Spoilers Ahead.
What happens when the sun isn’t there to drive away the creatures of the night?
Before directing the films Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, Nightmare Cinema, and the new horror movie Dark Harvest set to release this September 2022, David Slade directed the vampire flick 30 Days of Night and sought to answer this question.
30 Days of Night features a group of ancient vampires led by Marlow (Danny Huston) descending upon an Alaskan town where once a year, the sun sets and doesn’t rise again for 30 days. The story follows a band of survivors, including the town’s sheriff Eben Oleson (Josh Hartnett), and his estranged wife Stella (Melissa George), as they try to elude the vampires in the endless night.
Fun Fact: The real town experiences darkness much longer than its cinematic counterpart. Utqiagvik, Alaska (formerly known as Barrow) has no sunlight for roughly 65 days, from mid-November to mid-January.
This Ghost House Pictures film premiered on October 19th, 2007, and was nominated for 14 different awards. The film was quickly overshadowed, though, as 2007/2008 saw the release of numerous films still lauded today, including but not limited to: I am Legend, 1408, The Mist, Hostel II, and Rob Zombie’s Halloween, among many others.
Like three of the films listed above, which were adapted from books, 30 Days of Night first existed as reading material, though in this case, it was a mini comic book series.
The film depicts vampires in a fantastically terrifying manner, keeping viewers plastered to their seats until the end, which then sees viewers leaving those seats to get up and yell at the TV. (Or is that just me?)
Putting the “Blood” in Bloodsuckers
The vampires begin to rack up a body count within the town as soon as they arrive. They drink blood as traditional vampires do but have to remove their victims’ heads, so they don’t transform into vampires themselves after being bitten. This clause saw the vampires leave a murderous bloodbath across the entire town. However, there is much more to the vampires than the stealthy carnage they deliver.
The type of vampire presented in 30 Days of Night is my favorite variety. They are intelligent and use an ancient language to communicate (though they speak in a fictional language). They have the elegance and poise that society has come to associate with vampires while simultaneously acting as viciously violent predators. Moreover, these vampires look the part. They are not romanticized or gorgeous; instead, the movie shows that turning into a vampire sees a horrific transformation take place. The face will transform, the teeth will grow sharper, and the eyes will turn black.
This appearance was the case for all but the leader of the vampires, Marlow. He looks more human than his vampire counterparts (but more on that later).
Fun Fact: The film drew some inspiration from Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot as the antagonist was named Barlow.
How 30 Days of Night Ends
What starts as a great movie gets frustrating fast. The town is burning down, and the film’s climax approaches as Stella calls Eben to let him know she’s trapped. Thinking quickly, he injects himself with a dead vampire’s blood. Planning on having just long enough to fight the vampires once and for all before turning into a mindless bloodsucker himself, he saves the day. Now that part, I will allow.
The hero becoming the enemy to defeat the enemy is a terrific trope. I will even overlook that, given Marlow’s leadership role and different appearance, killing him did not kill the other vampires as I had expected.
However, it is with Eben Oleson’s death that the film goes wrong. Not because he dies, though. All hail the conquering hero who sacrificed his own life to save his ex-wife’s life. Obviously, he cannot be allowed to live where he will join up with his other vampire buddies and massacre more unsuspecting towns. However, it is the way that he dies that grinds my gears.
He was not offered the swift, humane death given to much of the vampire squad that descended upon the Alaskan town, e.g., a quick bullet to the head. Instead, he gets slowly, painfully disintegrated to dust by the sunlight as Stella holds him, charring in her hands. It made for a memorable ending, but ouch. He seriously got the short end of the stick.
And for what? To save the woman who wasn’t that into him anyway. She only reached out to him when she needed something from him; he infected himself to save her, and then she couldn’t even give him the dignity of a decent death.
Don’t get me wrong. Eben Oleson choosing to be a hero does not make Stella obligated to give him her love. But does it make her obligated to say, “Hey, you sacrificed yourself to save me. Let me at least spare you the agony of what has to be the most excruciating death of all time’? I believe so.
But I suppose nice guys finish last… or get slowly obliterated by the sun.
All in all, the film is a lot of fun. Eben Oleson was unfortunately doomed to a fate of unrequited love and ashes, but the vampires put on one hell of a show. Fifteen years later (has it really been that long?), it’s still one of my favorite vampire movies.
Do you agree with the ending? Sound off in the comments below!