30 Days of Night Brings Fresh Blood to Vampire Genre

30 Days of Night,a film based on a graphic novel of the same name, delivers an infusion of life into the whole vampire movie category. It effectively defies standard vampire-horror conventions, and so creates a smarter, grittier, and more terrifying vampire movie than we've seen in theaters for a long time.

The horror takes place in Barrow, Alaska-a town that, due its far north location, endures thirty uninterrupted days of darkness once a year. As the sun falls lower in the sky, many of the town's inhabitants leave on vacation. The few that remain find that all communication to the outside world has been cut off, and the few routes out of town blocked. Without warning a group of fast, vicious, and smart vampires descends on the town, killing almost everyone that hadn't left before nightfall. As the terror escalates, policeman Eben Olsen (Josh Hartnett) and his wife Stella (Melissa George) struggle to keep a small band of survivors hidden-and alive.

The situation is truly terrifying, the acting is very adequate, and the camera work and visuals for this film make it well worth the theater viewing price. What what really makes this movie breath of fresh air for horror movies this year, though, are the vampires themselves. Ladies and gentlemen, these aren't your parents' pale faced lovers with a couple over-sized teeth and cape. No, these vamps are much faster, fierce, and more aggressive than what we've seen before. Their mouths are full of fangs. They speak their own language, and their deformed faces are always soaked with the blood of their victims. And did I mention they have razor sharp talons instead of fingernails?

This movie true horror...it has a blend of suspense, psychological torment, and a decent smattering of shocking gore that works well. There are several "look away from the screen" moments, including multiple brutal decapitations, however it should be emphasized that this film doesn't revel in torture like other popular "horror" franchises. This alone puts it a cut above those movies in my book.

I only wish that some of the acting by the supporting had been stronger, and that the very end was a bit more in keeping with the overall tone of the film. Nevertheless, 30 Days of Night is a solid horror film that breaks from the popular mold of gratuitous torture and reinvents age-old monsters. B+