30 Days of Night - nice bit of fun

faceman

anyone seen it yet? I thought it was enjoyable despite the plot holes in parts and some bad acting and poor dialogue from time to time. (Josh harnett is the acting equivalent of pat kenny!!!) Also am i the only person who doesnt find melissa george attractive? her chompers are too big for my liking!!

anyway, its far better than some of the horror trollop hollywood has been throwing at us lately. oh and the villian (cant remember his real name) played his bit well.

I particularly liked the aerial helicopter view of the town early on the film when the vampires are doin their thing.

Dodge

faceman wrote: »

I particularly liked the aerial helicopter view of the town early on the film when the vampires are doin their thing.

The only good bit in the film for me. I'm not a fan of horror films so its not aimed at me but I thought it was fairly rubbish and even my horror loving SO thought the ending was a cop out

I didn't even recognise Melissa George in it. Normally would think she was pleasing on the eye but not as this charachter. Given the set up of the couple delighted there wasn't more from the romantic angle

Nevyn

faceman wrote: »

anyone seen it yet?

There is a thread in the horror forum about it atm.

Fysh

Having posted a review in the Film Reviews forum, someone posted up a couple of questions which I thought were worth answering. Spoilers ahoy, so highlight the text at your peril!

Canis Lupus wrote: »

Things that confused me about the movie:

Why did a bit of darkness cut them off from the rest of the country?

Why was sanctuary to be found on the first day of daylight.... Surely daylight would come back slowly and then maybe only for an hour on the first day. If they couldn't get out before that why should an hour of daylight save them when darkness and the vamps would be back....

Why did the vampires hang around for 30 days trying to catch only a couple of stragglers? Why not just burn the place and move on.

It wasn't the darkness that cut them off so much as the extreme temperatures - the whole setup at the start of the film is the Stranger destroying all means of travel/communication with the rest of the world, since travelling by foot would be unfeasible due to the weather and distances involved.

Regarding the sanctuary of the first day, I'd assume it's creative license for the purpose of looking good, since the first day of light would involve about half an hour or an hour's daylight at best. But, well, that's hollywood.

Re : the vampires invading 1 town and hanging around looking for stragglers - well, partly it's because it was the first time they'd tried anything like that so they were following Marlow's lead. And partly because if they take it slowly they can more easily pass off the death of everyone in the town as a freak accident, which would mean the returning natives would repopulate it after daylight's return, allowing the vampires to strike another nearby town the next year.

And lastly, re: the vampires doing a runner after the sun came up - obviously they didn't hang around to see that Eben effectively killed himself to avoid turning into a fully-fledged monster vampire, but these vampires were used to centuries of preying on a weaker and slower species. They'd never really had to fight enemies who matched their speed & strength, so they're not actually very good fighters when confronted with one of their own. (This doesn't quite tally with the original comic, in which there were individual factions within the vampires which were at odds with each other).

senordingdong

I thought this film was very naff.

Half of the time I didn't know whether ot be laughing or scared, and the ending was just terrible.

What it did have going for it was the gore and the awesome vampires.

Not one I'd reccomend to someone.

qwertplaywert

Brillant film.First time I've been scared by a movie since seeing 28 Days Later 4 years ago. It was a bit heavy on some of the usual horror movie cliches, but I adored the way Spade didn't use Shocks to scare, he used Anticipation. Also the way the vampires are just monsters. They are there to be pityed and killed, not seduced by[as has been the way in basically every vampire movie for a good while]. Has the potential to do for the Vampire genre what 28 Days Later did for the Zombie genre, although it was let down a small bit by the 2 leads preformances, but Ben Foster was fantasic as the Stranger.

Petey2006

I enjoyed it. Throwaway, empty-headed schlock, but entertaining none the less.

Jello

Thought it was good, but not great, too many questions left in my head after it. Ben Foster was excellent, Danny Huston did a great job and even Josh Hartnett wasn't too bad! However, it was a bit too much blood and gore (don't know how it got a 15 rating in the UK!) over horror and suspense for my liking - I didn't find it scary at all. Some parts were quite funny too, but I dunno if they were meant to be... Still though, it was quite an entertaining couple of hours.

Much preferred Planet Terror though tbh!

johnny_ultimate

Saw this a few days ago and it was far more entertaining than I expected it too be. Far from perfect, but a pretty mindless and fun watch.
I think the main criticisms have been mentioned many times before: it only seemed like it took place over two days or so. Plot holes of which there were many: would the vampires not just of - you know -

moved on after the vast majority of the township was murderised?, or perhaps the surviviors could have all hopped in that spruced up death tractor and just got the hell out of there to some nearby safe haven? And why did that guy with the death tractor sacrafice himself to slightly burn like two vampires?

. And also the whole thing did revert to formula a bit too often. How many times have we seen the small town terrorised by some mutant / alien / vampire / giant ant like creature? And there is always the seperated couple, the sibling blah de blah de blah.

Oh and you couldn't help but laugh when the vampires actually spoke their crazy language. Laughably awful.

But then there was much to like too. I thought the vampires were wonderfully designed with some terrific make up effects. Sound design was often top notch (both the screeching and the often pumping soundtrack). Overall it was just far more competent than your usual horror film, with a genuine sense of dread and menace. The aerial shot of the town

following the initial rampage

was superb too.

If you want dumb, well made 'horror' (it isn't particularly scary, but fairly eerie and tense) you could do far worse.

unreggd

imo there was a little too much hidin and not enough fighting

The trailer makes it look like theres a big battle between vamps and humans

The vamp that was checkin out the house who just kept hissing was sooooo annoyin!!

Wasnt a fab of the lead vamps poetic sh;te he kept babblin on with, and yes, terrible ending!!

Apparently

the little girl at the end, was with another group of survivors, who all got killed in a deleted scene

Frisbee

I actually thought this movie was pretty good.
I went in expecting a big Hollywood Explodey action fest, aka, with low expectations.
I actually really enjoyed it. It was scary enough and I thought, fairly well made.
Thats two good movies Josh Hartnett has been in now (Lucky Number Slevin being the other), I may actually come to like him...

faceman

Frisbee wrote: »

I actually thought this movie was pretty good.
I went in expecting a big Hollywood Explodey action fest, aka, with low expectations.
I actually really enjoyed it. It was scary enough and I thought, fairly well made.
Thats two good movies Josh Hartnett has been in now (Lucky Number Slevin being the other), I may actually come to like him...

funny you should say that. i think he's a plank when it comes to acting but i also enjoyed lucky number slevin even tho it wasnt well received.

i still think his acting is awful tho!

qwertplaywert

Ah he wasnt totally hate-able in the Faculty either

Zapp Brannigan

Thought it was awful myself

By giving myself AIDS I can kill all the vamps!

Only 2 cool things in the entire movie: The aerial view of the village and

during the tractor rampage seeing a vamp get shot and then fall onto the chainsaw and get cut in half