Quick Look: 30 Days of Night (2007)

30 Days of Night is vampire movie that takes place in Barrow, Alaska, the northernmost city in North America.  In that part of the world the sunlight will go below the horizon line for an extended amount of time (its actually more than 30 days), and hence would be dark during "daytime" hours - lending itself to be the perfect environment for vampires to hunt.  This movie is based a comic book miniseries, it stars Josh Hartnett and Melissa George; with David Slade directing.  'R' rating is for violence, gore, and language.
**spoiler alert**
The town is preparing for the polar night (the days without sunlight) where a significant portion of the population leaves.  A mysterious stranger shows up and Eben Oleson (Harnett), the sheriff, with his estranged wife Stella (George) end up taking him into custody for vandalism.  It seems he has disabled communications and travel, so everyone still in town is basically "trapped".  The stranger promptly informs them that death is on the way.
A group of vampires show up and kill their way through the remaining townsfolk.  Some of the survivors, including the 2 leads, hide out attempting to survive until the sunlight comes back which will apparently kill the vampires if they are still there.  The cat and mouse games ensue, and with the vampires being stronger and faster the humans can do very little to save themselves.  By the end, almost everyone who was still there is dead, and Eben had to sacrifice himself to save his wife and few others.

Where this movie succeeds is that vampires are more primal and dirty, compared the "sexy" vampires that tend to dominate the cinematic landscape right now.  They speak and understand language, and have a clan-like mentality, but they are not reasonable and do not have a code about their behaviors.  They are essentially killing machines.  It was a very refreshing idea to use this type of monster-like vampire, compared to their more civilized "brethren".  Using the extreme environment in Alaska is also a great element that I enjoy in movies; it creates a great atmosphere and backdrop that can take on a life of its own if used in the right way.
Other than the vampires, I did not find any character's acting anything spectacular.  I would point to George's performance as probably the "best", her emotions and performance matched the scenes appropriately.  The film unfolds in a predictable fashion, but the director was able to guide it enough for some tense moments, a few scares, and some decent horror movie splatter moments - including several beheadings.  All in all, this is a fun vampire flick that I recommend seeing, because it takes us away from the monotany of vampire portrayals like Twilight, True Blood, and Underworld.

Extras:    
- there is a direct-to-DVD sequel called 30 Days of Night: Dark Days, and 2 TV mini-series that aired on FearNet...