30 Days of Night

Directed by David Slade, who has since directed and executive produced the TV series Hannibal (2013 – ongoing), 30 Days of Night is based on Steve Niles’ comic book mini-series, with illustrations by Ben Templesmith. Niles had initially created the storyline for a film, but after several studios rejected it, he revamped it into a comic. Ultimately, the comic was rewritten for the screen by Niles, along with Stuart Beattie and Brian Nelson.

Produced by Sam Raimi, Ted Adams, and Rob Tapert (the founder of Ghost House Pictures), the elaborate production of 30 Days of Night was filmed in just 70 days. With production design by Paul Denham Austerberry, the town of Barrow, Alaska, was replicated in New Zealand where the majority of the film was shot. Embellishments were added to mimic Templesmith’s original illustrations of Barrow with the help of art directors Nigel Churcher and Mark Robins, set decorator Jaro Dick, as well as the sizeable art department.

The film encompasses a unique spin on vampires. With talons for fingernails and mouths full of fangs, these vampires fly in a pack and are more savage than their blood-sucking predecessors. They even have their own language, which was crafted under the direction of a New Zealand linguistic professor. (After all, if the vampires spoke in English with Transylvanian accents, they’d be more humanized.)

The film’s incomparable makeup was created by Gino Acevedo and his team. The vampires’ appearance of pale skin, upturned black eyes, and exaggerated cheek bones were clearly patterned from nocturnal bats. Acevedo’s résumé also includes the make-up creations in A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child (1989), New Nightmare (1994), Species (1995), as well as Wishmaster (1997).  

Some argue that the special and visual effects of this film are too reminiscent of Danny Boyle’s innovative 28 Days Later (2002). Many horror films, however, have since incorporated the undying trend of CGI, and 30 Days of Night is indisputably unique by its own standard.

Brian Reitzell, a former drummer of Redd Kross, composed the chiller score, which compliments the interludes of suspense and action. Forgoing the typical contraptions played in musical scores, Reitzell used customized instruments made from the likes of bronze and a pottery wheel.

Once again, like most horror movies, the performances are great! Town sheriff, Eben Oleson, the film’s hero, was portrayed by the aloof Hollywood heartthrob, Josh Hartnett. He delivered an exceptional performance, executing all his own stunts, despite being afflicted with mono while filming.

Scream queen Melissa George portrays Stella Oleson, the sheriff’s estranged wife who misses the last flight out of snowbound Barrow. The Australian actress has starred in many horrors, including the remake of The Amityville Horror (2005), Turistas (2006), Triangle (2009), A Lonely Place to Die (2011), among others. (It is refreshing that she has veered from the typecasting safety of starring in romantic comedies.)

Complete with a Creole accent, Ben Foster gives a genuine performance in the role of The Stranger, a menacing freak who reinforces the town’s seclusion by destroying all forms of transportation necessary for escape.

Danny Huston’s profoundly sinister portrayal of Marlowe, the soulless villain and leader of the vampire pack, attests to his brilliance. Huston most recently graced the television horror screen as The Axeman in American Horror Story: Coven (2013-2014). 

30 Days of Night has since set-off a sequel, 30 Days of Night: Dark Days (2010), a prequel, 30 Days of Night: Blood Trails (2007), and even a six-part series, 30 Days of Night: Dust to Dust (2008).

With a setting so clever, and without the usual campy and vampy cliché’s, 30 Days of Night is the goriest and most action-packed vampire film ever to raise my blood pressure. The conclusion, however, is a little too Hollywood to bleed my heart.

Coming at Dusk on the first of the Polar Night.