Originally posted: 21 March 2009
12 Days: 12 Movies
Day Ten (Part 2): 30 Days of Night+Blood Trails +Dust to Dust
(2007, 104 mins, Dir. David Slade)
Put Simply: Blood... everywhere...
Stars: Josh Hartnett, Melissa George
This evening's horror entertainment was actually a triple bill; 30 Days of Night, with the prequel mini-series Blood Trails and the sequel counterpart, Dust to Dust. A group of vampires take residence in the northermost town in America, where the rotation of the earth means that once a year, nightfall lasts for thirty days...
On the whole... red, bloody carnage. These are savage, animalistic vampires, with no agenda other than the secure continuation of their species. Albeit with a complete disregard for humans, but hey. :P
The Good: Great scripting, fully believable of people in that unbelievable situation. Oh, and the effects. Blood... everywhere... nice.
The Bad: The movie takes place over the entire 30 days. We get day-update-flashes on screen, but it seems a little... implausible? 18 days in and no-one seems in need of a shave? I find it hard to believe that toiletry practices are unnaffected when you become PREY for a month. It's also worth noting that none of the characters get to cracking point (well, before they die) in all of this. If you were held under violent siege for 2-4 weeks by unworldly creatures... the strain would be showing a little more, I think.
The Ugly: Prequel and movie are fine, but Dust to Dust seems to have gone mental on the skaky-cam. I'm all for atmosphere, but did they get Michael J Fox to man the camera here? (...erm... too soon?)
All in all, a thoroughly solid addition to the vampire genre, even if it focuses a little too much on the HOW and not the WHY of things. In fairness, this is expanded (a little) in the webisode prequel/sequel; and while they're in no way essential to the movie, they make nice bookends which bring the carnage into a wider world
Like the zombie-genre, Vampires are tricky to get right, as the target audience are it's harshest critics. While this left no great lasting impression on me, I was engaged for the duration, and that's the important thing :D
I reckon: 7/10
Tomorrow: The Departed
DISCLAIMERS:
• ^^^ That's dry, British humour, and most likely sarcasm or facetiousness.
• This is a personal blog. The views and opinions expressed here represent my own thoughts (at the time of writing) and not those of the people, institutions or organizations that I may or may not be related with unless stated explicitly.
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