00s Movie Review - 30 Days of Night

Director: David Slade
Genre: Horror/ Thriller
Runtime: 115 minutes
Year: 2007
Starring: Josh Hartnett, Melissa George, Ben Foster, Danny Huston, Manu Bennett, Mark Boone Junior

Description: After an Alaskan town is plunged into darkness for a month, it is attacked by a bloodthirsty gang of vampires.

Review: Comic books are perfect source material for film makers. Off course superhero movies, but films like “300” and “Sin City” were based on craphic novels. The dark comic “30 Days of Night” caught the interest of director David Slade and producer Sam Raimi. A story of vampires that haunt a Alaskan town that lives in total darkness for 30 days.
The town is called Barrow. Most citizens leave Barrow before the last sundown. But there are people left behind. On the evening before the 30 days of darkness begin, dog are brutally killed, cellphones are burned and computers are disconnected. The vampires know what to do to cut the people of from the rest of the world.
The vampire look not like your every day blood suckers. And they don’t just bite your neck to drink your blood, they rip their victims apart with their knife sharp teeth. And you can’t kill them, unless you cut off their head. And they speak a language we don’t understand. The leftover citizens, led by sheriff Eben, have to either avoid or beat the vampires to survive.
Although “30 Days of Night” is seen as a mediocre horror film and doesn’t get raving reviews, I always thought that it was an underrated film in the genre. The premise is really terrifying. A town in total darkness, being terrorized by creatures of the night. And it being a distant town makes it even scarier. This is a movie that genuinely scares me, what a horror movie should do.
Off course it has its flaws. The characters lack depth and the story overall is a bit thin. But there is enough to see and the film is visually very well done. And those flaws are easily forgotten. “30 Days of Night” is, in my eyes, an excellent film in the vampire horror genre.

Rating: 4 / 5

Five to Watch: Movies Set in the Snow

Winter is my second favorite season, because I just love the cold. I really do. And snow. It doesn’t snow very often in The Netherlands, and when it does, the Dutch aren’t prepared. Movies that have a snowy setting, it just adds to the atmosphere. I could name “Fargo”, “The Shining” and “The Thing”, but there are so many movies that people maybe not know about or that I think are underrated or underappreciated. Here are some movies you should watch, that are set in the snow.

30 Days of Night
An Alaskan town is plunged into darkness for a month. That is scary on its own, but the town is attacked by a gang of vampires. And they feast best when there is no sunlight. The people in the town have to survive those 30 days of night, without being victimized by the bloodthirsty vampires. A seriously underrated film.

Winter’s Bone
An Ozark Mountain girl hacks through dangerous social terrain as she hunts down her drug-dealing father, while trying to keep her family intact. Jennifer Lawrence’s big break in a small indie film. “Winter’s Bone” will grab your attention and never lets go.

The Ice Harvest
A shady lawyer attempts a Christmas Eve crime, hoping to swindle the local mob out of some money. But his partner, a strip club owner, might have different plans for the cash. It’s John Cusack and Billy Bob Thornton that make this movie. It’s a dark comedy with a hint of film noir. Not appreciated enough.

Snowpiercer
Set in a future where a failed climate-change experiment kills all life on the plnet except for a lucky few who boarded the Snowpieercer, a train that travels around the globe where glass system emerges. Lots of social commentary and one of the most surprising and original films I have seen the past 20 years.

The Hateful Eight
Wyoming winter, a bounty hunter and his prisoner find shelter in a cabin currently inhabited by a collection of nefarious characters. Most of the film is set in this cabin, with strong dialogue and mysterious, interesting, extraordinary characters. Tarantino did a good job.