30 Days of Night (2007)

Viewing context:
FilmFour - Saturday evening with Tasha

Creators:
Directed by David Slade, who directed Hard Candy, which was leagues better than this. He also directed Twilight: Eclipse.
Screenplay by the writer of the comic on which the film is based, Steve Niles. He seems to be making a habit of adapting his comics into films with him writing the screenplays, which I would much rather see than somebody butchering it. He was helped by Stuart Beattie, a genre film writer who has been involved in the Pirates of the Caribbean films as well as Collateral and G.I. Joe

What Happened:
Up in Alaska, the period of 30 days without daylight is coming up, so only essential personel stay to work while the rest of the townspeople migrate south. Wouldn’t this be quite the perfect scenario for a pack of Russian vampires to roam free from the fatal rays of sun for an extended period; enough time to devour all the workers who have stuck around maybe?

Themes/message:
Not a great deal really. In the genre rules of variation and repetition, this was much more repetition than variation, hitting all the correct notes. It tried to hammer home the need to do whatever is necessary to save your loved ones and in doing so, save our own humanity, but it didn’t quite come off as the ending sort of capitulated.

What it did particularly well:
Inventive deaths and other such related spectacle. Plus, it really was a good looking film and captured the atmosphere of the diminishing light and then the town gone dark.

What unimpressed or didn't quite reach potential:
It never became anything more than OK. Never challenged anything, had any interesting ideas or characters, yet was never particularly bad either. The ending though, did completely unravel.

Performance of the film:
If anything I would give it to Ben Foster for his little role (was in Six Feet Under, has The Mechanic coming up with Jason Statham and played the villain in Hostage).

Scene of the film:
One of the kills; probably the one where the man, half turning into a vampire, gets all tangled up in the swings, then hacked up by Josh Hartnett’s character

Final Word:
It looked pretty good