30 Days of Night (2007)

30 Days of Night. Film review. Essentially, this is a film about vampires. The difference was, the vampires in this film (yes, plural) were in their elements. They were savages, natural killers, and not just some wimpy and melodramatic prince of darkness stow away in some ancient castle far from civilization. The vampires in this film were also exists beyond reasons both religious and philosophical. It could be said that 30 Days of Night is a re-telling of Stoker's Dracula which strips everything from the story except the core fact that these vampires loves blood and would kill for it, and the humans in this story were victims and that they were bogged down to their natural stance of a much weaker human defense. Run or get killed.

In the town of Barrow, Alaska, the northern-most outpust of the U.S, there was a time when night was a month long (hence, the title). During this month, the city was completely isolated, and only the hardest souls (150 something people) could endure the month long of no sun. Eben (Josh Hartnett), a sheriff to the city was doing his initial preparation for a month-long night. He was a dedicated sheriff. But his personal life wasn't something that he likes to bragged about. His ex-girlfriend/wife, Stelle (Melissa George) was a fire marshall. She should've catch the last flight out of town but an accident befell on her during her car ride to the airport and she was trapped in the town. On a first night, a mysterious character (the amazingly creepy Ben Foster) appears in town and orchestrated some vandalism which purpose was further isolated the city from the outside world. And as the second night approaches, the people of Barrow faced with a never-ending nightmare.

The film took its time to introduces us to the characters, to let us familiarize with the characters, to an enough time for us to develop some kind of mental association with the characters. Although to be quite honest, it doesn't really worked that well to me. But, when the first night arrived and the first blood was spilled, the film turns to the right direction that it has been designated all along since we get the first glimpse of the poster. An action-thriller genre with generous amount of blood.

Taken from a comic book with the same title, the resemblance with its original comic book was lavishly less if compared to Sin City or 300, for instance. But there's a great overhead shot which provides the comic quality as the first horde of the vampires runs through the city which was coated white in a snow killing everybody in sight, splashing reds here and there. The main vampire dude (undoubtedly the leader of the packs) was effective both as a leader and as a monster. I liked the fact that the film doesn't get preachy about the nature of these killers. The film put its audience inline with the townies who doesn't really in the mood for a research about the nature of these vampire dudes, and who was too busy to stay alive to for instance, made silver bullets, look for garlics, or tried to stab them with a wooden stake through their hearts. In fact, we can't really know whether these standard operating procedures against vampire which has been last through ages would be effective to these vampire dudes in this film. The townie however, were quickly to notice that bullets won't work and the only way to stop these vampires were to separate the head from the body through any means. A precise swing of an axe, or a head-shot for an instance. They were also quickly to learn that these vampire dudes were too strong and too many for them to take out in the open.

For all its worth, the film stays true to its genre, which was a survival film against something that goes beyond their equal. We won't expect the human to win in a traditional way. But it was enough for us that some of the character would see the sun rises again. At this time of day, expecting this kind of film to end in a closed conclusion would actually ruins the experience. Questions would aroused as the film ends (i was stayed through the end-credit to see if something that could be remotely thought as a conclusion would came up. None appears, though) but, sometimes it was better to leave the film ends openly.