stories about the New Zealand locations and scenes that nearly missed inclusion in the final cut; the cast and crew also cut up in eight short featurettes that address everything from the gruesome special effects (courtesy Weta Digital) to casting and stunts, as well as the effects of 33 consecutive night shoots on director David Slade (who mugs cheerfully for the documentary camera) and his crew. An episode of the 2006 anime series
Blood + (which deals with vampire-like creatures as fierce as Marlow's crew from
30 Days) is also included, though this is replaced on the Blu-Ray edition by a featurette that compares the feature's visual design to panels from its graphic novel source material. Trailers for other Sony and Ghost House films, including both
Grudge movies, round out the special features.
-- Paul Gaita
