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30
Days of Night
(2007)
In 2002, IDW Publishing published a comic book
miniseries by writer Steve Niles and artist Ben Templesmith
that reinvigorated the vampire genre. Unfortunately, the much
anticipated film adaptation produced by Sam Raimi (director
of the Evil Dead and Spider-Man films) is
a big disappointment.
Barrow, Alaska. A town so far north that it's in complete darkness
for thirty days every year. A group of vampires led by Marlow (Danny
Huston) decide to make a feast of its residents during those thirty
days, and so the carnage begins. Can Sheriff Eben Oleson (Josh
Hartnett) and his estranged wife Stella (Melissa George) save
themselves and the town?
Director David Slade (Hard Candy) delivers impressive
visuals and some effective scenes of the town being decimated,
but as a whole fails to create much in the way of suspense
or emotional connection to the plight of the characters. Never
mind vampires draining people of blood, the life's been drained
right out of this film. Scenes that are meant to scare the
audience are flatly directed. Scenes that are meant to make
us care about the characters are uninteresting.
The screenplay
credited to Niles, Stuart Beattie (Pirates of the
Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl), and Brian Nelson (Hard
Candy) is generally faithful to the story in the miniseries, but
where the source material offered originality and well-realized
characters, the screen version is predictable and surprisingly thin on
characterization.
Cinematographer Jo Willems (Hard Candy), production designer Paul
Denham Austerberry (Resident Evil: Apocalypse), and costume designer
Jane Holland (Riverworld) do a remarkable job of translating
Templesmith's art onto the big screen. It literally looks like you
stepped into the panels of the comic book, right down to the Max
Schreck cum shark look of the vampires, who are impressively
realized with makeup and visual effects; The visuals are the best
thing about this film. The discordant score by Brian Reitzell
(Stranger Than Fiction) effectively conveys a creepy mood.
The cast is solid. There are no great performances, but no bad ones,
either. Besides Hartnett, George, and Huston, the cast includes Ben
Foster as a human who does the dirty work of the vampires before the
sun sets, Mark Rendall as Eben's teenaged brother, Mark Boone Junior
as the rugged loner Beau, Manu Bennett as the deputy sheriff, Megan
Franich as one of the vampires, and Amber Sainsbury, Joel Tobeck,
Elizabeth Hawthorne, Nathaniel Lees, Craig Hall, and Chic Littlewood
as the principal survivors of the first night.
30 Days of Night is visually pleasing and technically well made,
but as a dramatic presentation it's all rather anemic. A story about
people facing unthinkable horror and trapped in an isolated setting
simply shouldn't be this dull.
-Danielle
Ní Dhighe
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All contents ©
2004-2007 Thoughtsonfilm.com |
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Director:
David
Slade
Writer: Steve Niles, Stuart Beattie, Brian Nelson
Starring: Josh
Hartnett,Melissa George, Danny Huston, Ben Foster
Distributor: Sony
Pictures
Runtime: 113
min
Rating: R
Release Date: October
19, 2007
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