“I know I'm human. And if you were all these things, then you'd just attack me right now, so some of you are still human. This thing doesn't want to show itself, it wants to hide inside an imitation. It'll fight if it has to, but it's vulnerable out in the open. If it takes us over, then it has no more enemies, nobody left to kill it. And then it's won.”
-- R.J. Macready from The Thing (1982)
“That cold ain't the weather, that's death approaching.”
-- The Stranger from 30 Days of Night
As 30 Days Of Night opens, Ben Foster as the Stranger is walking from a large ship docked in the ice. His walk along the icy Alaskan wasteland is a very impressive shot. His destination is the town of Barrow, Alaska-- the northernmost city in the United States. From the film’s opening, cinematographer, Jo Willems, and art directors Nigel Churcher and Mark Robins have created a beautiful and ominous looking world. Feelings of dread and unease envelop the audience as Foster surveys the town from a distance. His arrival can only mean something very horrible is about to happen. The town of Barrow is about to go dark for thirty days-- no daylight for a whole month. As the film opens, many of the residents are leaving to go south. The beauty of David Slade’s film is that he gets to the action from the beginning. David Slade has given Steven Niles and Ben Templesmith’s graphic novel of the same name a cinematic fury that never lets up. Steven Niles is also one of the film’s screenwriters. David Slade’ previous film was Hard Candy which served as a vivid reminder that maybe meeting people online is not always a good idea. With 30 Days of Night, Slade goes even further. It is very rare to see a horror film that really frightens me these days. The level of fear in the film surpasses most things I have seen in recent years. Only Juan Carlos Fresnadillo’s 28 Weeks Later comes close to matching this film. The rapid fire change from human to zombie in that film was down right terrifying. The furious dehumanization of its characters created a real sense of fear. David Slade does that with great ease in this film. Hope exits the film very quickly.
When Sheriff Eben Oleson, played by a very effective Josh Harnett, and his partner discover a large pile of burnt cell phones, it does not bode well for the town of Barrow. All of the sleigh dogs are found slaughtered. Who would do this? Why? But as the audience, we know what is going on. Someone or something does not want you to leave town or be able to seek help. Isolation is the order of the day. The town’s power plant shuts down. With the arrival of The Stranger in the town, something awful is on the horizon. As the long cold winter takes shape, the eternal darkness sets in and it is not just absence of sunlight for thirty days. Ben Foster’s Stranger is the advance man for a gang of vampires who have chosen Barrow as their next feeding ground. The Stranger is like the Silver Surfer in the Fantastic Four comic books. He served as the advance man to the planet devouring giant, Galactus. After a run in with Sheriff Eben at the town diner, the Stranger is taken to the jail where he is handcuffed to the cell door. From this position, he forecasts impending doom. Eben and his estranged wife, Stella (Melissa George) listen to what the crazy stranger has to say.
2007 is Ben Foster’s year. He stole the show as Charlie Prince in 3:10 To Yuma. His fiercely loyal David Prince was a throwback to a Peckinpah character. He broke out of Russell Corwin’s shadow, the character he played on Six Feet Under, with such thuggish roles in films like Hostage and Alpha Dog. As the Stranger, he comes across as Elisha Cook Jr. on crack. You see, he keeps saying they did not take me away. He has made a deal with the vampires; he will do everything they ask of him and then make him one of them. The Stranger is as pathetic as he naïve. Foster is perfect in the role-- a modern day Renfield who is a miserable pest.
The film could have easily been called The Longest Month. For thirty days, Eben, Melissa, Eben’s brother, Jake (Mark Rendall) and a handful of survivors must figure out ways to endure until sunlight returns. The best thing to do is to hide and figure out how to outlast these super powerful predators. Guerrilla warfare tactics will come into play, but it seems the vampires are always one step ahead of their human prey.
There are some great set pieces and several wonderful uses of foreshadowing early in the film. The vampires are sleek and fast-- jumping from houses and using other humans as bait. They are relentless in their pursuit. Guns and bullets do not work on them-- they only annoy the hell out of them. A trusty, sharp ax is the best way to deal with these creatures-- severing their heads destroys them.
As Eben, Harnett is very good. He was one of the few bright spots in The Black Dahlia, but he seems to shine in this film. For some reason, the audience feels safe with him as the Sheriff. Before the De Palma film, I had not seen him in anything that really grabbed me. The former “It” boy finally does well and lives up to his potential. And like Vacancy earlier this year, the film’s gruesome events serve as a way to save his marriage to Melissa-- although this film is way ahead of the Luke Wilson/Kate Beckinsale motel hell frenzy. What works very well in the film is some of the plot devices. Harnett’s character rises the occasion; he is perfect for this genre.
The film’s greatest asset is that it brings fear and anxiety back to the audience. The vampire is something to be feared; our dreams of them are real. It helps that the vampires are led by Danny Huston. As Marlow, he earns his last name just as he did in The Proposition. Huston’s Marlow and his vampire cronies speak in a foreign dialect. We never doubt Huston’s feral nature. His rawness, when dealing with victims and especially when dealing with Ben Foster, does not surprise us, but it instills fear in us. This is not The Little Vampire. Toward the end, Marlow needs to ensure there are no survivors. The need to make sure that the humans only know them as “bad dreams” must remain intact. We believe he has been doing this for centuries. Huston excels at playing these parts. Marlow could easily be the long lost brother of The Proposition’s Arthur Burns.
I feel 30 Days of Night is a chilling and incredibly well done horror film. Horror films do not always succeed in creating a truly scary atmosphere, but this film does it right away. I was not expecting to be as impressed as I was with this film. Truth be told, I do love the genre, but I have burned out on it over the years. Too many remakes and just too many remakes of Asian horror films have soured me, but this film, along with 28 Weeks Later, is bringing me back into the fold. I roll my eyes more than I care to admit while watching the latest horror films. At least the Saw films still mange to make me turn away during their most disgusting parts.
Slade has created a feeling of isolation and despair that I have not seen since John Carpenter’s The Thing. I could not help thinking of that film which still haunts me. It also reminds me of John Carpenter’s The Fog. The atmosphere is the real star of that film. The mist is a real creepy presence. While I feel Harnett’s Eben is no match for Kurt Russell’s Macready, I still needed to see how he would handle this crisis. While I do like 30 Days of Night, it is not in the same league as those John Carpenter films. Suspense and curiosity make a great team. The unrelenting pulse is key to the film’s appeal-- an adrenaline rush of fear. David Slade has created an environment of fear-- a horror film that can truly scare me is one worth seeing. As in many horror films, particularly vampires stories, surviving through the night means life and salvation.
No comments:
Post a Comment