30 Days of Night

I'm starting off this with David Slade's 30 Days of Night. It came up on one of the movie channels that I get for free for 3 months since DirecTV moved my dish to my new place, so I decided to DVR it. I LOVED Hard Candy (one of the few standout films for me in the last 5 years or so), and am curious to see how Slade goes from a tiny little film that takes place in, and was shot in the same location, to a graphic novel-based horror type film. Josh Hartnett's easy on the eyes (minus the Bert and Ernie eyebrows), and I've always loved Ben Foster!

TRAILER:
It looks well made, and hits hard from the very beginning. It seems to have the right amount of creep factor and gore. There's a fine line to walk when making a film that incorporates the supernatural into a modern, believable civilization. *fingers crossed for this one*

I must say, overall, well done! The style of this film fits in perfectly with previous works of his, yet Slade takes it to the next step as a director. He had been known before mainly as a music video director, having worked with such musical outfits as Stone Temple Pilots, Muse, System of a Down, Aphex Twin, Stereophonics, etc., so I was curious to see how he would bring a $30M movie to the big screen.

***THIS IS WHERE THE SPOILERS START***
First off, FALSE ADVERTISING throwing Ben Foster in the trailer! He's in maybe less than 20%. *sigh* He was great, as always, but still... Also noteworthy, Danny Huston plays a creepy guy like no one else's business! Josh Hartnett and Melissa George both work well as the male and female leads, respectively. As for a film overall, I liked it! As odd as it sounds, I'm a sucker for the not-quite-so-happily-ever-after endings. I'm not necessarily saying that I enjoy or thrive on misery (but if that were the case, won't you join me?), but I feel like cookie-cutter is so unrealistic and misleading.
The pacing of the film felt right on for the most part, with only a scene or two that could have been a tad shorter. The characters and plot (for what it was) were all totally believable and well played. Now, correct me if I missed something, but the vampires and the humans only had interaction because the vamps were caught feeding, right? Huston's character, Marlow (though no vampire names are ever mentioned outside of the end credits), stated that the vampires had lived however long while keeping up as only a nightmare in the eyes of humans, but since they'd been spotted, all humans have to die to keep their actual existence a secret, right? I'm not quite sure of Ben Foster's character in that sense then.

Slade puts a distinct feel to all of his work (that I've seen thus far), and it lends itself well to the darker themed pieces. Back to Hard Candy, while I really liked it the first time, it was the second time that I was able to take myself out of the plot and appreciate the artistry behind it. If you haven't seen it, watch it. If you have, watch it again and notice the color and lighting changes when Hayley's (Ellen Page) mood changes.  I think Slade surrounds himself with very talented people from makeup to lighting to DP, and has been able to fully show his visions because of it. Even his short film, Do Geese See God? with Blair Underwood had the similar feel. He has a way of making things splendidly creeptastic! It'll be interesting to see how he takes on Eclipse, the 3rd film in the Twilight Saga (June 2010) given his generally darker approach, and older fanbase. Hopefully he gives it the added edge that it needs to reach a broader audience.

I haven't yet decided if, or how, I'm going to actually rate films, but for the time being, if I were to just give 30 Days of Night a thumbs up or a thumbs down, I'd definitely give it a thumbs up.

For more Slade:
Hard Candy trailer (2005)
Do Geese See God? (2004)
Stone Temple Pilots - Sour Girl