The rest of the film follows similar logic but on a smaller scale; characters get from place to place with little sense of time or place. All of these issues destroy the narrative and wreak havoc with pacing. It went a long way towards destroying any goodwill built by individual scenes. 30 Days of Night is definitely a film whose parts are distinctly better than their sum.
We get a shot of a ship frozen in the ice with a lone figure walking away from it towards the town. The stranger brings with him a message: "That cold ain't the weather. That's Death approaching." He could not be more right, although I am pretty sure that the weather has a little something to do with it.
The plot is a horror standard. A ragtag group that survive the initial culling band together in an effort to survive the onslaught of the dark forces that have descended upon their locale. In this case it is a seemingly never-ending supply of vampires. Nasty buggers too. They speak their own language, emit this crazy screeching sound, are not concerned with making a bit of a mess, and are ruthless in their pursuit of their next meal.
The acting is pretty good all around, even if the bad guys steal all the scenes they're in. Ben Foster as the Renfield-like Stranger is pure menace and evil, not unlike his recent role in 3:10 to Yuma as Charlie Prince. Yes, they are different roles, but he is supremely creepy in both of them. He takes these roles and makes it impossible for you to look away. Then there is Danny Huston as Marlow, leader of the vampire clan. I can tell you that I would certainly not want to meet up with him in a dark alley. The good guys also handle themselves well. Josh Hartnett displays a world weariness that belies his youthful appearance.
With all that I like about this movie, it is just so frustrating at how shallow the story is and how awful the pacing is. The characters and the story are betrayed by a script that goes nowhere and does not reveal all that much about anything. Yes, it is survival horror and the horror has to rule but not at the expense of the overall story.
David Slade made his debut with the excellent Hard Candy. It is too bad that success didn't translate to this project. It looks great, there is some great looking gore, individual sequences work great, and you are left wanting more. Those are all good things. The only problem is that there should have been more to it. There needed to be a little more substance, a bit more meat on the bones.
It was not a waste, just terribly frustrating. I can only hope that there is going to be some sort of extended cut that fills in the blanks.
Bottomline. Nice gore, great look, some strong performances paired with a weak story. I really wanted to like this movie, and on some levels I do. Taken piece by piece, there are a lot of things to like. It is just a shame that the script leads everyone high and dry.
Mildly Recommended.
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