30 Days Of Night (2007)

Scary vampires, back from the dead

Marlow: ‘It’s taken us centuries to convince them that we don’t exist.’

Young director David Slade is fast emerging as a leading light in genre flicks that take you places you really don’t want to go – check out Hard Candy (2005), which could take Lolita’s Revenge as a sub-head, if you don’t believe me.

And, talking about places you don’t want to go, Barrow in Alaska should properly be topping the list. Not just because, once every 12 months, the township is plunged into the titular darkness because of its position on the globe, but there’s also the small matter of the massed ranks of the nosferatu who have decided to pay a visit this year. No sunshine, plus around 150 souls from which to drink? As one of the undead remarks early on (in their own ancient language, an inspired innovation), delivering what is perhaps the film’s only outright gag: “We should have come here ages ago.”

Don’t make the mistake, as I nearly did, of judging this film by its comic-book cover – nor should you be put off by the young cast, which includes Josh Hartnett as Sheriff Eben Oleson and Melissa George as his estranged wife Stella, who are forced to lead the revolt against the vampires, led by a simply marvellous Marlow (Danny Huston), in the fight for survival that will last until the sun rises once again, 30 long days hence.

And, whatever you do, don’t arrive with expectations of love-lorn blood-sucking nobility, as in Coppola’s rubbish Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992). The monsters (for that is what they are) in 30 Days… take their lineage directly from Max Schreck’s vulpine, hideous vampire in F.W. Murnau’s Nosferatu (1922) – feral, snarling, flight-of-foot creatures who don’t so much suck as feast on the living and, in so doing, restore the vampire to its rightful place among the truly terrifying creatures of the night.

Scriptwriters Steve Niles (adapting from his own comic book), Stuart Beattie and Brian Nelson draw on a wide range of horror reference points, with Romero’s claustrophobic Night Of The Living Dead (1968) at the forefront – this time, the survivors of the apocalyptic massacre that overtakes the town hole up in a (temporarily) overlooked attic, a situation that deteriorates with predictable rapidity.

What really makes the thing swing, however, is the speed at which the characters are forced to accept the reality of their situation – when the conversation first turns to the undead, the initial ‘vampires don’t exist’ reaction is quickly superseded by ‘whatever they are, we have to kill them’, a sleight-of-hand that forces the viewer to suspend disbelief and hop on for the ride. This is helped enormously by the practical nature of the beasts – no reference is made as to whether a crucifix has any effect but, in the words of Marlow: ‘God? No God.’ Their condition is infectious (passed by blood) and the manner of their disposal is restricted to decapitation or their bodies’ complete destruction, with no time for stakes through hearts. And, probably because of the Sam Raimi influence (the director of The Evil Dead (1982) is producer here), there are no easy decisions to be made in the nightmare that follows, with a happy ending looking an increasingly unlikely prospect.

Hooray, say I – if you consider that the last decent attempt to make vampires frightening was probably Tobe Hooper’s Salem’s Lot (1978), the sub-genre’s resurrection is long overdue. Make no mistake – this is the best new blood for generations.

113 mins.

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