Premise- Barrow, Alaska is a small town about to enter its phase of, as the title suggests, 30 days of night. People who don't need to be there leave. And those that do have to be there, such as Sheriff Eben Olesen, stay and make the best of it. 30 days in a small town, with freezing snow and no sunlight is bad enough, and then the vampires attack.

This could have been scary and suspenseful. I have been an avid vampire movie fan since I was 4 or 5 years old and would stay up late at my grandmother's house watching Vincent Price or the Night Stalker, and then walk around her house with my crucifix necklace held out in front of me, just in case. The plot had the makings of a good horror flick- vampires invading a town shrouded in darkness for a month. This movie, however, did not live up to my expectations.

These vampires are strong enough to lift a truck, smart enough to set a trap, and can jump so high and move so fast they seem to be flying, like most movie vampires. Yet the mortals that do manage to escape do so without much difficulty. The few remaining town members also manage to hide out for many days without detection, with little explanation as to how they are surviving all of these days without being discovered. While I have no problem suspending my disbelief enough to watch a movie about vampires, the story still has to make sense. And while there were a few minutes here and there of tension, most of the time it was just so easy for the humans to get away that it lacked suspense.

Another problem I had was the silliness and just plain grossness of the vampires, whe spoke Russian and looked as if they were having an epeleptic seizure when they were feeding on their victims. The fast forwarding of the feeding was just pointless, and, again, seemed silly. The vampires were also unkempt, letting the blood sit on their faces, even rubbing it on their hands like lotion and in their hair like product. This was the first vampire movie I've seen where the vampires were slobs.

There is a nice little subplot going on between Eben and his estranged wife Stella, who has to stay because she missed the plane out of town after getting in a car wreck. This girl must have some seriously bad karma, because she ends up getting chased by vampires throughout the movie, and then trapped under another wrecked car surrounded by the blood thirsty creatures near the end of the movie. Without spoiling the ending, Eben's decision involving his wife at the end was a surprising slightly depressing twist, but romantic enough that it almost made up for the gaps in the story. Almost.

The special effects, with the exception of the weird feeding scenes and the weird screeching call by the vampires, were okay but not spectacular, and the same with the sets and scenery. The acting was relatively good, but then I could watch Josh Hartnett stand there for 2 hours picking his nose and scratching his butt, so I can't say I hated the movie.




Recommended:
No

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: None of the Above
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age