Image courtesy of impawards.com
Director:
David Slade
Cast:
Josh Hartnett……….Eben Oleson
Melissa George……….Stella Oleson
Danny Huston……….Marlow
Ben Foster……….The Stranger
Mark Boone Junior……….Beau Brower
Mark Rendall……….Jake Oleson
Amber Sainsbury……….Denise
Manu Bennett……….Billy Kitka
Megan Franich……….Iris
Joel Tobeck……….Doug Hertz
If films were graded by setup alone, 30 Days of Night would be an instant classic. But unfortunately a great build at the onset of a film leads to higher expectations at the conclusion of said film. Had 30 Days of Night been poorly made from beginning to end, perhaps the disappointment would not have been so palpable. Instead, the film seems content with being a great looking, well-made first half of a horror movie. It would be too simple to pin 30 Days of Night‘s ailments on any one aspect of the filmmaking process, but in truth the most noteworthy part of the movie is its technical proficiency.
Based on a graphic novel, 30 Days of Night is shot with minimal, but vivid color. Director David Slade takes advantage of his stark palette of reds, whites, and blues to ramp up tension as well as envelope his audience in a feeling of symbolic coldness. One can almost fell the desperate sense of isolation experienced by the town of Barrow, Alaska as they discover that their contact with the outside world is being systematically stripped away from them. When a stranger (the increasingly awesome Ben Foster) rolls into town, things look like they are about to unravel in a pleasingly chaotic way. The stranger speaks cryptically of the danger looming as day turns to 30 days of night.
Of course just as soon as Slade gives us hope that we are watching a throwback to other small town horror classic, he introduces his monsters, and the movie derails. While the storyline remains appealing, characters that were implicated to be major players are eliminated indiscriminately in a gory set piece, that is, admittedly, well-done. But instead of offering further pathos and depth in its primary victims, and therefore a reason to survive, 30 Days of Night constructs its story around the bland vampires that have invaded the town. The camera does not spend enough time with killer or victim to make viewers care much about either one. The crime is that much more offensive when one is reminded of how effective horror can be by giving both hunter and hunted strong motives.
30 Days of Night struggles because it asks the audience to merely accept things because they are what they are. For instance, the vampires are presented as sophisticated, self-aware gods, but why? If they are so great and powerful why has it taken them so long to realize what a wonderful blood buffet a perma-dark mining town near the North Pole could be? Worse is that the film itself draws attention to that question. Most movies require a certain leap of faith from their viewers, but we should never be shoved into it. If those in Barrow don’t believe in vampires, why do they believe in the mythology surrounding the creatures of the night? Because they have to in order to survive.
Sometimes “because” can be an acceptable answer to those questions, and for a time 30 Days of Night earns that good will, but the film is ultimately unscary and laughable. If the movie wanted to be a moody graphic novel adaptation, the filmmakers needed to tone it down and if it had wanted to be more like Phantoms or Slither they needed to play it up. Instead it lies somewhere in the middle: a classic setup with a typically stupid finish.
