30 Days of Night: Dark Days
Posted by admin | Posted in Movies | Posted on 08-10-2010
5
Product Description
Almost a year has passed since Barrow Alaska’s population was decimated by vampires. Stella, mourning her husband’s murder, has been traveling the world trying to convince others that vampires exist. When a group of lost souls offers her a chance to exact revenge upon the vampire queen, Stella joins their mission to stop evil from striking again. … More >>
I love 30 days of night. Everything about it. I’ve read all of the comics, and really enjoyed the first film. Though there was a difference between the first film and the first set of comics, the first film effectively relayed the horror, and creepiness the comics had. The visuals where stunning and disturbing and the acting was brilliant.
When the sequel Dark Days was announced…I was immediately excited. I anxiously followed the production news and pre-ordered the DVD months in advance from my local DVD store. It arrived yesterday. First thing..if you think the DVD cover is poorly designed by looking at the picture on Amazon…wait until you see this turd in real life. It looks like a high school kids photo shop project. But like books movies should not be judged by the cover.
30 Days of Night: Night Dark Days starts out similar to the graphic novels, save for the fact that in this dvd the best looking scenes in the beginning are taken from the original movie and given as flashbacks. The story follows Stella the sole survivor from the Barrow Alaska vampire incident while she is traveling the US giving speeches on what really happened in Barrow and trying to get people to believe the truth. Overall the production value of this movie is very low…but that is not why it is a bad movie..as low production value in an direct to DVD horror is not unusual. The vampires in this sequel are in no way comparable to the vampires in the graphic novel…or even those in the original movie. Sure…they are dressed in black…and have the full set of pointed teeth ( the teeth look prosthetic..no where near as believable as the first flick)..but they are missing that ‘creature from hell’ feel that the vampires had in the novel and the first movie. In this movie the vampires seem like humans dressed in Halloween costumes as the vampires from the first film. In fact…instead of a town full of vampires like the first film…there are only maybe seven vampires in this whole mess and the vampires here act more human than any vampire in any vampire movie I’ve ever seen. Instead of biting many of them choose to simply shoot their victims with guns. !!!? what?
The sense of urgency and fear that the first film relayed is also lost in this film. In fact…the characters just go from scene to scene spouting putridly boring lines to build up to a brief interaction with vampires who are not scary in the least. This film has no…repeat no scare factor..no chills…none of what you want from a good horror.
The worst part of all about this sequel is that I could not give a damn about any of the characters. They where all played flat and there is close to no development on any of them, Ketia relies on the fact that you know Stella and that is enough for him, sadly it is not enough to make a robust story line. The characters are not the same as they where in the novel, but in a screen adaptation that is to be expected most times…the bad thing is that Stella is so far removed from the novel version of her in “Dark Days” that the whole story does not make sense the way it does in the novel, and nor is the end as disturbing as it should supposed to be.
I love horror, and independent film and always want to find something good in the DVDs I watch and purchase..that being said the 30 Days of Night: Dark Days does have some good editing, and some decent shots…but there is probably only one scene out of the entire film that I somewhat enjoyed and overall this movie was the one of the biggest if not the biggest disappointments I’ve ever had in terms of sequel follow up to a cool film. It is this kind of mess that ruins the franchise…I doubt that we will ever see “30 days of night: Spreading the disease” as Dark Days is so completely terrible this franchise, sadly is probably over.
Rating: 1 / 5
Do NOT waste your time or money on this complete let down
This “sequel” has nothing to do with the first other than a few tie in references and is not the least bit frightening whatsoever! SUPER-LOW BUDGET TRASH! I wondered why Melissa George (Stella from original) didn’t return and then it hit me…She must have read the script!
**Small Spoiler-entire film takes place in what appears to be One-Two warehouses and a ship?!
AVOID!
Rating: 1 / 5
This movie is being underated by reviewers. Wasn’t quite as good as first but still very entertaining with lot of action I’m giving it 5 stars
Rating: 5 / 5
Dark Days, like the first film in the series, loosely follows the plot of the “30 Days of Night” graphic novels, about vampires and humans killing one another against a thematic backdrop of despair and nihilistic vengeance. In this installment, Stella, the heroine of the first movie (played with robotic melancholy by Lost’s Kiele Sanchez, who was doubtless chosen for her resemblance to the actress from the first film) is transplanted from Alaska to LA, where she takes the fight to the night-stalking predators. Dark Days, like its graphic novel inspiration, eschews the romance of immortality by emphasizing that vampires are not role models. Here they resemble Romero zombies with fangs rather than cultured aristocrats.
Stella and some young attractive pals (including Matrix Reloaded’s Harold Perrineau) hop from one ghoulish underground battle to another, sparing no opportunity to splatter blood and spray gunfire. But as much as the movie wants to be Blade or Dawn of the Dead, it compromises too much between macho cool and psychological horror to truly succeed at either.
The performances, special effects, and direction are competent, but all these suffer a little from a smaller budget than the first film’s. They couldn’t even rope in Josh Hartnett to reprise his role in a five-second cameo, replacing him with another look-alike. But these faults are forgivable in a direct-to-disc feature, and this format in fact addresses the frustrating lack of gratuitous vampire kills and vampire lore that plagued the original. Even the making-of featurette feels like satisfying fanservice. This dark action flick will doubtless lure fans of the series to, um, try a bite.
Rating: 3 / 5
I think the director played alot of left for dead cause the whole time I kept thinking this would be a ok left for dead movie. But it is suposed to be a sequal to the awesome first film. Save your money and netflix it. Worth a rent cause the guy from the edge and the guy from entourage make this at least watchable.
Rating: 2 / 5