Review: 30 Days of Night

Movie: 30 Days of Night
Released: 10/19/2007
Director: David Slade (Hard Candy)
Starring: Josh Hartnett, Melissa George, Ben Foster
Rating: 5.5/10

I went in to this film with an open mind, excited over the reviews that compared it to SAW and Hostel. Supposedly, it's the vampire movie equivalent to them. Unfortunately, while 2 or 3 scenes may live to par with that ideal, the rest of the movie is far from exacting as much fear from the audience as they do. The dialouge is okay, but nothing great. The plot outline is narrow and vague, never truly explaining where the Vampires come from, and/or how they made it to the town of Barrow. None of the Vampires are even THAT creepy. The leader of the pack, played to perfection by sinister character actor Danny Huston, is the only one that emotes any emotion or semblance of a personality. True, it's not your grandmother's Vampire movie. You won't see any pretty boys with lace and frill, nor will you see any immortal rockers or Gothic warlords. I'm convinced they're all from Russia or something, and for whatever reason they speak in some click language. It does get gruesome, and it's damn sure bloody, but like I mentioned before, there's only a few scenes that could be comparable to SAW, and there's really only ONE of them in my mind that's just like SAW or Hostel. The acting is pretty lousy, and Josh Hartnett proves to me once again that he is not convincing as a leading man. He's like the Kevin Costner of this generation. Totally one dimensional. Melissa George is horrible at covering up her British accent, and maybe once actually appears frightened. Ben Foster, who's at his best in this sort of role (see him in Hostage) steals the first half of the movie in my opinion. Overall, it might have been scarier if the lights in the theatre actually went all the way out. I just don't think it was as scary as the commercials promote it to be. Gory? Yes. Scary? No. See it if you're a fan of the genre, but really save yourself the 9 bucks and add it to your Queue.