A bloody good vampire entry

Listen, I’m a kid of the ‘90s…I was Team Heartthrob Hartnett. He’s also a Minnesotan, and Minnesotans tend to be very loyal to our celebs (minus Bob Dylan – he hated it here). So consider that when I tell you:

I fucking love this movie.

Hartnett plays Eben, the small town’s sheriff who has a fraught relationship with Stella (Melissa George). There are a lot of other characters, none of whom get much of an arc. Eben is the most fleshed out – he’s clearly protective of his people and the town. Most are there for the vampires to k*ll. Having flat characters does not usually work out, but in this instance, the vamp action had me distracted.

Or maybe that was Hartnett’s eyebrows.

The vampires themselves are a thing to behold. When I think of vampires, I think of these vamps. Black eyes, powder-white skin, sharp set of teeth, ancient, smart yet feral. Danny Huston plays the perfect vampire leader—iconic. And these two haunt my fucking dreams.

30 Days vamps follow the rules of more vampires in horror: the sun/UV light burns them, chopping the head off kills them, they have a good sense of smell, are strong and fast. These ones are ancient, speak an old language, and have been trying to hide their existence forever…and somehow, they never thought of taking advantage of polar night.

Brilliant concept, by the way. Surprisingly simple, but extremely effective.

These vamps don’t have any issue walking into houses uninvited, though a particular group evades them for quite a while. To lure the humans out, they use the townspeople as bait, kids included. The filmmakers are not afraid to bring children into it: there’s a particularly memorable scene where a vamp child carries around her teddy bear while she tries to eat humans (and then gets her head chopped off).

Ben Foster plays a vamp groupie with a gold rush minor accent. He acts as the harbinger, warning the town that the vamps are comin’! But why? He mentions doing what the vamps ask, but what is that? I don’t know, and I’m not sure I care. He’s kind of a ridiculous character.

If the dog in The Thing was a human, it’d be this guy.

This flick happens to be one of my favorites, but it’s probably not for everyone. It’s gory. Some of it is clearly CGI, but a lot of the head chopping happens on camera, and there’s blood everywhere. The kids add a whole ‘nother element. Kid vamps are inherently creepy, but this one is especially offensive. They do k*ll off the dogs in the beginning, but thankfully, it’s in that Kubrick way.

30 Days of Night is a great horror entry: unique and memorable. Definitely worth watching for horror fans.