Not the average Anne Rice Vampire story

Film's frightening potential falls short due to "cheesy" ending

30 Days of Night
2007
Directed by David Slade
Rating: 4/5 stars

Sarah T. Schwab
Editor in Chief

The essentials of any vampire legendare basic. They bite people's necks and their victims either viscously die or turn into vampires themselves. The only thing that will always kill a vampire is the sun. Sometimes, a stake through the heart or chopping off its head will work and in really old stories, even a simple crucifix will do. How many times can this eternal story be told in a suspenseful and entertaining way?

The recently released 30 Days of Night, a movie based off Steve Niles 2002 novel, sticks to the basics but does it in a way that is both engaging and thrilling. With the help of director David Slade, the hour and a half long film definitely deserves its R rating for strong horror and violence.

The movie starts out in Barrow, Alaska - the northernmost town in North America where 30 days every year are covered by darkness. Since vampires love the dark, this quaint little settlement of 152 people is the perfect setting for their ravenous thirst.

Right before the sun sets, local Sheriff Eben Olemaun (Josh Hartnett) discovers that all the cellular phones have been burned. Shortly after, all of the sleigh dogs are murdered and the communications station is tampered with. They catch a stranger who has performed these acts but cannot figure out why he did them. In the middle of their interrogation, the power lines go dead and they are embraced by darkness. When Eben goes to investigate with his deputy wife, Stella (Melissa George), they come face to face with their first vampire.

These evil creatures are not the typical Anne Rice vampires where an air of sophistication and human-like epitome make them unrecognizable amongst society. On top of their screechy bird-like language, black eyes, blood stained chins and mouths and jagged piranha teeth, these vampires make no attempt to hide in the shadows. When the sun goes down over Barrow, the audience witnesses an air view shot of the vampires' glutinous hunger running rampant through every person's home. Only a few survive the assault and spend thirty days hiding until the first sunrise.

The simplistic plot may seem like a disappointing adventure. However, the special affects, metal/rock soundtrack and acting of Hartnett, George and Danny Huston, spice up the cliché tale.

One of the best features of the plot is the suspense. As the vampires disband to search for more blood, Eben and Stella lead the handful of survivors to safety to wait out the night. Unlike many current horror films that dominate the story by gore alone, 30 Days of Night had audience members constantly crouching into their seats, covering their eyes and jumping. This gripping element dangled on viewers' emotional heartstrings as innocent women, men and children were hunted down, taunted and eventually eaten.

Besides their hunger for fresh blood, lead vampire Marlow (Huston) explains that there can be no survivors. "For ages they [humans] have thought we were a myth," Marlow chirps to his pack. He goes on to say that the humans must go on thinking they are imaginary creatures so that they can continue to feed. They set the town on fire in order to locate remaining victims and mask their bloody rampage; if all the bodies are burned, the world will never know how the town really died.

Up until the last 20 minutes, the film is a compelling account. But the narrative begins to borderline tacky when Hartnett decides to fill a syringe full of vampire blood and inject it into his body so that he can fight Marlow. After this point the story goes increasingly downhill. In fact, "cheesy" was the word coming out of most audiences' mouths as they left the cinema.

Despite the cheesy ending, the rest of the film was worth the $7.50 to watch it at the Dunkirk Movie Plex cinema. As long as viewers are aware that they are not going to be getting any intellectual clarification from this horror-filled tragedy, then it is definitely a film worth seeing during this terrifying time of year.