I’m pleased to say my review of the vampire film Thirty Days of Night is a good one.  I love vampire movies, so let’s just preface my full review of Thirty Days of Night by saying that.  I was a huge fan of Lost Boys, Fright Night and a ton of other vampire movies that I grew up with, so I was excited to see that a promising movie that was also based on a graphic novel with a very cool concept was coming out. 

I actually wanted to see this  movie in the theater, but time got away from me and I was forced to Netflix it when it became available on DVD.  The movie stars Josh Hartnett who is not really one of my favorite actors, which I thought would possibly bring the movie down, but in fact Hartnett did a really good job in it.  He plays the sheriff of a tiny Alaska town that, once a year, gets 30 days of darkness. 

Most of the residents leave during this time, but about one hundred and fifty stay back and brave the cold, dark winter.  Melissa George plays who we found out is Josh Harnett’s ex wife who is in town on a routine inspection and flying out the day the darkness begins.  Of course, she misses her flight and is forced to stay in for thirty days since no other charter planes are flying out that day. 

The movie is a bit chopped up at first, and you can’t really figure out who’s who, but they do a nice job of making you care about what happens to most of the characters in the end.  Of course, shortly after the darkness falls, they begin to discover weird things happening that can’t be explained.  All their cell phones have been stolen and burned, their sled dogs have been ruthlessly murdered, and it seems that someone doesn’t want anyone to have contact with the outside world nor do they want them to have a way out.

The movie does a good job of conveying cold desolation and a feeling of isolation and comradery in a town where survival is rough, even though I think it was all filmed on a sound stage and I would have liked it better if it were filmed out in Alaska somewhere to give it a little more realism. 

The vampires are cool looking enough, and they aren’t too splashy.  For example, they are all wearing clothes that look like they are insurance salesman, which adds a bit of an unusal twist to it.  They also aren’t full of special powers, but rather they do have the abilities to climb rooftops easily and a cat like power to leap quickly. 

The movie takes a few comic book like turns, but that’s to be expected.  Other than that, we feel genuinely scared for our characters, and that means that it’s a well done movie in my opinion.  Overall, it’s a well done vampire flick.