Customer Reviews
HORROR OF AN ENDING - By: N. Angus, 22 Jul 2008 
I JOYED THIS FILM A LOT BUT WAS LEFT THINKING THAT IT COULD HAVE BEEN BETTER AND IT REALLY WASTED ITSELF ON THE POOR POOR ENDING. AS IF....
a modern VAMPIRE CLASSIC!!!!!!! - By: S. J. Pinder, 22 Jul 2008 
its effective,smart & incredibly horrific.
the scenes & script are surprisingly effective and(to date) has to be the most effective vampire film of the 21st century.
along with The Lost Boys this has to be my favourite Vampire film to date.
Melissa George & Josh Hartnett are fantastic in the lead roles as they lead a team of survivors against a violent,brutal pack of vampires & attempt to survive the 30 days of darkness.
it is very shocking,brutal,intense & delivers viewers some genuinly suspenceful experiences throughout the films duration.
it is presented to us in a very claustrophobic & fast paced fashion which gives this film its power.
it is very hard hitting & intense,these vampires are the most original since the fanGtastic television show Buffy The Vampire Slayer (which has to be my fave programme ever!!)as they are presented in such a horrific & petrifying fashion,and the use of snow & shadows heklps the film with its unsettling feel & packs the punch.
some scenes are very violent but it is a very mature & hard hitting film that is way,way above the now dull gorno genre.
30 days of night is a very original vampire flick & is worth multiple viewings...ignore the haters of this film & enjoy it...its nothing but what many horror films have been lacking.
hopefully a sequel in the future wont ruin this standard of excellent film making.
BUY IT!!!
Much better than I expected - By: Film Buff, 20 Jul 2008 
I stayed away from this when it first came out, as it didn't get particularly good reviews & I've never found Josh Hartnet to be leading man material (plus I'm not that big a horror fan)
However, I am very pleased that I did eventuallly get around to watching this. Firstly, it's probably the best film I've seen Josh Hartnet in, but it's also one of the best new vampire or horror films that I've seen in recent years.
Much of this is down to a skillful director. Unlike many horror directors, he avoids just trying to make you jump, or having buckets loads of blood. But he graduallly builds up the tension & paranoia, without letting the pace drag & also builds sympathy for the characters, so you care when they get killed.
Don't get me wrong, there is a lot of blood & gore in the film, but the director also knows when to "cut" & let your imagination do the rest (and this avoids you becoming de-sensitised to the violence)
The film isn't perfect, the end is almost an anti-climax & the very final scene would perhaps have been better left to the viewers' imagination.
Also some things don't quite make sense, or aren't fully explained (how did the vampires get to the town, how have so many of them survived without attracting attention)
But overalll, this is a very entertaining & genuinely scary film.
Picture quality is everything you would expect from a modern release (clean, sharp, good black levels etc) Though, there isn't much colour, as most of the film takes place at night and/or in a blizzard.
The cinematography is also surprising good (considering this is a horror film) with some interesting images & good use of shadow & unusual angles.
Sound quality is also good, I listened to the DTS soundtrack & there was a lot going on in the rear speakers, with some good deep bass in places. The music also adds greatly to the atmosphere of the film.
I haven't yet watched any of the extras, so I can't comment on these.
Overalll, a surprisingly good vampire/horror/action film, with good cinematography & sound. Well worth buying, if you like this genre (and don't let Josh Hartnet put you off)
I suspect this will become a cult classic in years to come...
Pretty damn good! - By: L. Felthouse, 06 Jul 2008 I'm a bit of a vampire fanatic, so this film was a must-watch for me. Based on a graphic novel, 30 Days of Night has an excellent plot. In Barrow, Alaska, they have one month of the year without any sunlight, due to their positioning on the planet. The sun sets, & doesn't come up for another thirty days. Eastern European vampires have come to hear about this town & their month-long darkness, & decide to take advantage. So the vamps travel to Barrow & when the sun goes down for the last time in a month they go on a killing spree. They've had a little helping hand from a human who believes that they will turn him into one of them as a reward, so the town has no sled-dogs, no phone lines, power, etc... They're basicallly stuck in the town at the mercy of the vampires.
Josh Harnett plays Eben, the Sheriff of the town. When strange things start happening, he can't make head nor tail of it... until he goes out to investigate a problem with the power & finds his friend's head on a pole - then he realises there are some seriously sick weirdos creeping around in the darkness. Paired up with his estranged wife, Stella (played by Melissa George), they investigate what's going on... & when they realise, it's time for action. They gather alll the residents who haven't already been killed in the safest place they can think of, & work out how they're going to survive until the sun comes up... in four weeks' time. They hole up in the Sheriff's office, a very cleverly secreted attic & flit from place to place, hoping they won't be discovered, & slaughtered.
The vamps are picking off more & more of the town's residents, leaving very dramatic looking stains alll over the snow on the ground, & emitting blood-curdling shrieks every now & then. You find yourself wishing the days along for the survivors, but as time goes on, their situation looks more & more grim. Things hot up as the vampires realise that if they don't kill every person left & destroy the evidence, when the sun comes up & people come back to Barrow, the world will soon rethink their opinions on the existence of vampires. It's certainly a race against time.
For me, there are generallly two kinds of vampires: sexy, hedonistic ones... the type you'd quite like to bite you & make you one of them; & the monstrous ones who rip throats out & generallly make lots of mess. And the ones in this film are the latter. They don't reallly look that much like vampires, because they have tons of teeth & faces smeared in blood, rather than fangs in the right places. They're more like gory monsters to me, & that makes them rather less creepy & more slasher-style. But hey, that's just my opinion.
Overalll, I thought this was a good film. The plot itself is absolutely ingenious, but the vamps were just 'OK'. But in alll fairness, I'm not sure sexy vamps would have worked in this kind of flick. The blood on pure white snow & screaming in the pitch darkness probably added to the effect of horror. So if you're a fan of vampire films, particularly ones with damn clever plots, this is the one. The ending became a little mediocre, but the very end part made up for it. Excellent.
Different spin on the vamp genre - By: Zoe, 06 Jul 2008 This isn't a great film, but it is good.
I don't like to go into plot too much in a review - why bother watching the film if you know everything that's going to happen? - but briefly; a group of vampires turn up in the smalll Alaskan town of Barrow where, for 30 days (& nights), the sun doesn't rise. Perfect for the vamps, not quite so pleasant for the remaining residents who are alll now on the menu. Usual horror rules apply here... most of the residents are dispatched quickly leaving the main characters to figure out how to survive until sunrise.
As a horror film it doesn't offer anything reallly different to what's been seen before but what it does do is give a new & refreshing take on the vampire genre & that's it's saving grace.
The vamps in this film are de-humanised beyond the norm seen in other films - i was reminded a bit of Boris Karloff in the old b/w Nosferatu film! They communicate in a different 'language' & there's certainly nothing sexy or glam about them! You can forget about the romantic 'suck on the neck' too - when these guys pounce they do so with about as much grace & elegance as a car crash!
There's a LOT of gore, a couple of 'make you jump' moments but i didn't find it had much suspense. I was a bit disappointed with the ending - i thought it was quite lame.
It's definately worth watching but it's not a film that i'll be keeping in my collection.
