Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: 30 Days of Night

This is topic 30 Days of Night in forum Film Handlers' Movie Reviews at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 10-28-2007, 10:53 AM:

Vampires or just really just ugly people in need of a good orthodontist? We'll never know. This is quite a twist on the old vampire legend, but the plot is muddled and the shock value of these creatures wears off long before the last reel. It then just becomes a cat and mouse chase....albeit with a very nasty cat.

There is some sort of strobe effect on fast movements that I am not sure is intentional -- ala 28 DAYS LATER (a MUCH better film with striking similarities) -- or just a result of the video intermediate, but whatever the cause, it is distracting.

Music score and sound effects were VERY impressive, much more so than either the story or the acting they support. The vampire makeup was grusome and quite appropriate, much more viscious and gritty than the clean, sexy notion of vampires that we've seen up till now. These things are rabid dogs and when they attack, and they don't just leave two nice clean surgical holes in the neck --- they EAT the neck. Once that is established, the shock value is gone and they just become really annoying. We get tired of waiting to see how the protagonists can outwit them and it no longer is a scary movie. In fact, there is a car crash that made the audience just out of the seats, a lot more scary than anything that happens from then on with the neck chewing vampires.

Much is predictable, but then much doesn't make sense, for example, the poor put-upon residents discover a great defense that will stop the dentally challenged creatures in their tracks, but they inexplicably abandon the idea, which would have made for great special effects and catharsis for the audience, but we are only given a quick, unsatisfying glimps of this.

The characters are cardboard and we barely care if they get served up for vampire dinner or not. Josh Hartnett does a farily decent job as the hero but you really don't get the feeling that his character is really up to the task of fighting these zombies/vampire/creatures. The ending....poor; think EXORCIST meets BACKDRAFT.

2 out of 5

[ 10-29-2007, 12:47 PM: Message edited by: Frank Angel ]

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 10-28-2007, 02:59 PM:

The vampires in this movie seem more like ugly zombies with lots of snaggly teeth. Over the last couple of decades lots of movies with vampires have been doing this -making the monsters ugly and repulsive rather than sexy. And I think that totally misses the freaking point about the vampire.

The traditional characterization of vampires is one of a morality tale. A vampire is supposed to be very attractive, seductive and have that dangerous and mysterious aura which compounds those seductive qualities. They mingle in the highest ranks of society and seem to have everything. The vampire's victims know they really shouldn't be anywhere near this person, but they just can't resist.

Interview With the Vampire is one of very few recent films that have handled vampire subject matter in a reasonably logical, proper manner. Most others, like From Dusk til Dawn are really just silly zombie movies.