30 days of Night (review)
Stuck at Barrow Alaska for 30 days before the sun comes up again. Vampires come to town and take over, massacring the populace.
I liked this movie, it was well-paced and gave me a wonderful view of the carnage that was to come. The vampires were intelligent, and carefully eliminated contact between Barrow and the rest of the world, by destroying cell-phones, satellite link, and any vehicle capable of communication with the nearest town. This built the suspense for me quite nicely. It was good to see creatures written and played with some intelligence for once.
Once the vampires seal off the town, they go after the people, indulging their bloodlust and slaughtering the town. As the lead vampire said "we should have thought of this long ago." Once the initial attack is over ( and the smart townies go to ground early ), the vampires begin a systematic search of the town for the survivors they know are there, but the extreme conditions mask from them. The show loses a little of its early logic here for the sake of the story, so my criticism is more a nit than anything. The vampires go as far as to send a helpless victim they have kept alive, down the main street crying for help to lure out any good Samaritans.
The surviving townies do make a reasonable guess that the vampires hate sunlight for some reason, and test this theory by taking a big chance that lights in a hydroponic garden put out the proper light to injure the vampires. The guess proves correct and one vampire is badly fried by the exposure. The vampire-and-human chase continues for the entire 30 days, with the humans taking refuge in the attic of one home and then moving to a more defensible location.
The downside to the movie is that only the lead vampire seems capable of putting two and two together in an intelligent fashion, but his appearance always portrayed a shift in the situation, and the actor did a very good job in my mind of showing the vampire's inhuman, intelligent side. Again, a nit, but slightly bigger than the earlier one.
At the end, the vampires decide to burn the town and everything in it to preserve their anonymity. I'll leave the review off here to save the suspense.
I have been very vague with the review as the newspapers have already dissected the movie quite thoroughly, and because I wanted to leave you with a taste and not the whole plate. This review is to pique your interest, and if you do enjoy the vampire genre, this will be well worth your money in my opinion.
I liked this movie, it was well-paced and gave me a wonderful view of the carnage that was to come. The vampires were intelligent, and carefully eliminated contact between Barrow and the rest of the world, by destroying cell-phones, satellite link, and any vehicle capable of communication with the nearest town. This built the suspense for me quite nicely. It was good to see creatures written and played with some intelligence for once.
Once the vampires seal off the town, they go after the people, indulging their bloodlust and slaughtering the town. As the lead vampire said "we should have thought of this long ago." Once the initial attack is over ( and the smart townies go to ground early ), the vampires begin a systematic search of the town for the survivors they know are there, but the extreme conditions mask from them. The show loses a little of its early logic here for the sake of the story, so my criticism is more a nit than anything. The vampires go as far as to send a helpless victim they have kept alive, down the main street crying for help to lure out any good Samaritans.
The surviving townies do make a reasonable guess that the vampires hate sunlight for some reason, and test this theory by taking a big chance that lights in a hydroponic garden put out the proper light to injure the vampires. The guess proves correct and one vampire is badly fried by the exposure. The vampire-and-human chase continues for the entire 30 days, with the humans taking refuge in the attic of one home and then moving to a more defensible location.
The downside to the movie is that only the lead vampire seems capable of putting two and two together in an intelligent fashion, but his appearance always portrayed a shift in the situation, and the actor did a very good job in my mind of showing the vampire's inhuman, intelligent side. Again, a nit, but slightly bigger than the earlier one.
At the end, the vampires decide to burn the town and everything in it to preserve their anonymity. I'll leave the review off here to save the suspense.
I have been very vague with the review as the newspapers have already dissected the movie quite thoroughly, and because I wanted to leave you with a taste and not the whole plate. This review is to pique your interest, and if you do enjoy the vampire genre, this will be well worth your money in my opinion.
posted by JD at
8:16:00 AM
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