As soon as ’30 Days Of Night’ was released I wanted to watch it immediately. I’m a huge fan of the horror genre, and from the advertising this looked as though it was going to be absolutely brilliant. When I watched the film my suspicions were confirmed as this genuinely is an absolutely excellent film, although a bit long at 113 minutes. The film is based on the comic book miniseries of the same name, is directed by David Slade and stars Josh Hartnett and Melissa George. Having read numerous reports about the film before viewing it, I did not know what to expect as some had been good and others bad; regardless of what I read however I was always going to give this one a viewing when it was released and am greatly glad that I did so.
’30 Days Of Night’ is set in Barrow, Alaska where everyone is preparing for the annual thirty days of darkness. Whilst some of the towns residents choose to fly out to avoid the darkness, Sherriff Eben Oleson (Josh Hartnett) has the job of investigating some unusual crimes that have been taking place in the town. The towns one and only helicopter has been destroyed, cell phones have been all but destroyed, and the sled dogs have been slaughtered all by the same stranger. This is just the start of the destruction for the town and the film unfolds as all the towns remaining people must fight for their lives in this gruesome thriller.
Looking into the real town of Barrow, it would seem that there are actually a total of 67 days of darkness during the winter rather than the alleged 30. As well as this, 4000 people live in the real town compared with the 563 of the film. I like my films to be factual, and whilst these inaccuracies did annoy me a little when I found out about them – you can understand why they did choose to twist the facts a little in order to make for a more interesting and enjoyable film. It is only loosely based on the Alaskan town of Barrow so it’s worth bearing this in mind when viewing the film.
This is the first film of David Slade’s that I have seen. It is worth noting however that he is also the director of the film ‘Hard Candy’. Slade is an excellent director and proves so with ’30 Days Of Night’ I feel. He captures a great energy and intensity in this film, something that few manage to do; he possesses a rare directorial quality and right from the offset in this film he thrusts upon us great darkness and horror.
Whilst I’m not exactly the biggest Josh Hartnett fan in the world, I did greatly appreciate his performance in this film. I thought he played his part as Sheriff extremely convincingly, he is believable in his role despite his young looks and shows great emotional strength in his character. Hartnett’s first role was actually in the 1998 film ‘Halloween H20’ and yet since then he has been quite far removed from the genre. It was certainly good to see him back in horror, a triumphant return for Hartnett in fact. Playing alongside Josh Hartnett in this film is the actress Melissa George. This is an actress I was not before familiar with, but apparently she did play a part in hit Australian soap ‘Home and Away’ between the years of 1993 and 1996, so maybe I did once upon a time witness her during the early days of her career. Her role within the film is fairly effective, however it is definitely Josh Hartnett that provides ’30 Days Of Night’ with its stand out performance.
I think the best thing about this film is probably the brutal nature of the vampires and the horrific way in which they are portrayed. They truly are ruthless creatures, and director David Slade certainly doesn’t hold back in his portrayal. The film truly is scary and will have you on the edge of your seat as you watch, definitely not a film that you can kick back and relax in front of. I like this about the film, there are few horror films that I find to be truly scary but this is certainly one of them. Over the years I have become quite hardened to horror films, I certainly wasn’t expecting a Hollywood horror to have any such effect on me whatsoever. Blockbuster films of this sort tend to wash over me with little of a lasting impact whatsoever, and yet ’30 Days Of Night’ is a film that I certainly shan’t be forgetting in a hurry.
’30 Days Of Night’ is most certainly a film that I would recommend to fans of the horror genre. It will shock you with its scariness, it provides a large number of jumpy moments and never do you quite know where the film is going to go next. One complaint I do have with the film however is with the passing of time. The film is meant to cover the entire period of the thirty days and yet you do not feel that this time is realistically passing by. It’s difficult to portray the passing of such time in a film, and although this is not done particularly well I would not say that this spoils the film in any way. I appreciate the difficult task that it must be and all in all find it extremely difficult to find fault with this film. ’30 Days Of Night’ would be an excellent film for watching at Halloween I feel. You will find few films scarier than this one, that’s for sure. Give this film a try at the first opportunity you find, I personally was greatly impressed with it and I’m sure that you will be too.
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UK based film graduate with a huge passion for music, sports and video games.
