30 Days of Night Review

Tiffany Carr Holland

Staff Writer

As the leaves change with the seasons, so do the movies. The season of horror movies has begun. One of this Halloween's big scary movie releases is “30 Days of Night,” which is based on the popular graphic novel of the same name.

As with most horror movies, it succeeds in the scares, but not so much with anything else. An interesting plot centers on a group of vampires who move to Barrow, Alaska., to make it their home and kill the townspeople since the town annually goes without sunlight for 30 days. Josh Hartnett stars as the sheriff who tries to save his people from the slaughter, but he is on the side; it is the vampires who are the real story.

After “The Lost Boys,” “Interview with the Vampire” and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” it seems that vampires were constantly played by pretty people and had lost their edge in the horror genre. “30 Days of Night” will definitely change that mindset. These vampires are dirty, ugly beasts who kill little blonde girls and are guaranteed to get moviegoers to look over their shoulder when leaving the theater.

Director David Slade, whose other film was the disturbing “Hard Candy,” has also brought the same desolate and creepy atmosphere that made the comics so popular. While many scenes are cleverly terrifying, such as when the vampires stage a genocide-like murder of the whole town, others are predictable and cliché, such as the showdown with the head vampire and the sheriff.

The characters are boring, and there is too much talking. If this was cut the film would not run almost two hours — and no horror movie should be two hours. Overall this will scare you but do not be surprised if you start cheering for the vampires by the end.