30 Days of Night: Dark Days

One of my favourite vampire films (and horror films in general) of recent years is 30 Days of Night, directed by David Slade and based on the graphic novel by Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith. The film was a really claustrophobic and intense horror film because it had a definitive timescale and characters who were introduced very carefully along with the environment and different locations within the town of Barrow, Alaska.

This sequel, directed by Ben Ketai, who wrote the screenplay with Steve Niles, begins immediately as the first one finishes albeit with a different actress playing Stella Olesen (Melissa George was either unavailable or didn't want to take part in this so Kiele Sanchez stepped in). After losing Eben and finding that the real version of events have been hushed up, Stella has travelled to mainland USA to try and get the truth to as many people as possible. On a speaking tour to promote a book she has written, she knows that she is being followed by vampires so has the halls fitted with powerful ultraviolet lights to burn any bloodsuckers in the audience.

After incinerating a couple of vampires and scaring the audience half to death, Stella returns to her motel room to find a group of armed strangers waiting for her. This motley crew, led by a vampire called Dane, know the truth about the vampires and track them down and kill them but want Stella to join them as she can help with her knowledge about what happened in Alaska. Above all, they want to find Lilith, the leader of the vampires who have begun to abduct and kill people from the mainland and, they suspect, are 'stocking up' before setting sail for Alaska for another wintertime feeding frenzy.

Although the group is slightly ragtag, they are extremely committed and very heavily armed with a cupboard full of very big guns and various other weaponry and they all know how to use them. There is one recurring obstacle in the form of FBI Agent Norris who is dying of cancer and wants to become a vampire so Lilith is using him to get to Stella. However, is a former law enforcement official herself, she knows something is up because Agent Norris appeared following the mayhem at her speaking engagement and she knows that it's not the sort of thing in which the FBI is interested.


As a sequel to such a well made, tense and scary film, 30 Days of Night: Dark Days really had pretty big shoes to fill so it is entirely unsurprising that it is not as good as David Slade's 2007 film and it would be a real turn up if a straight-to-video film was anywhere near the quality of one that had a reasonable budget and theatrical run. I generally have very strong opinions about films but this is one that just left me feeling entirely ambivalent and, to coin the word used in The Simpsons to describe such a feeling, is a film that is just a bit 'meh'.

The acting is perfectly reasonable by all involved but it does suffer from the lack of any really big name actors, particularly Melissa George who was such a great screen presence and wonderfully cast as Stella in the first film. In the commentary, Ben Ketai sets that he quite likes the change of actress as this film house of very different Stella apparently just feels like an excuse to explain away something that would really not have been his choice and, if someone had offered him Melissa George for the role instead of Kiele Sanchez, he would have (metaphorically) bitten their hand off. Ketai's direction is perfectly adequate for this kind of film and it does show how much he likes films like Alien and Aliens as there are several scenes which are exactly the same lighting, camera angles and décor.


I suppose the real reason why this is not as good as the first film is that the graphic novel isn't as good as the first as you don't have that sense of claustrophobia with people trapped in one town by a marauding horde of vampires as this time there are hunting the vampires, know how to kill them and are desperate to stop them reaching Alaska. As the humans have the run of the town and, in most cases, are on the offensive rather than spending all their time hiding, setting traps and trying their best to survive, there is a distinct lack of tension and, when one of them dies, it is really in the line of combat rather than because they have been hunted.

As DTV films go, this is perfectly adequate though isn't anything special and certainly isn't a patch on the first 30 Days of Night.

The Disc

Extra Features
The commentary with co-writer/Director Ben Ketai and Producer J.R. Young is a fairly revealing, though gappy, commentary track with Young acting as the moderator at St Ketai questions to which he knows the answer but wants the director to give the answer.

Graphic Inspirations: Comic to Film allows you to choose from a number of different images from the graphic novel and have Ben Ketai explain why they chose that particular shot and how it was changed and adapted for the film. As there are so many shots that are taken straight from the graphic novel, this is worth looking at to see which frames they thought were the most important.

The Gritty Realism of Dark Days (10:07, HD) is a series of interviews and behind-the-scenes footage dominated by Ben Ketai dominating proceedings with everyone explaining why the film was shot the way it was and how they made the vampires look animalistic and as scary as possible. Everyone seems extremely happy about the film and with each other's work but, despite the sycophancy and at least a third of it retreading information and footage from the first film, it is marginally interesting.

There are also several trailers for another Sony Pictures Home Entertainment releases.

The Picture
The 1080p widescreen 1.85:1 picture is an extremely good one with excellent contrast and detail levels so you don't lose clarity in the numerous dark and low light scenes. The set design is excellent and the selection of weaponry is really impressive as you get to see plenty of gunfire with muzzle flare lighting the room, people hacking off some other body parts with machetes and axes and even improvisational use of things like meat hooks.

To create the more gruesome effects, the SFX make-up is absolutely brilliant and the CGI is very well integrated to supplement the prosthetics and other hands on effects.


The Sound
The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track (also available in Italian and Spanish) takes you an extremely impressive soundstage with crystal clear dialogue, a very well presented score and action sequences with gunfire and people crashing into walls, pipes and other bits of masonry that really give the surround speakers a workout.

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment releases normally come with a good deal of audio and subtitle options so, along with the three audio options, are a whole host of subtitle tracks from around Europe and the world.


Final Thoughts
30 Days of Night: Dark Days is a fairly forgettable and mediocre film that really pales in comparison to David Slade's film based on a fairly similar graphic novel. Dark Days isn't as good as the first book but it still a very good read and it's just a shame that Ben Ketai isn't as good a director as David Slade. I suppose he was a little hamstrung by the reduced budget and B grade cast that doesn't contain anyone of the calibre of Josh Hartnett, Melissa George or Danny Huston. Even so, these actors did the best they could with the material they were given and there are some parts that were genuinely exciting and involving but, for the most part, the film is notable because it is just so unremarkable.