30 Days of Night

 

Ever since Slade’s last film ended up on my top ten, I knew he would do wonders with 30 Days of Night. Sam Raimi’s Ghost Pictures has given us nothing but a small series of disappointments, but that list ends with this movie. Extremely atmospheric, brutal and sharp, Slade’s vampire tale delivers on all levels.

Let’s start off with the script. It was pretty much the two-hour version of the graphic novel (which wasn’t all that good to begin with) however Slade has stuffed it with his own personality (those little quirks and scenes that directors insert so that the film is more true to their vision) and made the average script play out like a masterpiece. The movie had almost no scoring and I still loved it which says a lot since I love scores.

Slade’s vision was filled with humanity and inhumanity at the same time. He didn’t hold back on violence (the small girl-vamp) and his editing was incredible. He didn’t do a reveal at the end sequence, but showed us the vampires from the very beginning in small quantities, a taste that made us want more and when he finally unleashed his monsters, he made sure we got a taste of his hell. His cinematography was breathtaking (probably one of the best collections of shots this year): the helicopter shot of vampires’ attack and Riis’s beheading by Eben just to name two.

Since I had already read the comics I knew what the ending was going to be, which goes to show how good Slade is, since it still affected the may it was suppose to. I remember in Blade II, when Blade brought the vampire princess out in dawn and she smiled as she slowly dissolved into ashes. Slade’s ending wasn’t so kind, Eben’s screams were haunting and his husk didn’t dissolve away. The one little problem I had with it was how the progression of time wasn’t more clearly pointed out. We only saw “Day 18” labeled onscreen, it would’ve added a nice touch to display a few more subheadings.

Finally, moving on to the cast. Hartnett always ruins the movies for me, but somehow Slade had gotten a lot out of him for this movie and he was actually quite good in this. Melissa George (Alias, Turistas) was great. She pulled off all her lines and added the tension this movie needed from her whispers. The look on her face at the end of the movie when she clutching her husband’s corpse was scary. Danny Huston was by far the best choice. Ever since his ruthless outlaw in last year’s The Proposition, I knew he was destined for evil-er roles. He was perfect as the head of the clan and a total fucking monster. Here’s hoping for darker and more twisted roles for Huston. And that old guy was genius, I always say old people are nothing but a liability and this movie proves that. All in all, Slade got a lot out of his cast. Their reactions (I’m sure directed by him) were scary and sympathetic at the same time and oddly enough I found myself caring about the cast, something no creature-feature/slasher flick has forced me to do in quite a while.

I know, a lot of you won’t love it as much as I do, probably because I’m over hyping beyond reason but I can’t help myself. I don’t think I’ve enjoyed a film more this year, so do watch it.

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Tags: 30 days of night, david slade, horror, movie-review, vampires

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