I never heard of "30 Days of Night" until the movie was released. The concept of a remote Alaskan town under siege by vampires during the time when the sun doesn't show for 30 days struck me as fresh and interesting. The movie did not disappoint. Adding to the brilliance of the concept is that the vampires are portrayed as being anything but romantic creatures who woo their victims into submission. Romance, and religion, have been removed from the vampire equation, which adds to the appeal of the film's story. The vampires are coldly intelligent predators, whose idea of foreplay is to take someone's throat out. Danny Huston's portrayal of the leader of the vampire pack is amazing, proving you don't need pounds of prosthetics and hours of CG to provide a fright. Mr. Huston, and his scary band of vampires, deserve top billing.



Barrow, the hapless town targeted by the vampires, is cut off from the rest of world due to the weather, and the sabotage of the vampires' advance scout. Town residents are taken out in scenes of all out carnage. A memorable sequence is a continuous overhead shot that moves through one of the town's streets, showing the vampires dragging people from their homes, and the folks of Barrow trying to fight off the vampires. The scene slams home how the vampires use surprise to subdue and slaughter the town folks, dropping the already low human population of Barrow (the majority of the town's residents regularly leave the town during the month of darkness, unable to cope with not having any sunlight for so long) down to a few survivors trying to hide. After the initial blood bath, the movie moves into the suspense factor, as the remaining humans try to avoid the vampires until the sun rises again, and the vampires use their wiles to hunt down the remaining humans. Very scary. Take the movie's R rating seriously.



There are some holes in the plot - the biggest being the ending. I kept questioning what, exactly, the vampires were eating, as they left prodigious quantities of their victim's blood lying around, as well as their victims headless corpses. Still, I had such a good time viewing this movie, that I could suspend my questions and enjoy the movie. I am not usually a fan of horror films, but I am a fan of this horror film.