Come anticipate 30 Days of Night with me.

Trailer

A very positive review.

Stills

The official site for the comic on which this movie is based.

Official website for the movie, plus MPG.

Okay then! Wow!

is that josh hartnett?

Does look promising.

is that josh hartnett?

-- omar little

Didn't we already have a non-viral-marketing thread about this thing?

This isn't viral marketing, this is my wife!

Having said that, this looks fun. Atmospheric horror is much more fulfilling for me, more so than the torture porn that is oh so popular today.

whoops, sorry bout that!

Damn.

link?

I searched for a thread and couldn't find one.

Yes, that's Josh Harnett but I'm choosing to ignore that in favor of Sam Raimi and vampires.

I can't find it either. Maybe I hallucinated it.

This looks pretty great

I have no idea what this is but since J&J are into it I will give it a shot.

It's a movie based on my favorite horror comic evar. The premise is that there's this town in Alaska where it's dark for 30 days in the winter and this one year? OH SHIT VAMPIRES!

Alaska? SOLD

Ben Foster is awful in everything. Stop making movies with him, pplz.

What's Sam Raimi's involvement?

He's a producer. I thought he was the director but he is not. The director is David Slade who hasn't done much, but he did direct Hard Candy, which I liked but I think was received with mixed emotions by other Chicago ILXors. Or maybe just other people in my house. I can't remember.

I want to see Hard Candy, but watching it by myself seems weird and watching it with my girlfriend seems weirder.

Btw, I have no idea what this thread is about ("why would I know about vampire movies?"), but Jenny started it, so hi.

Hi John! It's about a scary movie we should go see because it's October and it will be fun.

I think I watched Hard Candy with Jeff and Jesse so... can't be much weirder than that.

I saw Interview With A Vampire the other night. It was fooking wank. Copala's Dracula sucked too. When is going to make a decent vampire movie? Enjoyed Hard Candy but this looks bad from the trailer.

"When is *someone* going to" rather.

Alaska? SOLD

-- dan m, Tuesday, October 2, 2007 2:30 AM (15 hours ago) Bookmark Link

danny huston is in this. i like him, maybe i'll check it out.

All of Danny Huston's performances that I've seen have been perfectly fine, but for some reason, the fact that he only started acting at age 40 sort of bothers me, like I imagine him loafing about and then realizing he could trade on his surname to get big movie roles.

i love danny huston

jaymc that is weird!

especially considering he worked in an AIDS hospice before he started acting!

So if Hitler worked in an AIDS hospice before he started acting, you'd love him, too?

He started directing when he was 26 and turned to acting in his 30s.

You need to incorporate IMDB into jaymc.xls.

OK, Milo, I'll get on that.

So if Hitler worked in an AIDS hospice before he started acting, you'd love him, too?

-- jaymc, Tuesday, October 2, 2007 6:58 PM (19 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

that depends on what movies he was in. loaded question.

I can't believe you Godwinned my movie topic, John.

Copala's Dracula sucked too.

so much funny about this

Let's say Hitler replaced Dennis Quaid in all of his films.

that would make for an interesting "innerspace."

american dreams would be amazing

That isn't Josh Hartnett, that is my wife!

Damn.

I am eagerly anticipating this. As my wife leaves for yet another work trip, I have a full spate of movies to go see that I couldn't convince her to go with me to - Eastern Promises, this one, several others.

I enjoy the so-called "genre" bending, especially in that it is a return to the ghoul concept of the vampire, and not the Stoker->Rice version, which is getting BOOOOORRRRING. How many different versions of oppulence are you going to have these blood-sucking, dirt-dwelling fiends living in? Didn't Rice cover them all in Lestat's travels to find other vampires?

This reminds me of my anticipation over 28 Days Later - Zombies, but they're FAST! Vampires, but they are able to be out for more than 10 hours at a time! Like 7200 hours!!! HOLY FUCK!!!! Talk about a scary-as-shit concept.

I am pumped for this film. To say the least.

when is this coming out?

the 19th

This isn't viral marketing, this is my wife!

-- Jeff, Monday, October 1, 2007 9:01 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Link

Jenny told me about this post in a bar earlier and I ROtF LOLing my AO.

I forgot about Hard Candy. Man I hated that movie so fucking much.

30 Days of Night looks great. I don't know of the graphic novel but I now am on board with the anticipating.

apparently vampires be einsturzende fans

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/edwardiii/30_days_of_night.jpg

i thought this was ok

Hahaha oh Ebert you are the best:

They are a miserable lot. Count Dracula at least had style and a sense of personal destiny; these guys are merely obsessed with their next meal. They don't even speak that elegant Hammer Films English; they talk like a garbled transmission played backward: "Qwe!nt raqulo*gg brop#sith!" The movie, which speaks their language, helpfully provides subtitles. It is intriguing to think of newly converted vampires attending language classes at Berlitz, since I do not think Chomsky's theories of speech apply to the Undead.

BOXCAR!@$!!&!

the vampires aren't really scary or mysterious enough in this, to be honest

from hard candy wiki:

The film inspirited an Internet safety movement called Wear Red. The movement uses the red hoody that Hayley wears as their symbol.

O_o uh.jpeg etc

Alaska? SOLD

-- dan m, Tuesday, October 2, 2007 2:30 AM (15 hours ago) Bookmark Link

-- river wolf, Tuesday, 2 October 2007 18:10 (2 weeks ago) Link

Agreed, but Vampires? HAGGLE

Anticipation is over!

The plot, outside the setting, was pretty derivative - creepy human helping paving the way for vampire invasion was straight outta Stoker. The plot twists were also pretty predictable (obv. hat tip to Dawn of the Dead, IMHO). Despite this, I still thought the movie was pretty good. It was definitely creepy and tense, with the darkness and the vampires creeping around on roof tops and the aerial view of the town with all the blood splotches in the snow. I jumped a good seven or eight times, which doesn't count all the jump scares that I knew were coming and thus prepared myself for. There were two parts (discovery at day 27 and the very end) that were truly horrifying, definitionally. There was some seriously grisly and well done gore towards the end (and I'm no fan of most modern gore (big fan of the Italian gore horror sub-genre, though)). There were bottomless pits of despair and then also redemption, and I think there was some question throughout the movie as to whether our intrepid gang of humans would actually survive the 30 days.

The vampires were a little problematic, though. I disagree with the Rog about the language issues. From what I could tell, freshly turned vampires didn't open their irisless eyes suddenly able to croak and squawk like the existing vampires. In fact, little Ms. Tattoed Girl (wtf was up with that, though?) spoke English, as did the other freshly turned humans. But even if they had received language knowledge, why is that so hard to believe? Becoming a vampire generally comes with a passel of vampire skillz, from turning to mist to being really fast to controlling wolves and being immortal... I am not sure why "learning a magical vampire language" would be so far outside the realm of possibility. I mean, this is a horror movie, not a documentary. These things can fly and don't need coats in minus 10 degree weather. Why is innate language learning such a leap?

However, I thought the vampires would have been more effective if they were a little quieter. Mr. Head Vampire guy's lofty pronouncements got kind of hilarious by the end, which is too bad because he had some serious creepy potential (like the part where he just randomly wiped blood all over his head - that was fucking eerie, except he wouldn't shut up about the human/vampire struggle). Being familiar with the comics, I know why he was saying what he said (sequel alert!) but still. Bummer. Also, the Vampire with the Beard of Blood would have been far more effective if he didn't walk around hissing all the time.

I think this was a solid, entertaining, sufficiently scary horror movie, and I will totally rent it when it comes out on video. On a 1-5 scale for just horror movies, I'd give it a 3.5. On a 1-5 scale of all movies, it's probably a three.

so what you're saying is "latebloomer otm"

No. If I wanted to say that I would say that.

They brought the little tattooed girl with them - that's why no one recognized her (and she had ink). It was some Interview With A Vampire shit.

Seemed really really long and didn't have enough originality to see the thing through. Hated the Marilyn Manson video extra vampires.

**************SPOILERS WARNING*********************

The good:

The vampires' Klingon-like speech (faux-Transylvanian?), which I think made them somehow more believable

The scene, early on, with the shadowy figure ripping apart the car against the moonlight

The head vampire and the one who liked like Marilyn Manson

The bad:

The totally pointless cliche of the 'child' vampire,' complete with retarded "HiI'mChuckyWannaPlay" dialogue. When will Hollywood learn that 'creepy' kids in these movies = always a mistake??

The totally pointless cliche of the one guy who's ABOUT to turn into a vampire but opts instead to die with dignity

The totally pointless cliche of vampires dismembering minor characters by the boatload in 2 seconds flat, but adopting fucking karate stances whenever a main character in involved

The totally annoying modern horror film cliche of "fast cuts are scary!" - Sometimes you can't even tell WHICH CHARACTER is being killed

More cons than pros, but enjoyable nonetheless. Great late night Halloween movie (we went to the last showing), but rife with the usual flaws. It's probably some douchebag studio exec going "It's good, but make it more Die Hard-meets-The Ring!"

Then again, I'm unfamiliar with the comics so maybe there is lots of fistfighting action in the original graphic novel or whatever.

Also - did anyone think the whole "when man meets an advesary he cannot destroy he destroys himself" speech was meant to be an indictment of terrorism? If so, suicide bombers OWNED by head vampire!

I don't think David Slade seems to know how to bulid up horror at all. The early killings failed to get the heart racing at all. And it didn't get across the feeling of the townfolk's descent into panic either.

By the end it got quite tense, but that was by reverting to a formulaic run and hide monster movie plot (I'm no connoisseur, but it really reminded me of Pitch Black in this regard).

A shame, because the landscape was a perfect backdrop and the film had great visual style. I loved the icy colours (and gazing at Melissa George's frosty lips) and the bird's eye shot of carnage was just terrific.

All the lead actors seemed to have very cute little noses.

the breath cloud continuity was v bad.

ok so i saw this last night with a half bottle of wine and a few *REDACTED* of *REDACTED* and i sorta thought it was awesome. flawed (deeply in parts), but awesome, if only because it seems like a pretty neat parable about weirdo family values and Otherness. also because it is basically a deep space alien thriller and western pretty much at the same time.

added bonus: no subtitles for vampire talk, which, at the time, i thought was a very deliberate and effective move. like duh the invaders are speaking arabic omg runnnN!

i am seriously planning on writing up an extended review of this in the next week or so.

also, jenny, i feel compelled to have a Conversation with you about this

This is a terrible movie.

you're not wrong!

*I* couldn't finish it... Not even with *beer's* help.

this movie would have been a lot more fun if kurt russell starred in it. the world needs more kurts russells and less joshes hartnetts.

The plural is Joshi.

Whoo I forgot about this and I got the graphic novel bind-up trilogy for Christmas so there's no excuse. Will make a note for later Netflixing.

It was alright. Sort of a different take on the whole vampire story. They typically are not invading forces, but rather a cancerous presence that takes over slowly through fear and the unknown.

These blood drinkers were like Vampire SWAT.

And I love the almost total lack of romance to their appearance/characters. Other than the foreign language, was anything about them such that you felt like you couldn't turn away? Not really physically attractive, certainly not beguilling or darkly romantic, a la Dracula.

But the plot needed some serious work, and the end was just lame. It was pretty good up until about 15 min left in the movie.

And man I wish Josh Hartnett would just go the hell away.

it gets an A+ for effective use of setting. it's biggest mistake was taking itself too seriously.

I liked the ending. by design siege movies paint themselves into corners that can be hard to resolve satisfactorily, or interestingly. 30 days found an unexpected way out, but it could've used a little more trashy verve to put it over the top.

maybe rob zombie should remake it.

In parts Aphex Twin (good) but in parts it could definitely need some "reworking". Like I didn't think the sappy lovey dovey story worked so well. That kinda bummed me out in the end. Ilike the warbly language even if it was subtitled. So what? It's not like it'smeant to make SENSE now does it, Mr Ebert. I mean, REALLY.

So I really liked it. Style wise it was prettty ACE at times, story was a bit ramshackle at times, esp the love story. could have done without it.

I liked the setting and the Western style here come the baddies lets fight'em off way. I also like the vamps wooshing about and making hissy noises. Still nowhere Near Dark. Nor Coppola's flick (which is a good/bad thing).

i srsly think not having subtitles made the movie way more enjoyable

i could give a fuck what those vampires are talking about

"so what's for dinner tonight?"

"filet Josh, dude, with a side dish of Melissa George."

Yeah, I guess you're right,but then I didn't mind. I was kind of wondering if it was just an Einsturzende Neubauten record played backwards or something but what the hell right? Who cares?

I liked it, reeealllly liked it, but then I'm a (cough cough) sucker for Vamps anyway. It has to be really crappy (waves at Coppola) and... well, I'll still like it.

This was really good wrapping but some of it was a bit crappy. The love story was def... NO.

This is on Amazon Prime now, and I just re-watched and want to reminisce about the time I wasn't viral marketing but Jeff's wife.

Didn't we already have a non-viral-marketing thread about this thing?

― Rock Hardy, Tuesday, October 2, 2007 1:19 AM (thirteen years ago) bookmarkflaglink

This isn't viral marketing, this is my wife!

― Jeff, Tuesday, October 2, 2007 2:01 AM (thirteen years ago) bookmarkflaglink

I saw that in the theater right around halloween, and a woman brought a toddler who cried in abject terror throughout the film until several people went to tell the manager, who ejected her and the wailing waif