Dir: David Slade (Hard Candy)
Cast: Josh Hartnett, Melissa George, Ben Foster, Danny Huston, Mark Rendall
New Zealand/USA, 2007
Seen: October 30/07 at Scotiabank
Reason to see: finishing off scary moviefest for October as well as See 1 film a week in the theatre for a year, this is week 45/52.
I was heading into 30 Days of Night after hearing numerous positive reviews and fresh off seeing spectacular horror and fantasy films from the Toronto After Dark Film Festival. When that is taken into consideration I think my expectations were set too high for the adventure that was the film. Although there is an interesting story there of a isolate region that goes through a period of, you guessed it, 30 days of darkness and low and behold there are night time creatures that come out to play. The influence of being based on a comic book can be seen by the creepy creatures, stunning visuals and excellent use of colour. There are however, some things that read a little more disturbing when seen in live action format when it comes to situational events. There was also a definite disaster movie vibe that often begged the question of 'What would you do' in such a scenario. There were some issues in continuity and logic that were slightly distracting, but only one or two really threw me and the audience off. What kept me in the film though were the very strong performances by the supporting cast. Top of the list is Ben Foster with his second show stealing performance this year, the first being 3:10 to Yuma (2007). Rounding out the acting chops are Mark Rendall as the scared younger brother of Josh Hartnett, and Danny Huston as the menacing leader of the creepies. I would like to see the film again, to be free of the preconceived notions I had going in, and I think after doing so I will enjoy it a whole lot more.
Warnings: Violence, gore
Shannon's Overall View:
I thought it was ok
I'll watch it again
I'd recommend it as a solid horror movie
13 minutes of preshow including 4 minutes commercials (guessing that - I was actually a tad late - bad bad!
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