30 Days of Night (2007) User Reviews

A very underrated film ( American C+Movie ) My Ratings 8/10

[THE-BEACON-OF-MOVIES-RAFA · 8/10 · 10 March 2020]

I really do not understand what these critics are based to rate a movie, this excellent movie has a horrible rating when others are not so good they have excellent rating, 30 days of night is a clear example that we can not judge a movie based on Critics

AN ACTION PACKED HORROR THRILLER THAT MADE VAMPIRES SCARY AGAIN!!!

[lukem-52760 · 8/10 · 9 December 2018]

WOW what a fantastic & scary Horror movie this is!!!! "30 Days of Night" deserves to be double billed with John Carpenters The Thing!!! "30 Days of Night" is the best Vampire film ever made, it's a Horror that actually shows Vampires to be terrifying ferocious creatures & this film totally made Vampires terrifying again!!! Also this film is a visual stylishly stunning treat with beautiful & eerie cinematography as well as a scary as hell raw icey-cold musical score that is truly haunting & very unnerving.

This is also the great underrated Josh Hartnett's best movie & Role, here he gives one fine solid leading man performance!!! As i said this Wintertime Horror made vampires absolutely terrifying again!!! like primal beasts hunting it's prey, the scariest vampires I've ever seen so far in a vampire movie...Ever!!! The vampires look scary as hell & the bleak snowbound setting is really unsettling especially when it gets dark for 30 days of night!!! This also has the best lead performance given by the underrated "Josh Hartnett" who i think is a cool guy & a great lead ever since seeing him in Halloween H20 (1998), The Faculty (1998) & Black Hawk Down (2001) he was great in those movies but has also been in alot of terrible films, he is excellent here as the sheriff of this little winter town in Alaska. Here Josh plays it very serious & intense & his performance comes off completely believable as you can see the fear in his eyes!!! Sheriff Eban is A great character for a Horror movie. The rest of the cast are all great like "melissa George" who is a strong tough female lead here & the always intense & creepy "Ben Foster" who is very scary here!!! The Atmosphere is very intense it's got that isolated "John Carpenter" feel to it that filled his movies with dread & works perfectly here, think of two "Carpenter" films mixed together with "The Thing" & "Vampires" & that's the kind of Horror this is, the atmosphere & mood is dark & creepy. Now this may not be an absolute Masterpiece & the ending didn't play out how i would've liked but it's definitely Excellent & deserves to be a Cult Classic in the future!!!

This is a blast of a brutal & violent vampire frenzy survival Horror film, It's also a blood soaked splatter fest with real looking fake blood spilling out all the over the place like the old school Horror films we grew up watching & loving. The setting is cold snowy & bleak, then comes nightfall & then comes the vampires & then it's full on survive the nights & fight till the end. A scary thrill ride Horror Thriller, Gritty,brutal,Raw & scary makes this one of the best vampire movies ever made!!! Up there with "The Lost Boys" "From Dusk Till Dawn" & "Vampires" Yes "30 Days of Night" is a superb, Thrilling & intense Horror movie with bursts of savage violence & blood splattered action!!! A real scary blast of Horror & Action.

Very good movie, quiet scary.

[DaRetroChick · 8/10 · 30 December 2011]

Okay, this is a scary film actually worth watching.

I've seen quiet a lot of vampire/zombie movies, and this one stands out to me, because even though it sometimes uses a bit of gore, that's not what makes it scary.

It's the tension. You just don't know what is going to happen next, the atmosphere is very creepy and the movie just gets through to you, like you can almost feel the Alaskan cold. Most scary movies I see end really badly, this one sort of did as well, but with a bit of romance.

The thing that scared me the most about it is the vampires, I mean, you wont want one of them coming into your room at night.

Overall, very good and worth watching..

8/10

Great setting but disjointed

[Ioreka · 7/10 · 12 February 2021]

Pretty good movie with great vampire concept and fantastic premise and setting. Characters do make you care, atmosphere is strong, and in places it's tense and scary. Would have benefitted from extending the first 'what's going on?' section of the film, which was excellent and resolves a little too quickly. Then reduce the length of the second half which is a bit disjointed, and you don't always know why the characters are doing what they decide to do. Gets a bit random, to be honest. Still enjoyable though.

Violent, Bleak, And Fun

[electronmove · 7/10 · 21 March 2022]

These vampires are more like wild savages than the charming and seductive Dracula or the stylish and clever Lestat. Instead we get rampant bloodshed across the Alaskan winter landscape with our protagonists trapped in a hopeless situation, turning it into a hopeful one as they just barely survive, being hunted by the seemingly-invincible vampire menace, until the tables gradually turn.

Very good vampire movie.

[Dodge-Zombie · 7/10 · 13 July 2022]

Well acted, well directed, great cast and a very good story.

Something different to most vampire movies. Mostly very good effects and a decent amount of pretty serious gore.

Not perfect by any means but highly enjoyable in my opinion and has some great music too.

Definitely worth a watch for any vampire fans.

Recommended.

Better than many a vampire film.

[stevelomas-69401 · 7/10 · 1 December 2019]

It's a reasonably original take that visually strip mines the comics it was born from. If you can ignore the very silly denouement and the odd way they have of showing the flow of time then this is a solid tense action horror.

Unique take on the vampire genre

[stevelivesey67 · 8/10 · 20 April 2022]

Good movie. Scary, original and well made.

Great acting with Hartnett, Houston and Foster being creepy/heroic.

Well written and executed.

More like a 7.5 but what the heck it ain't a 6.6 like it's showing.

Very good film for its genre.

[Bigs944 · 7/10 · 13 October 2007]

I had the opportunity to see this film tonight at a free screening at a theater in Chelsea, NY with the director David Spade, Melissa George and Josh Hartnett all present at the screening and I walked in expecting another run of the mill vampire movie and walked away pleasantly surprised.

It's no question that over the last 9 years the whole Vampire trend has been overdone to death. Blade spawned a sudden interest in a subject that has been around forever but hadn't been refreshed in quite some time. After Blade, enter Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV series and so on and so forth until the whole vampire trend had well worn its welcome. A few years pass and here's yet another vampire story. What makes this story any different? The graphic novel, 30 Days of Night, put together by the talented team that worked on Todd McFarlane's stunning "Hellspawn" series, Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith found a way to do something creative within the vampire realm, and its completely to do with premise.

That premise being, vampires being allowed to run amok freely in Alaska during a 30 day period when there is no sun to force them into hibernation during the day. Its simple yet fresh enough to maintain my interest, it's a wonder no one had thought to write this story until now.

What's important to note is that the story does not go into too much detail about the leading characters personal lives, nor does it go into too much detail about the vampires themselves. We don't know how they came to be and what their philosophy is (besides sucking blood) and that's a good thing, Its plunged strait into action and this lack of over characterization, actually helps to strengthen this story.

Despite the Alaska angle the film and the story itself is nothing really original. Even the vampires themselves are nothing we haven't seen before. Black trench coats and a mouthful of fangs, speaking in a foreign tongue with an evil squeal. But it's okay. I've seen it before but that doesn't mean that it's not going to make the movie any less entertaining.

Where this movie is successful is in the fact that it's handled in a very realistic way. Nothing is too over the top, Evan; Josh Hartnett's character is a believable and very human sheriff. He doesn't do anything in this movie that doesn't seem plausible, in fact the film has very little cringe moments and hardy any cheesy dialogue.

But it doesn't take itself too seriously either. It is what it is; an extremely gory movie about vampires killing people and it's thrilling, entertaining and put together very well. Its so basic that it works, not since the Decent had I seen a horror movie that succeeded in this matter by keeping the story basic and believable and not relying on cheap tricks to try and thrill the audience. Of course there's the sudden jump moments, but you don't see Even leaping over dumpsters shooting off semi-automatic weapons and spurting out one liners.

When it comes to the films performances, the supporting actors do a good job and the ever dopey and extremely untalented Josh Hartnett whom I never fail to dislike, in everything he does, somehow seemed almost likable in this movie and I don't know why, but I did like him in this roll.

Some of the shots in this movie are incredible; I can honestly say I've never seen anything like a few scenes that popped up in this movie. There's an overhead shot that spans the entire town amidst all of the chaos of the vampire attack and I can honestly say it is breathtaking.

Overall it's a very strong film for its genre, dare I say one of the best. You simply can't compare it to Citizen Cane, or the Godfather but for what it is, its very good. If you like graphic novels, liked the Decent, like horror or sci-fi. Or Vampires. You'll be pleased. Well worth it for free and if I had played would be satisfied.

Good stuff

[meliajanssen · 29 September 2009]

I thought this would be just another horror zombie flick but as it turns out, it was actually quite a good movie. Yes, we've all seen the plot before but the 30 days without sun scenario actually gave the movie a big part of its realism. I get crazy enough during the short winter days so I can't imagine what your mind does to you if you don't see the sun for a whole month. The action is real and the survivors don't go to any extraordinary means to stay alive, they just used good old-fashioned group work. There were some good performance from the lead and it was nice to see Josh Harnett isn't just another pretty Hollywood face. The ending has a real nice melancholic twist to it.

One of the worst movies I've ever seen

[BJBatimdb · 2/10 · 4 November 2007]

Oh! this film's so bad! What a waste of resources! I was lured into the cinema by the presence of Danny Huston after eye-catching performances in Ivans XTC and The Constant Gardener but how he got mixed up in this is anyone's guess. To give him credit, he is the best thing about this movie.

But he's so outweighed by rubbish there's no redemption.

The plot has got more holes in it than Dracula with cavities. The script is deplorable. The editing is so fast and annoying that I wanted to hit Pause. And - once you've seen a whole vampire - the tension is non-existent, and the film relies on gore and jumps for the duration.

The most ridiculous of MANY plot devices is that - after enduring 29 days and 16 hours of vampire hell (even though it seems about as hellish by the end as it did at the beginning - nothing is made of the sheer hardship that would have been faced, even without vampires lurking) Josh Hartnett decides that NOW is the time to turn himself into a vampire to give his wife a chance to escape.

Not only does turning himself into a vampire barely even make him a better fighter, but when he DOES create a decoy, the silly bint doesn't even take her chance to run away! She just stands and watches him. That's gratitude for you.

And THEN to add dumb insult to already itchy injury, Josh manages to suppress his new vampiric urges long enough to kill himself rather than rip her throat out.

The action jumps about without motive (including a convenient jerk from 'Day 7' to 'Day 27') the snow is wasted; the dark is wasted; the few clever things they do are wasted; the actors are wasted saying stupid, corny things. Any movie which includes in its first scene an actor slitting his eyes around the horizon and saying: 'Who would DO such a thing?' in response to some incinerated mobile phones, is a movie worth rushing out of immediately to get your money back. Sadly, I stayed put.

HOWEVER. In the interests of fairness, the overhead shot of the vampire attack is wonderful and the vampire make up is genuinely scary. I give it 1 mark for each of those things.

Only Had to Get 1 Thing Right...And it DOES!

[damianphelps · 8/10 · 8 January 2021]

Atmosphere.

What a brilliant place to set a movie where the creatures rely on the night for their strength. No place to escape, no respite, 30 Days of , we are coming to get you!

Its a simple story, with good acting and a great style, but it is the unrelenting onslaught with relief a long way off in the future that sets up and carries the movie towards success.

Awesome fun :)

Out for blood

[KoolCatReviews · 7/10 · 5 June 2022]

This movie contains the right amout of action, to dialogue to set up. It peaks in the middle section were it is absolutely gripping. It dies get weaker towards the end as the intensity feels like it dips. Overall this is what you want from an action movie, original setting, a worthwhile but not lengthy set up and good gripping action.

30 days of night in which nothing much happens for 27 of them!

[Nick1000 · 4/10 · 4 November 2007]

The title is completely irrelevant: Yes there the film covers 30 days but action only happens in about 3 of them. Almost everyone is killed in feeding frenzy on the first night, then its day 7 then day 14? then day 27 and presumably, finally 30 (They don't put text up for that but it's implied because the the sun is rising). There is no sense of time passing. On each day when something happens the action is kicked off by someone saying that they have to move on despite there being no obvious reason to do so other than to put themselves in danger and when they do move they always walk slowly down the middle of an unlit street that is brighter than mine is with a full moon and all the street lighting on! Having said all that, The characters are OK and it was kind of enjoyable in a Sunday afternoon TV kind of way.

Good, but Should Have Been Better

[koltonbrett · 7/10 · 28 January 2022]

The northern most town in the US during a month of darkness is a fantastic setting for a thriller/horror movie. Does this story do the setting justice? It could have been better but it definitely could have been worse. The vampires that descend upon this small town are indeed monstrous. They're violent and smart but also very animalistic. They quickly reduce the population of this town to a small few. The biggest problem with this movie is that the characters are not very interesting. Most of them seem to serve no real purpose. The main duo are given a complicated relationship to make them more interesting but we're never really told why this relationship is strained. This movie is at times suspenseful as the small group of survivors hide out in one place or another. In my opinion, most of this town's residents aren't the surviving type, which is odd considering where they live. As the story goes from the first day to spanning the 30 days, it begins feeling a bit erratic. The movie struggles to make it feel like this significant amount of time has passed. Even with its issues, 30 Days of Night has its good thriller/horror moments making it entertaining enough.

A good vampire movie, but the feeling we get is that the end result could be one of the most amazing in recent times, but some flaws are visible

[fernandoschiavi · 6/10 · 14 November 2021]

30 Days of Night is an adaptation of the comic written by Steve Niles with art by Ben Templesmith which is published by IDW since 2002. What Steve Niles did was to gather stories and legends that are common knowledge to perform an original story with great potential for both comics m (original media), as for the others since the idea would work perfectly well also in sitcoms and movies (how this adaptation). All we know for certain locations in cities, especially the poles with the same characteristics of constant cold like Alaska, the sun appears and hardly at certain times when the days are longer with large periods in the dark. We also know all the fascination vampire stories have always generated at all. The entire atmosphere of mystery and fear at these beings is something that provokes curiosity and attraction. And the idea of getting thirty days isolated in the cold, without notice, in the dark, trying to survive amidst vampires is, by itself, a situation that creates fear. Was ready the scenario of what could be one of the most terrifying movies and interesting movie. The film is competent, but suffers at some points.

Barrow, Alaska. During the 30 days of the local winter the city is in complete darkness. Almost all city residents decide to leave there these days, leaving for somewhere less depressing and frozen. Those who stay have to await the return of the sun and life. Something changes, however, when a stranger comes to town and announces that the end is near. They gradually falling energy, telephones, internet and all sorts of communication with the outside world. Initially interpreting such acts as acts of vandalism, the local sheriff, Eben Oleson (Josh Hartnett), deals with his own personal problems such as cancer of her grandmother (Elizabeth McRae) and teenage brother Jake (Mark Rendall). Additionally, to deal particularly with the recent separation from his wife, Stella (Melissa George), who was for him to refuse to have children, even with both still harboring feelings for one another. When the officer and the other residents realize what is happening, it is too late. Only decapitation or ultraviolet radiation can deter the creatures. As a direct confrontation is almost suicide and the sun will not rise for the next thirty days Barrow, what remains for the group of survivors led by Sheriff's hiding until dawn.

The adaptation was written for the screen by Stuart Beattie, Brian Nelson and the actual creator of the comic Steve Niles, which certainly contributes greatly to the work keep the main feature of the comic. The writing team can better explain some ideas of comics and there are no problems when it is wisely discarded in film, for example, the sub-plot of vampire hunters who comes from New Orleans. Spare, so more time to develop the drama of the city and the characters. Another point is the protagonist couple Eben and Stella. In the comics the two are very much in love, because in the movie they are separating. Surely this is a device used to enhance the final climax of the plot. And it works well, especially since the development of the other characters is poorly performed.

Sam Raimi, who directed the horror classic The Evil Dead (1981) was very interested in the project and even thought about driving it, but it ended up being just as a producer, passing the command to David Slade, I had only the excellent thriller Hardy Candy (2005) on his resume. In his first work, Slade actually managed to create a constant atmosphere of tension with few resources, scenarios and focusing dialogues and actions in almost two competent actors (Patrick Wilson and Ellen Page).

With a budget of $ 32 million, Slade is competent, but the feeling is that it is still the story could have been better explored. Maybe not the fault of the director who managed to create a great backdrop for the development of suspense, but mostly by script. The script does not work to present and create a bond with the characters the audience. Especially for a small group of people trying to survive the onslaught of vampires, this development that would make us care about the anxieties and dramas was essential. Even the protagonist couple Eben and Stella are poorly developed. We stayed the whole movie trying to know the real reasons that caused parted, and fail to see the chemistry between the actors. They end up looking like two more people in the group trying to survive and when you try to speak more of their relationship, always seems forced and out of place in the general context. Even the couple's friends in the film do not know exactly what happened in their relationship. This all undermines the very act of selfless Eben at the conclusion of the plot. Already the other human actors, are used only for issues narratives. The exploration of the personal dramas of the characters was essential to amplify the terror and the public more involved. Slade loses all chances to create an interesting drama amid suspense, from the plight survivors. Never see them struggling every day, that would make everything more realistic. What becomes more important is Eben's brother, Jake. The movie does not invest much in the suffering of the boy to see the death of a loved one, or during a violent act he is forced to commit. The character, however, appears to be recovered shortly thereafter.

Vampires also arise only as the great villains bloodsuckers. Besides the characters practically limited to grunt and open mouth showing teeth, any question that addressed some of the secular history of the group is not even mentioned. 30 Days of Night also fails to follow the rules of their own world. Little is revealed about how vampires die, but at some point we deducting the only two modes are by decapitation or by ultraviolet light. At one point, a character says that they withstand bullets, but soon after they fall with a few shots. They feel the shots but not enough to be killed? Or are they dead? We cannot know. Sometimes they achieve speeding cars, while in others they cannot get a kind of tractor.

The passage of time is also somewhat misplaced. Speak a few times even as missing until this nightmare is over, and when it is spoken there is a enormous amount of days between the actions of the film. There is a feeling that something is progressive. This spacing day is poorly explained. Virtually the entire first half occurs during the first day of winter, as residents look for ways to escape the attacks. Soon after the plot jumps seven days, revealing that the characters are still in the same place where they decided to hide. How to survive until then? Vampires stopped attacking? It is not natural to the audience as if they were gaps to be filled.

Josh Hartnett and Melissa George not compromise even with little chance to build a relationship between your characters. Ben Foster can deliver a performance slightly above average as odd that announces the arrival of vampires. Danny Huston as the leader of the vampires, Marlow also has little to stand out, as well as his followers.

Editing Art Jones is good, but at times when the group tries to hide the film's pace plummets, and the suspense gives way to boredom. But the action scenes interim know well with others and that feeling of monotony is largely forgotten at the end of the projection. Already the art direction of the double Nigel Churcher and Mark Robinse, and photography Jo Willems work hard to promote the construction of fear. The Snow White and the visual presence of vampires in each scenario because of the gloomy weather needed immediately. The sense of isolation from humans, the climate always night and look that resembles the one used in the comic is very satisfactory. The general plan air showing the initial attack of the vampires in the bloodbath contrasts with the white snow is very well directed.

David Slade sins mainly not create anything new to the Vampires, just before reusing elements already used for humans. The camera shows Slade shameless massacres occurring in Barrow, and not excessively fast assembly appeals to the more violent scenes, further increasing the impact of the images. The violence and excessive blood eventually prevailing to the script that has several flaws. It is a good vampire movie, but the feeling we get is that the end result could be one of the most amazing in recent times, but that just ended up being a good movie.

A Good, Action-Packed Horror Movie

[Uriah43 · 7/10 · 1 October 2012]

There are several good things about this film that differentiates it from the average vampire story line. The idea of using a small, Arctic town like Barrow, Alaska, creates all kinds of unique opportunities that most movies of this genre don't have available to them. For example, because of its geographic location it has "30 days of night" which gives the vampires a totally new lethal capability as they now have 24 hours in a day to wreak havoc. And they take maximum advantage of this new opportunity. Additionally, the extreme winter environment and the geographic isolation provide a new set of difficulties for the humans in their desperate attempt to stay alive. Another difference is the ugliness of these vampires and their behavior which is much more savage than most "typical" vampires presented in films today. They enjoy tormenting their prey. As far as the film is concerned, it was nominated in 2008 for a Saturn Award for "Best Horror Film" along with "Best Makeup". It boasts plenty of action, but this detracts a bit from the overall acting performances. While both Josh Hartnett (playing the lead character of Sheriff "Eben Oleson") and Melissa George (playing his estranged wife "Stella Oleson") performed adequately, the rest of the characters weren't well-developed, and it showed. All in all, though, this was a good, action-packed horror movie that makes good use of the dark ambiance and original concepts.

Danny Huston is awesome!

[deacon_blues-88632 · 7/10 · 15 May 2022]

One of his most memorable performances, 30 days of night was a tour de force for Danny Huston. The makeup fx were very effective. One thing that gave me pause as I watched this film again after a few years is the massive waste of human blood by beings who traveled so far just to get it! Otherwise, it's a great vampire film. Loved the portrayal of vampires as purely evil and barbaric blood lusters! So sick of the popular romantic vampire crap that started with Todd Browning and Bela Lugosi and perpetuated by the twilight series!!! Blah!!!! Vampires are evil!! They are the spawn of hell! You shouldn't want to kiss them or have sex with them!!!! Period!

Few of the truly scary movies

[leonffe · 9/10 · 19 April 2022]

30 days of night was a different vampire movie. It used vampires like zombies and that was refreshing. Really entertaining horror film but nothing mind blowing.

Throughly entertaining horror film with Vampires.

[poolandrews · 7/10 · 22 January 2008]

30 Days of Night is set in the (very) small town of Barrow in Alaska which has the distinction of being the northern most town in the U.S., it is isolated in 80 miles of road-less wilderness which is cut off & plunged into total darkness all day every winter for thirty days straight. During this time the population of Barrow drops from 563 to 152 as most of the townspeople head to somewhere more hospitable for the winter, the few that do stay this particular winter are in for a rough time as a group of blood drinking Vampire like creatures descend on the town in order to kill everyone & drink their blood. A small group of assorted survivors lead by Sheriff Eben Olesen (Josh Hartnett) & his wife Stella (Melissa George) must try to hide & make it through the 30 days of night until helps arrives in the form of the sun...

This New Zealand & American co-production was directed by David Slade & this horror film did pretty good box-office back in 2007 & I have to say I rather liked it, I didn't think it was any sort of classic but I definitely liked it. The script by Steve Niles, Stuart Beattie & Brian Nelson was based on the Dark Horse graphic novel of the same name by Niles & is a pretty grim 'base under siege' type horror thriller that is best described as a cross between The Thing (1982) & John Carpenter's Vampires (1998) (coincidently both of which were directed by John Carpenter which means absolutely nothing, come to think of it it's not to dissimilar to Ghosts of Mars (2001) also directed by Carpenter...) as it's set in a freezing snow covered isolated location & features hordes of blood drinking vampires, it certainly takes itself very seriously & there isn't a light hearted moment in it but it is quite often very intense & I did like it's conviction. The character's are slightly better than what one would expect, both Sheriff Oleson & his wife have personality which makes the downbeat ending a bit of a bummer. I mean after watching a fairly grim & intense Vampire flick for 100 odd minutes featuring plenty of death & destruction I would have liked a bit more cheerful ending but that's just me. There's enough action & gore to satisfy hardened horror addicts although not all aspects of the story are as good as I would have liked. For instance who were the Vampires? Where did they come from? If it was blood they were after why did they kill people in such a way all their blood was splattered over the wall or floor? Why did that main Vampire at the end fight Sheriff Oleson? Why did all the other Vampires just stand there & watch as their leader was killed? Why didn't they then kill Oleson?

Director Slade does a very good job here & films with style in full 2:35:1 widescreen, some of the opening shots of the Alaskan horizon as the sun sets over the snow covered landscape looks great & he thankfully keeps his camera nice & steady so we can actually see the carnage. I loved the aerial shot from above the town as the camera moved over the main street as the vampires attack, there are huge red splodges of blood everywhere, fires burning & Vampires attacking people all viewed in one continuous cool looking shot from the sky! The special effects are impressive, both the CGI computer variety & the more traditional prosthetic make-up effects sort. The Vampire creatures look very good & quite intimidating, I love how they walk around with old blood stains from their victims on their faces & clothes & don't bother to wash it off. There's some good gore here as well, there is plenty of blood splatter with chopped off heads, decapitations, slashed & bitten out throats, gunshot wounds including Vampires having their heads literally shot off, blood drinking & a real crowd pleasing moment when a huge trench is used to carve up several Vampires as well as a cool scene at the end when a Vampire falls into a masher & is suitably mashed. The film has a good atmosphere & a real sense of isolation, there's some nice jump out of your seat moments too.

With a supposed budget of about $32,000,000 30 Days of Night is well made with high production values. Although set entirely within the snow covered confines of Alaska in the U.S. 30 Days of Night was in fact filmed entirely in New Zealand. The acting is good from all involved, in case any football fans from the UK are wondering the main Vampire played by Ben Foster is not the same Ben Foster who is currently one of Manchester United's goalkeepers! Credit where credit is due Melissa George is nice & easy on the eye too.

30 Days of Night is a really good horror thriller that I enjoyed a lot, the story isn't quite as tight as I would have liked (how did that kid who popped up at the end survive for so long?) but it makes for good late night entertainment which might even give you a few scares. Followed by the made-for-TV mini-series 30 Days of Night: Blood Trails (2007).

Maybe my expectations were just a little too high

[Smells_Like_Cheese · 5/10 · 20 October 2007]

30 Days of Night was one of the horror films I was looking forward to most this year. I mean from the moment I saw the trailer early spring, I was looking up on IMDb when the release date was, it was agony knowing that I had to wait until October. Finally, last night, opening night, it was storming in my city, so it was like the most perfect time to go see this movie. So my friend and I saw this last night and the theater was packed, when the movie ended, there was only one person who started to clap, but then stopped immediately when he saw that there was no one else clapping. While my friend liked this movie, I wasn't too thrilled. It didn't seem like a real vampire film, more like Night of the Living Dead or 28 Days Later, where this group is just hiding from the vampires. Not to mention that things were just not well explained, but maybe I need to read the book to get it, because this movie failed to explain certain situations.

Eben is the sheriff of the northern most town in the U.S., also it is night for 30 days, the roads shut down and some of the population leaves and some stays. Things go extremely bad though when a gang of vampires decides that this is the perfect town to move to. They pretty much get most of the townspeople, except for Eben, his ex-wife, Stella, his little brother, Jake, and a couple more of their friends. Since the vamps have cut the power and had someone burn all the cell phones, it's impossible for the gang to escape, but they are going to try to make it for the month. But that's going to be tough when the vamps spoiled their dinner the first day and now need more happy meals on foot.

The plot was incredibly good and original, I was so thrilled that this seemed to be like a real vampire movie. But unfortunately there were things that were just not well explained. Now like how the vampires seemed to want to be known in this world, but then later on they try to "hide" what they did by burning the town, it didn't make much sense. Then how did The Stranger fit into this whole mess? Was he a potential vampire? Was he promised to live if he did these things for the vamps or promised to be turned into a vampire? Then also why did Josh Hartnett become a vampire? I know it was to gain super strength, but still, it seemed kinda silly for him to jump so quickly. Not to mention the love story between him and Stella didn't have good enough chemistry to pay attention too. I feel bad bashing this film because I so badly wanted to like it, but it just didn't pull through for me.

5/10

Best horror movie in years

[otakucore · 10/10 · 31 December 2011]

I don't know how this slipped under the radar. The main character is shown to be making hard choices before the first vampire even appears and every scene, practically, is a moral dilemma with great play on viewer expectation. The performances, writing, editing and shot selection all are excellent. Josh Hartnett and, to my surprise, Ben Foster (who knew he was a great actor even before Rampart) were incredible.

I hate to say this because it pisses me off to no end when I hear it from fans of The Matrix Reloaded and The Fountain, but the haters seem to be thick. Every negative review I read demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of the vampire myth (particularly a confusion between the semantic and syntactic aspects of genre).

The writers of this film understand vampires. The vampire is pure narcissism incarnate, utterly lacking in empathy, sympathy, and mercy; and the film expresses that through action and dialogue to an extraordinary degree. Vampires lack what makes us fundamentally human, and the horror genre itself is about the delineation between human and monster. Where this movie really shines is in how it shows that we have to make hard choices and become monsters ourselves to fight evil. I rank it right up there with Dracula.

Real Vampires

[luckybuccaneer · 7/10 · 4 January 2021]

No souls, no angst, no creepy falling in love with teenage girls...finally, vampires that just eat you. Love it! Old school horror at its finest.

actually 30 days of nothing

[rboy8 · 1/10 · 20 October 2007]

well i suppose from my summary you can tell that i was not impressed with this film. i feel once again like a stupid fool for getting all worked up for this movie after seeing the trailer and thinking about what an interesting concept this could be. what started out as something i might be able to get into turned into one of the biggest turgid messes of a train wreck that i have not witnessed in my 50 or so years of movie going. now mind you, i am one of the easiest guys to please. sometimes i go see a movie because i know that it is going to be a stinker and have a great time laughing at the horrible dialogue or completely out of kilter plot holes and so forth. as the film unspooled, i sat in amazement.......did he just say what i think he said? no. you mean to tell me that the director and screenwriters finished this half baked flawed project, went into the screening room and actually emerged with their heads held high and high- five-ing each other on a job well done? i know that making a film of any kind is not easy but come on! stale dialogue...stupid music cues for the horror discovery scenes and on and on. i want to know why the vampires, who at the beginning of the movie can run fast enough to catch a speeding car and can group together and lift one become more stupid and slower with each passing scene. at one point they are snatching bodies with lightning speed and at another the two leads are trapped in a car and the baddies just stand around and screech and make grabbing arm gestures that are easily fought off. huh? why did the vampires set out to kill everyone immediately and not pace themselves? it seemed like it was just killing for killings sake. no rhyme or reason. very very boring. Danny Huston was the best thing going for this film. i actually payed a little more attention when he was on screen. as for the ending, its the same old story. Hartnett goes mano e vampo with the lead vampire while all the others stand around and screech and do nothing to help kill Harnetts character. i actually felt no passage of time for the 30 days that passed and there was really no tension built up for any kind of climax what so ever. at the end of the movie when Josh Hartnetts character sits on the edge of the cliff and watches the sun come up with his lady love i would like to think that he is actually thinking of his career at this point turning to ashes just like his body. would somebody somewhere please please make a horror movie thats really fresh and even a little scary?

A Boosting Addition to the Genre

[billion_mucks · 6/10 · 21 November 2007]

I am not a stainless fan of vampire movies, I just enjoy them when casually seeing one. I put them in the same bag that zombie flicks, so I have faith in the genre. This movie treats the story of a survivor group running away from a crew of Vampires, summoned in the darkness of an inevitable night. This optic more likely belongs to a class A Zombie, where they always run from their chasers, so expect changes.

"30 days of night" follows an interesting premise, with a new perspective, that moved me to see it. In an isolated town in Alaska, which it summons into a month of darkness, inhabitants will have to fight with a bloodthirsty gang of vampires. The movie doubles your breathing rate, grips you to the seat and prepares you for the gore spectacle with previous innuendos: a music that is both eerie and attractive, like a northern wind blowing. The constant snow falling gives a ghostly appearance to the show, the dampened and subdued lights form the perfect stage for the action to develop and an appropriate, narrow fast editing. Thanks to the brutal make up and great acting, the Vampires look soul-less and real monsters, that are not moved by a logic, nor softened as Anne's Rice; but into their brutal needs of feeding like a hound of animals.

Always with your blood frozen and your hairs paralyzed, the movie just keeps you guessing when you are going to get a big sudden scare. There is an extensive make up work (basic for movies like these), that make vampires scary and impervious, frightening with the way they walk, move and gesture. Would I mind having one of them at home.

Remind you of the gruesome parts, where skin is torn down like play-doll, the fans and new experience seekers will be satisfied. There is a mild character development, where we only ground for few of them.

"30 days of night" doesn't include a major budget. Expect what the poster and trailer promises. Tension, great action development, entertainment and:

-Oh yes, there will be blood.