30 Days of Night (2007)

30 Days of Night is a high-concept vampire survival movie with the gimmick of being set in a town so far north a single winter night lasts for thirty days. That last part is real, or at least real enough: the closer you get to the North Pole, the longer winter nights become (the North Pole itself has one night and one day a year, a detail I wish more movies about Santa would incorporate). The town where this is set is also real - it's the northernmost location in Alaska, now called Utqiagvik, though it went by Barrow in 2007 when this movie was made.

I should note that 30 Days of Night never mentions Christmas, nor are there any major holiday decorations (there are some white string lights early on, but it's not clear whether these are meant to reference Christmas or simply decorative). In short, there's nothing in the dialogue or on screen suggesting this is set at or about Christmas in any way. So why am I talking about it?

The answer, of course, is built into the premise. While the movie doesn't acknowledge the fact, it must be set in the fifteen days before and fifteen after the winter solstice, since that's when the period of extended night is centered. If we're taking the title literally, the movie must be set between December 7th and January 5th, give or take a day. In short, it's all part of the holiday season. Depending on how you do the math, you could interpret the ending as playing out on the morning of Epiphany, so maybe it's an Epiphany movie.

Though I'd really argue it's first and foremost a solstice movie, as that's what's really driving the premise. To the extent this is about anything, it's a movie about the longest night of the year and what that means in the northern area. It's using that to find horror in the dark and highlight the importance of coming together to outlast the seemingly endless night and drive the cold winter away.

As a reminder, this is also the likely reason we see so many ghost, monster, and demon stories in holiday folklore, particularly in northern Europe. I have no idea whether this was a conscious factor in the development of this franchise (it definitely wasn't reflected in the movie, but without having read the comics it was based on, I can't chime in there), but if not the lore surrounding 30 Days of Night effectively reconstructs the foundation for centuries (if not millennia) of yuletide horror. I think that's kind of great.

I do not, however, think this movie is great.

It's not awful, either - just a fine survivalist horror flick with a handful of impressive technical elements. The makeup on the vampires is extremely impressive, as are the gore effects, and the movie sells the brutality of the action. As one of many entries in a crowded subgenre, there are absolutely things to celebrate here: I understand why it has fans.

But for something that starts with a clever conceit to deviate from the norm, it's shockingly bad at actually following through. The movie tells us it's set over a night lasting thirty days, but the structure, plot, and character dynamics don't seem to have been calibrated for the premise. Instead, we're shown a shockingly generic genre flick in which the protagonists hide from and ultimately fight against the monsters hunting them. There are a few lines of dialogue about resources and rationing, but we're not shown how this impacts the leads. The pacing, plot twists, interpersonal conflict, and effects stress take on their minds and body aren't appreciably different from those in any of the countless movies set over a normal, twelve hour night. You could basically derive the same movie by taking the script for a different genre movie and overlaying text reading "Day 5" or "Day 18" every couple of scenes. The whole "30 days" thing really doesn't wind up mattering.

Likewise, the movie fails to develop meaningful arcs or stories for its characters. The two leads are Eben (Josh Hartnett) and Stella (Melissa George), a married couple who start the movie separated but rekindle their relationship just in time for Eben to sacrifice himself in the final act by injecting himself with vampire blood to gain superpowers to save Stella. Not wanting to live as a monster, he stays up with Stella to see the run rise and is of course burned to death as a result.

Very dramatic. Unfortunately, we're missing sequences developing their relationship and giving them the sort of arcs necessary for this to deliver some kind of emotional catharsis. We don't really see Eben or Stella change together or separately over the course of the film - mostly, we just see them surviving vampires. It doesn't help that their characters are extremely bland. The most interesting thing about either might be Eben's asthma, which factors into a scene or two before quickly being resolved.

The supporting characters are a little more interesting. Danny Huston plays the lead vampire, and he hints at a surprising amount of depth in just a handful of scenes. Likewise, Ben Foster plays a fun (if a tad cheesy) Renfeild-like character through the first half of the movie, and Mark Boone Junior is by far the most interesting of the protagonists. This movie would have been more interesting if his character had been the lead.

Since we're talking about the cast and characters, this seems like a good time to mention something that grated on me throughout the film. The town this is set in is a real place, rather than a fictitious location. While that grounds certain elements such as the annual extended night, it also makes the decision to cast mostly white actors problematic. I realize this sort of thing was commonplace in 2007 (are we really at a point when 2007 is considered the distant past?), but it certainly shouldn't have been seen as acceptable. I didn't need to check Wikipedia to know the majority of residents of Utqiagvik are Alaskan Native, but I did anyway. Around the time of the movie, around 60% identified as such - only 16% were white. The movie portrays the town's demographics as if it's in the Midwest.

I should also note that various other factors surrounding the town being entirely cut off from the world (things like the airport shutting down) are fabricated. Likewise, even a childhood in the relatively balmy state of Maine made the absence of snowmobiles stand out. The movie attempted to explain away cell phones, but it didn't mention things like Ham Radios or other tools common in isolated regions. It's also worth noting if communication from a town - any town - went dark for weeks, it's a safe bet authorities would find a way of getting through, no matter how remote.

I'll admit I'm drifting dangerously close to nitpicking plot holes here, a practice I generally despise. This isn't bad because it's not internally consistent - if it's bad, it's because of a lack of developed story arcs and for failing to capitalize on its premise. But I do think the movie opens itself up a little more to these kinds of objections by virtue of attempting to ground itself in reality. I'd have less of a problem if they'd just invented a town in northern Alaska, rather the anchoring a fantasy story to real people and a (semi) real event.

Speaking of which, the movie gets the extended night thing wrong in a way that's kind of hilarious. I should preface this by saying I really don't think this is an issue - they were clearly just trying to convey an idea visually and invoked artistic license. That said, there was far too much sunlight shown, including bright blue skies before the sun set for the titular thirty days of night.

That's not how this works. You'd have extended dusk beforehand, periods where the sun barely rises above the horizon. It's not as if days are normal then suddenly switch off for a month. If they'd wanted to explore this in genre terms, it would give the vampires a much longer window to operate in, as they'd only have to hide from the sun for short periods before and after.

Again, not doing that was a choice, rather than a problem. But I do think it's kind of hilarious there's an unrealistic amount of daylight in 30 Days of Night.

I also find it hilarious this passes one of the dumbest Christmas movie litmus tests I encounter online. Occasionally you'll find someone argue something (usually Die Hard) isn't a Christmas movie because changing the date of the setting wouldn't change the story. As I keep pointing out, by the logic of that test almost nothing would be a Christmas movie - you can absolutely change the holiday referenced by A Christmas Carol (this has been done multiple times, in fact) without altering the plot. And of course the nativity story in the New Testament isn't set at midwinter. It's exceedingly rare for the plot or premise of any movie to actually hinge on being set over the holidays.

But 30 Days of Night actually does require this. Despite not mentioning Christmas once, the extended night is centered on the winter solstice, which occurs three or four days before Christmas itself. Move the date, and there's no movie.

This isn't a great movie, but horror fans will find a lot to appreciate. The gore effects are well executed, and the vampires are appropriately monstrous. If that's what you're looking for, you'll probably have a good time with this. It's also somewhat fun as a cheesy horror flick, if you're looking for something to watch with friends and not take too seriously.

While I do think this needs to be considered a Christmas movie and its existence illustrates an inherent feature of holiday folklore, that doesn't mean it's necessarily best watched at Christmas. The snowy setting would complement the season, but the absence of decorations and references mean it won't scratch the same itch as most holiday-set horror. The Christmas elements are fascinating from an academic standpoint, but it's not going to be a particularly fun Christmas watch.

Interestingly, it joins a growing list of Christmas vampire movies, even if its presence is somewhat on a technicality. Cronos, Red Snow, and last year's Nosferatu remake are all fantastic Christmas vampire movies (okay, Cronos is a New Year's movie, and Nosferatu's holiday elements are only slightly more pronounced than 30 Days of Night, but you get the idea). The low-budget Christmas vampire film, Two Front Teeth, was also released just a year before 30 Days of Night, but I can't recommend it to most audiences.

Regardless, I'm glad there's a growing pool of these movies. Christmas is supposed to be a time for scary stories, along with romances, so the more of these we get, the better. I just wish this one had landed in the "great" pool, rather than just being fine.