30 Days of Night

30 Days of Night

This movie is what is right about Hollywood. It is a miracle, actually, that it was made. Not because of anything that happened, or because of any hardships during shooting; of those I know nothing. It is a miracle because it goes against everything that Hollywood has done recently, save for the Harry Potter movies. More of that later. First, 30 Days of Night...

This is a very scary vampire movie, one that dares to re-imagine our vision of the vampire. I will give some credit to the original creator, Steve Niles, the writer of the graphic novel, 30 Days of Night; he hatched the idea. The filmmakers, however, made the idea work.

Set in the most northern American city, a place named Barrow, Alaska, 30 Days of Night tells the story of an isolated town besieged by a pack of vampires who want everything the little town has to offer: blood and darkness. Barrow has the distinction of having 30 days of darkness every winter, due to its position on the globe. For vampires, this is, of course, heaven. For the residents of Barrow, Alaska, this is hell.

The vampires are seemingly unstoppable killing machines, and only a few survivors hold up in out-of-the-way places, hoping to ride out the remainder of the 30 days until the sun returns. The atmosphere is incredibly creepy and filled with feelings of foreboding doom. The scares are real and powerful, and most of the imagery is very disturbing. The action is hard-hitting. And the acting is excellent.

The vampires: The vampires are fresh and re-imagined. They are savage predators who show many attributes of birds, including their soul-rending screeches. They seem too savage to even have reason, but they are calculating and tricky, and they use many tactics to hunt down their prey. They even speak their own language, which seems to be some ancient mixing of Russian and German, and this adds to their mystique. Personally, I hate movies and TV shows that involve vampires being killed like some many cheap zombies. Vampires should be a deadly menace that protagonists would be lucky to escape from, never mind defeat. Although many vampires get taken down and some even chopped up in this movie, it is clear that there is only two ways for them to actually be destroyed. And those ways are 1000111000111000 00111011011100110 1001111101001001010101010110110 1011010100101010011110 10101011010110000 10110. And that's how you do it. Anyway, moving on.

As mentioned earlier, Hollywood did everything right, thereby beating the odds. Well, they did everything right by doing a couple of things wrong. Mainly, they did not follow the graphic novel. This worked well since I believe that the graphic novel, while nicely ... painted ... was not of the best quality. Ghost House Pictures went in their own direction, and they picked the right direction, seemingly. The characters were better in the movie. They were a lot more full and full of life, which made you worry about them more. The vampires were not part of some huge underground movement. Their backgrounds were left to the imagination, which is the best way to handle that sort of thing. And no one else knew of their existence, which made the story less silly than the graphic novel. Not to toss any disparaging comments against such a popular piece of work; like I said, it was painted well. In an abstract sort of way.

Bring the kids? Absolutely not. The scares are huge and there are many disturbing parts. Many. Heck, a guy gets his head chopped off onscreen, and I am still questioning whether or not it was real. (If that actor is reading this, send us a post to let us know you are alright.)

Date movie? I'm going to say no. Unless you know your date likes scary, gruesome movies.

I give 30 Days of Night ten out of ten headstones. Go see this movie right now.

Poll #2: What is your favorite movie genre?

We're ending our second poll early. What is your favorite movie genre? Our movie fan poll shows that the western has beat out the other choices. Yee-haw!

The Host

For me, this movie was a shot in the dark. I heard a few good things, so I went out and bought a copy. Some might call that foolish, but I have had pretty good luck with random movie purchases. Unfortunately, later that same day, a friend of mine told me that The Host was not that good a movie. In fact, he said that, other than one really good scene, it was a waste of money.

Well, I watched The Host the other night and I was very pleased. It was an outstanding horror / comedy movie! The DVD jacket says that it rivals Jaws; while I do not totally agree with that, it is a great movie in just about every aspect I could think of.

The story is a fresh take on an old theme, one that started long ago with Herman Melville's Moby Dick. A monster takes something from the main character, or in this case characters, and they feel the need to hunt that monster down and reap vengeance. We have seen this theme before in many movies, including but not limited to, Jaws, Orca, Lake Placid, to a degree, and, of course, Moby Dick. This theme is done well in The Host; well enough to put it in the same rank as those movies. Especially Jaws; more on that later...

The cinematography was excellent. The scenes were filmed with a sharpness that only a seasoned filmmaker could capture. Tunnels were dirty, reeds were growing wild, snow was cold, and the monster was scary.

The special effects? Fantastic. The first time you see the monster - which was a very original design, by the way - the scene is made to look incredibly real. At times, I was reminded of news footage. Back to the monster: it was not only very original, but it was interesting and impressive. It was given a character of its own, so to speak, meaning that you saw aspects of a real animal in the way it acted and the way it moved. At the beginning, it was clumsy and random, but as the movie progressed, the monster gained the grace that a maturing animal would have. It was very well done, indeed.

The characters, which are what drives a film, are awesome! Jaws was not about a killer shark; Jaws was about the men who hunted it. Forget the monster, focus on the people. In The Host, those people are very rich and they are all likable. You instantly, and I mean instantly, care for them and want them to succeed. They make this film work. And what is really impressive about the characters is that you can see them change as people as the film goes on - every single one of them (except the focus of the film's story, which is not who you think it is). This film is very deep and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good horror with some comedy in it. If you liked Lake Placid and if you liked Jaws, then you will like The Host.

But watch it in the original Korean with English subtitles. Dubbed movies are stupid and they make the dialogue very silly. Silly enough to ruin the movie.

Kids movie? Nope. Too scary. Just because kids are in the movie does not make it a kids movie. There is gore, there are scares, and there are heavy thematic elements. No kids.

Date movie? Could be. There are enough laughs to keep most people going. Just make sure your date likes subtitled movies and monster movies. And that is what this is: a good, old-fashioned, new-fangled monster movie.

On the hydra scale of movie critiquing, I give The Host seven out of seven heads.