30 Days of Night


2/4

Starring: Josh Hartnett, Melissa George, Danny Huston, Ben Foster

Rated R for Strong Horror Violence and Language

“30 Days of Night” is Stephen King’s “Storm of the Century” with vampires standing in for the monster Andre Linoge.  Unfortunately, while Josh Hartnett is an adequate stand-in for Tim Daly, the same cannot be said for Danny Huston, who next to Colm Feore, is as frightening as Robert Pattinson in “Twilight.”

Once a year, the small town of Barrow, Alaska has a night that lasts for thirty days.  It’s getting to be that time of year again, and some strange things are happening.  A number of cell phones have been burned in a pit, all the sled dogs in the town have been slaughtered, and a mysterious man (Foster) shows up bringing warnings of death.  That’s when vampires, led by Marlow (Huston), show up and start slaughtering everyone who hasn’t fled for warmer weather.

The first 30 minutes are rocky.  The little scenes that are meant to build a sense of unease while introducing us to the characters are inelegantly woven together.  Things get better once the survivors band together in an attempt to make it through the next month without ending up a snack for some bloodthirsty creatures.

The acting is effective.  Josh Hartnett may not have a broad range, but he’s an effective straight man, and it doesn’t take long to start caring about what happens to him.  Melissa George is adequate as his estranged wife, but she’s still likable.  Underrated character actor Ben Foster (who deserved an Oscar for his role in “The Messenger”) digs into his bag of tricks to play the loopiest freak he’s ever played.  Danny Huston isn’t particularly chilling, but that’s not really his fault.  He just has to walk around with his mouth agape showing his sharpened pearly whites.

This is David Slade’s sophomore feature after his ballsy debut, “Hard Candy.”  Any storytelling skills he had with that film have apparently evaporated since then.  This is a shoddy, tension-less gorefest (at least the studio allowed him an R-rating…without it, this movie would be completely worthless).

Although the cinematography is great and the shaky cam is used to good effect, there are just too many problems with this film to allow me to recommend it.

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