The opening scene of the film shows us a man standing in the snow, gazing across an icy landscape towards a dark and sinister-looking ship, appearing to be trapped in the ice. He turns around and walks slowly towards the isolated town of Barrow, Alaska (the most northerly town in the USA), where the townsfolk are preparing for - you guessed it - 30 days of night! The stranger, played by Ben Foster (Hell or High Water), arrives in town and systematically cuts Barrow off from the world! He burns all the town’s mobile phones, slaughters the local sled dogs, destroys the town's only helicopter and disables the power grid! He then heads for the town's café, tries to order a 'raw' burger, falls out with the waitress and gets himself thrown into the town's jail to cool off by the Sheriff (who we'll come to shortly), at whom he sneers "They're coming!"
Right - a bit of background - it's '30 days of night' because, actually, it happens every year up there and it's called the Polar Night. The sun sets and does not rise again for 30 days. In actual fact, the most famous location where this happens is Utqiaġvik (the setting that inspired 30 Days of Night), the northernmost city in the USA. The sun sets in mid-November and does not rise again until late January. It is not completely pitch black - while the sun never breaches the horizon, Utqiaġvik experiences several hours of twilight around midday before returning to complete darkness. However, in late December around the winter solstice, even that twilight shrinks to just a brief window.
Anyway, leaving the science lesson (and opportunity for this tale) behind, most residents leave, but Sheriff Eben Oleson, played by Josh Hartnett (Black Hawk Down), stays behind - referenced above, in action in the café! He's previously fallen out with his wife (of course he has - he's a cop - in a film), though we're not really sure why! So Stella, played by Melissa George (Triangle), has left him and has been living separately away from the town anyway. She's heading off to the airport for the last flight out, like many others. She's a State Fire Marshal and was visiting the town from her base in Anchorage, by chance, for work purposes. Anyway, she missed the flight - so is stuck there!
Once complete darkness falls, a clan of feral, ancient vampires - led by the cold and calculating Marlow, played by Danny Huston (Frankenstein, The Professor, The Dead Don't Hurt) - invades the town. Unlike traditional romantic, cool vampires, these creatures act like nasty predators, communicating in an unrecognisable language which involves 'clicking' and screeching a lot! They proceed to slaughter any of the townsfolk they can find, totally indiscriminately!
Eben, Stella, Eben's younger brother Jake, and a small group of survivors hide in a boarded-up attic, keeping quiet with lights dim to avoid being attacked and having their blood drained. They can see people outside from their peepholes running into the vampires and what they do to them. Days pass slowly. The vampires use horrifying psychological tactics, including leaving a wounded, crying girl in the middle of the street as bait to draw out any remaining humans!
As the weeks drag on, the survivors are forced to move around town for supplies, losing members who aren't quick or sharp-witted enough to avoid being nabbed along the way! Unlike the Eli Roth films I've been recently reporting on, the gore is subtly presented. Often off-camera and much more left to the imagination than in Roth's comedy-horror gore-fests! The after-effect is usually the more impactful here, with bloody scenes left after a neck-gnawing or three! There are some nasty scenes shown, but yes, all more subtly. The film heavily prioritised makeup and prosthetics over CGI. The gore, severed limbs, dark black vampire eyes and jagged teeth were apparently all physical appliances worn by the actors.
So at this point, it turns into something of a survival story with the remaining people - fewer than a dozen - hiding out, finding food and supplies whilst not being spotted, and the tension and suspense are often well done. Not quite edge-of-the-seat stuff, but certainly thrilling and chilling for the viewer! We head towards the finale of course, which is bombastic and which I won't spoil for you as to who, if anyone, survives!
It seems that the vampires chose this town because of there being no risk of sun to frazzle their skin while they feast for a month, but why this hasn't happened in previous years which had the same conditions, I'm not sure - nor is that explained. Maybe it has something to do with the stranger coming off that ship at the start.
The film was actually shot in New Zealand, as Alaska would have been too cold, where the production crew built a complete, snow-covered replica of Barrow at Auckland Film Studios, alongside outdoor sets in the Waitākere Ranges and snow scenes at the Waiorau Snow Farm in Wanaka (South Island). Sam Raimi produced the film but handed the directorial reins to David Slade (Hard Candy), though much of Raimi’s style shows through.
Danny Huston is scary in his makeup, beautifully portraying the leader of the vampires; Josh Hartnett is solid in the lead; Ben Foster as the stranger is gripping and somewhat terrifying - made very much so by camera angles and lighting, which, incidentally, were impactful throughout; and Melissa George almost steals the show, acting very well in the leading lady role. It's a cracking thriller, highly recommended and now all over streaming services in the UK.
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