Gone are the vampires who are so completely wimpy that Blade can kill with a single swing of his manly sword. The lead vampire in particular Danny Huston who is an identifiable character saturated in menace at the same time peering at his victims with soulless black eyes. These vamps are, in every sense, nasty unlikable, disgusting, weird and utterly scary, just like a vampire should be.



So they come by boat to feed of the population of Barrow, an Alaskan small town, a place where no person ever seems to joke or smile. They're forced to live, once a year, in perpetual darkness during the winter. Director David Slade knows how to create tension and horror without showing you much, and that happens to be a plus point with its extremely patient build up, and the heightening of suspense. You have to tip your hat at him for crafting a very quiet movie at crucial scenes, so much so that the audience lend their "Ssshhhhs" not to tell fellow audience to keep quiet, but aimed at the characters themselves to remain like little mice lest they get detected. '30 Days of Night' is a very grey movie in mood, tone and the weather.



The humans here though behave like typical vampire movie fodder. The bigger the ensemble, the more victims it can provide, not counting anonymous folks seen being victims from afar. Josh Hartnett's Sheriff Eben plays hero as he leads his bewildered town kinsman to survive through this 30 days of mayhem before the sun shines again, while trying to work out his estranged relationship with wife Stella (a very pouty Melissa George from Turistas (Unrated Edition), and I still say she's a dead ringer for Estella Warren!). As usual, you have a team of misfits feeding off each other's strength in a quest for survival, and a theme such as Sacrifice is never too far away from movies like these.



The real interesting take on the vampires is that they have their own language and move like starved, rabid animals. They don't seem to have a master plan for world domination or being part of a conspiracy, they're just there and the way they look will scare most people. Their facial feature is like something out of a David Lynch nightmare.



I like that this is a mystery, not an action movie and the only other scary vampire movie in modern times is Shadow of the Vampire, a movie almost as scary. But I can hear my vampire-loving friends bring this down, since the vamps didn't play spinette, spoke with eastern European accents and moaned like the best sex they've ever had every time they sink their teeth into flesh. They don't even seem to be enjoying themselves. There is one more movie that comes to mind and that The Addiction, where vampirism also seem to be more of a decease like alcoholism or bulimia. It does contain some pretty violent scenes like the massacre on the dogs, the gunplay and decapitations that look almost too realistic.



But what I felt was a let down to its build up, was the unsatisfying ending, which left a bitter aftertaste with its abruptness and inability to resolve anything substantial. It also didn't allow for any sympathy for the victims as you would sometimes find yourself rooting for another kill just to satisfy your blood lust, also because little time is given for you to get to know those characters. As the humans learn that guns do zilch to their targets, there goes all hope, and try as they could to get creative in turning the tables, it boiled down to keeping it simple. Thumbs up for the vampires but as for the whole film in general it could have been a lot more, but unfortunately left some bits to be desired.