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Features: DVD, Widescreen, Aspect Ratio 2.40:1, Dolby Digital (5.1), English, Spanish, Subtitled, French, Dubbed & Subtitled
Josh Harnett (The Black Dahlia, Pearl Harbor) crosses over to the dark side in this bone-chilling adaptation of the cult-hit graphic novel, brought to the screen in all its demonic glory. In a small Alaskan town, thirty days of night is a natural phenomenon. Very few outsiders visit, until a band of bloodthirsty, deathly pale vampires mark their arrival by savagely attacking sled dogs. But soon they find there are much more satisfying thirst-quenchers about: human beings. One by one, the townspeople succumb to a living nightmare, but a small group survives - at least for now. The vampires use the dark to their advantage, and surviving this cold hell is a game of cat and mouse - and screams.
"The most terrifying vampire movie ever made." Andrew Kasch, DreadCentral.com
"...the action scenes are artful and terrifying; these killers move so quickly and decisively, there seems to be no hope for humanity." Desson Thomson, The Washington Post
"This slick and sticky horror is the most accomplished treatment of vampire lore since Near Dark." James Dyer, Empire
"A well-paced and entertaining horror debut." Peter Hartlaub, San Francisco Chronicle
"...do[es] for the vampire genre what "28 Days Later" did for the zombie flick: give age-old monsters a modern-day makeover." Scott Bowles, USA Today
Editor's Note
Based on the graphic novel by Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith, 30 DAYS OF NIGHT works overtime to pump fresh life into the vampire genre. Director David Slade (HARD CANDY) has created a series of pulse-pounding sequences, ripe with carnage, employing few tricks to keep his vision from getting lost in the seemingly tireless undertow of "undead" films. Located in the northernmost part of Alaska, the town of Barrow experiences a complete lack of sunshine for an entire month once a year. The town is populated with tough, hardworking, and generally law-abiding citizens, so there hasn't been much for Sheriff Eben Olesen (Josh Hartnett) to do except brood over his separation from his fire marshall wife, Stella (Melissa George). As darkness descends for its annual 30-day day, though, a series of bizarre discoveries rocks the town--and very soon vampiric Marlow (Danny Huston) and his minions arrive, slaughtering and sucking on everyone they can catch, safe in the knowledge that they have much longer than usual until sunup. Eben, his little brother Jake (Mark Rendall), Stella, and a handful of others are forced to hide and fight for their lives until the sun returns.Clearly inspired by the sprinting zombies of Danny Boyle's 28 DAYS LATER and Zach Snyder's DAWN OF THE DEAD, Slade makes these vampires lightning-fast creatures of destruction. With ratlike makeup design indebted to NOSFERATU, they are effectively spooky. This is as much an action film as a horrific one. The lead-in time until the tale's initial fireworks is brief, and the pace thereafter is relentless. The script, co-written by Niles, is tense and avoids tension-killing humor that ruins so many contemporary studio horror efforts. 30 DAYS OF NIGHT never plays it safe; primary characters bite the dust, children fall into harm's way, and a lot of pretty white scenery turns red before our eyes.
| Features | 8 Behind-The-Scenes Featurettes | | Audio Commentary | | Audio: English, French Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound | | Dubbed: French | | Interactive Menus | | Scene Selection | | Subtitles: English, French, Spanish |
| Technical Info
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Release Information
| | Studio: Sony Pictures |
| Release Date: 9/23/2008 |
| Running Time: 113 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 2007 | | Catalog ID: 19615 | | UPC: 00043396196155 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English [CC], English, French Dubbed | | Available Subtitles: English, French, Spanish | | Video: Color |
Aspect Ratio | | Anamorphic Widescreen 2.40:1 |
| Cast & Crew | Ben Foster | | Danny Huston | | Josh Hartnett | | Melissa George | | Art Jones - Editor | | Ben Templesmith - Based On Graphic Novel By | | Brian Reitzell - Original Music By | | David Slade - Director | | Jo Willems - Cinematographer | | Joseph Drake - Executive Producer | | Mark Robins - Art Director | | Nigel Churcher - Art Director | | Paul D. Austerberry - Production Designer | | Sam Raimi - Producer | | Steve Niles - Based On Graphic Novel By | | Stuart Beattie, et. al. - Screenplay |
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| | Professional Reviews | Total Film
3 stars out of 5 -- "[A] survivalist spooker....There's a stark, harsh integrity..." 11/01/2007 p.64Empire
4 stars out of 5 -- "30 DAYS OF NIGHT boasts something that has long been absent from modern fiction: genuinely frightening vampires." 12/01/2007 p.60 Ultimate DVD
4 stars out of 5 -- "[T]he director makes full use of the set to imaginatively capture the carnage....It's uncompromisingly nasty and thrilling stuff..." 05/01/2008 p.100 ReelViews 8 of 10
It's a pleasant change of pace to get a vampire movie where the bloodsuckers are allowed to be monsters. You know what I'm talking about - no more of this brooding, tortured soul s***. The undead here are hardcore killers, ripping apart their victims' throats then walking around with the blood caked all over their faces. Even Dracula wasn't this cold-blooded. Too often of late, motion pictures have defanged their vampires, turning them into whiney, pseudo-romantic figures. That's not a mistake made by director David Slade. Finally - a modern vampire movie where audiences sympathize with the victims rather than their attackers. If you think these creature are sexy, you need therapy...One aspect of 30 Days of Night that's refreshing is that it doesn't require the survivors to have undergone frontal lobotomies in order to move the story forward. Yes, characters occasionally do stupid things, but they're not unreasonably stupid and they don't force members of the audience to fight against the suspension of disbelief gag reflex. I'm not going to claim that the screenplay is either airtight or brilliant, but it is smarter than the average genre entry, and that's a big plus...30 Days of Night works on its own terms, which is more than can be said of most horror films these days. If this is the kind of movie you're looking for, it delivers. - James Berardinelli
Chicago Sun-Times 7 of 10
I award the movie two and a half stars because it is well-made, well-photographed and plausibly acted, and is better than it needs to be. Its director, David Slade, previously made the stunningly good "Hard Candy." Although his vampires quickly disable the town generators, there seems to be a full moon for 30 days, bathing the streets in cold light. Otherwise, this would be a radio play. I have pretty much reached my quota for vampire movies, but I shouldn't hold that against this one. If you haven't seen too many, you might like it...If you are a horror fan, you will love it, and in the interest of equal time for the defense, I close with evocative prose by the critic Undeadmin from his five-dagger (out of five) review on DreadCentral.com: " 30 Days of Night grabs this hoary monster by the throat, pumps it full of the thick rich blood of life, and shoves it out to greet you, eat you and coat you in glorious mists of red firing from oh-so-many newly exposed arterial sprays." - Roger Ebert
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