Halloween DVD Pick – “30 Days of Night”
Halloween DVD Pick – “30 Days of Night”
Why do horror films appeal to people? Do they serve as a way to confront the grim prospect of death without having to leave the safe and comfortable environment of a living room? Or are they a form of simple escapism, where we can mindlessly be entertained without caring for any of the characters involved or even if they survive their plights?
Undoubtedly, the most captivating theme of the horror genre involves the myth of the vampire. The original legends depicted acts of brutality carried out on the masses by bloodthirsty feudal lords or ladies. However, over the generations, the myth has transformed into one involving sexuality and romance. “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” captures the idea of a timeless romance between Count Dracula and the woman who resembles his deceased bride, as well as, Dracula’s irresistibility to any mortal woman on whom he fixes his gaze.
Fortunately, the movie-making pendulum has swung back towards portraying vampires as images of pure terror, rather than just suave Euro-trash who effortlessly seduce our girlfriends and wives into becoming mistresses of the damned. “30 Days of Night” has too shed all romantic notions of vampires, while retaining some of the hallmarks of a classic vampire thriller.
For the inhabitants of the small, isolated town of Barrow, Alaska, the winter solstice begins thirty days of the sun failing to rise. Unbeknownst to these townspeople, a group of vampires have plotted to make Barrow its hunting ground for these days of darkness.
As the film begins, a solitary figure peers from an enormous glacial cliff towards a seemingly abandoned freighter that glides towards shore. The man has been sent to Barrow by his vampire overlords to prepare the town for their arrival. Soon after the arrival of the ship, all forms of communication with the outside world are cut and Barrow comes under siege.
While watching this fantastically, foreboding initial scene, I was reminded of the desolate and alien images of frozen tundra depicted in “At the Mountains of Madness,” written by master horror writer, H.P. Lovecraft. Furthermore, “30 Days of Night” references another horror classic to create its vampires. As in F.W. Murnau’s 1922 German, silent film, “Nosferatu”, the vampires are animalistic and terrible. They have filthy, claws and mouths filled with razor sharp teeth, not just four fashionably sharpened bicuspids. Their sole purpose is to feed on human beings. And that is what they planned to do for the next month.
Overall, the plot of the film is intelligent and well paced. Unlike the typical horror film, the viewer is asked to care about the protagonists and eventually one starts to hope for their survival. However, director, David Slade, made some missteps.
At first, “30 Days of Night” merely intimated the extreme, violence of the vampire attacks by showing glimpses of blood and guts. In fact, during the first forty-five minutes, it was refreshing to see a movie that did not rely on gore to create the atmosphere of horror. Nonetheless, as the film progressed, Slade seemed to feel that more gore was needed in order to maintain the interest of the audience. This was not so. By displaying hacked-off limbs and severed heads, Slade strayed from a thrilling, original story toward a clichéd slasher theme. Moreover, later in the film, the coherence of the plot gave way to illogical premises on which the protagonists relied to “outwit” their pursuers.
Notwithstanding these gaffs, “30 Days of Night” is a fun film to watch for horror enthusiasts and even the horror dabblers. Considering the plethora of bad horror films that Hollywood churns out these days, “30 Days of Night” lets you fool yourself into believing that you celebrated Halloween, even if you did not bother to put on a costume.
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