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30 Days of Night
Columbia Pictures

30 Days of Night reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 53 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
6.6 out of 10
based on 29 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 82 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

MPAA RATING: R for strong horror violence and language

Starring Josh Hartnett, Melissa George, Ben Foster, Danny Huston, and Manu Bennett

For 30 days every winter, the isolated town of Barrow, Alaska is plunged into a state of complete darkness. It's a bitter time when most of the inhabitants head south. This winter, a mysterious group of strangers appear: bloodthirsty vampires, ready to take advantage of the uninterrupted darkness to feed on the residents remaining in town. Barrow's Sheriff Eben, his estranged wife Stella, and an ever-shrinking group of survivors must do anything they can to last until daylight. (Columbia Pictures)


GENRE(S): Horror  |  Suspense/Thriller  
WRITTEN BY: Ben Templesmith (comic)
Steve Niles (comic)
Brian Nelson, Stuart Beattie
Steve Niles
 
DIRECTED BY: David Slade  
RELEASE DATE: DVD: February 26, 2008 
Theatrical: October 19, 2007 
RUNNING TIME: 113 minutes, Color 
ORIGIN: New Zealand / USA 

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

80
Film Threat Pete Vonder Haar
Decent vampire movies are few and far between, and I’m having a hard time remembering a recent one that impressed me like 30 Days of Night.
Read Full Review
80
Empire James Dyer
This slick and sticky horror is the most accomplished treatment of vampire lore since Near Dark.
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75
ReelViews James Berardinelli
Works on its own terms, which is more than can be said of most horror films these days. If this is the kind of movie you're looking for, it delivers.
Read Full Review
75
Philadelphia Inquirer Tirdad Derakhshani
It's a bloodsucker's paradise.
Read Full Review
75
Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell
It's not perfect or "Shining"-level inspired, but it's solid.
Read Full Review
75
San Francisco Chronicle Peter Hartlaub
A well-paced and entertaining horror debut.
Read Full Review
75
USA Today Scott Bowles
It loses some of its bite by film's end, but 30 Days of Night manages to do for the vampire genre what "28 Days Later" did for the zombie flick: give age-old monsters a modern-day makeover.
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70
Washington Post Desson Thomson
Directed by David Slade ("Hard Candy"), the action scenes are artful and terrifying; these killers move so quickly and decisively, there seems to be no hope for humanity.
Read Full Review
67
Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov
These days, it's dark everywhere. Which makes Slade's wild, often exhilarating neo-Western ride into frostbit vampirism something of a respite, albeit one awash gore.
Read Full Review
67
The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias
Which is more interesting: Vampires fighting over the potential long-term blowback of their Alaskan buffet, or a couple of exes bonding under duress? Seems like an easy decision, but 30 Days Of Night makes the wrong choice.
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63
TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
Mark Boone Jr. makes a vivid impression as eccentric loner Beau Brower, and Danny Huston is mesmerizing as the leader of the shrieking, slashing, wallowing-in-gore bloodsuckers. They effortlessly eclipse the rest of the cast.
Read Full Review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen
Like most kiddies games, this one starts out fun and then gets tired. Inevitably, that's when Slade tries to revive our interest by upping the gore quotient.
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63
Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
It is well-made, well-photographed and plausibly acted, and is better than it needs to be.
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63
Premiere Eric Alt
It's all pulled off with a firm sense of the fun in being scared.
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63
Boston Globe Ty Burr
A proficient, atmospheric fangfest that does nothing you haven't seen before but still does it passably well.
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63
Miami Herald Connie Ogle
Based on a graphic novel, 30 Days of Night opens with a premise so promising it seems almost impossible to screw up.
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60
New York Magazine David Edelstein
Danny Huston is screamingly funny as the alternately finicky and savage Head Ghoul--he’s like something spewed forth from the bowels of the Politburo. The problem is structural.
Read Full Review
58
Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow
It's seductive in its buildup but overall as subtle and, alas, as humorless as a hatchet to the brain.
Read Full Review
58
Seattle Post-Intelligencer Andy Spletzer
With such a good concept for a vampire movie, it's hard to believe it turned out to be this boring.
Read Full Review
50
Variety Dennis Harvey
Excels at bloodthirsty action, though dialogue and human-interest aspects are a tad anemic. Result is a mixed bag but has a catchy premise and quite enough splatter to satisfy gorehounds.
Read Full Review
50
Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips
Nearly two hours long, 30 Days of Night makes you feel the cold (though it was shot in New Zealand) and feel the fangs, but it also makes you feel like 30 days is a pretty long time.
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50
Village Voice Robert Wilonsky
Director David Slade's stab at the story is actually rather ordinary.
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50
Chicago Reader Andrea Gronvall
Forget about a stake through the heart: sheriff Josh Hartnett discovers that decapitation is the best way to stop the bloodsuckers, who suggest feral, steroid-crazed gymnasts as they scale buildings and leap onto moving vehicles.
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40
Los Angeles Times John Anderson
The movie thus moves from truly creepy to truly inane, which is, unfortunately, all too common in films of this ilk.
Read Full Review
40
The Hollywood Reporter Megan Lehmann
Dramatically, the film is a shambles, with whiplash-inducing lurches in tone and pacing that make it seem as if portions were edited out of sequence.
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38
New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman
Lighter on horror than it is on inadvertent humor.
Read Full Review
30
The New York Times Matt Zoller Seitz
The performers have little to do besides spill and drink blood in this tedious, inconsequential B picture. The sun doesn’t rise nearly fast enough.
Read Full Review
25
New York Post Kyle Smith
The movie approaches the final scene with a straight face, but it left the audience giggling spasmodically. This script probably should have gone all the way and thrown in a few quips: If your movie is a joke, at least be intentionally funny.
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25
Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
You can expect a lot of shredding and gurgling. 30 Days of Night is relentless, but it's also relentlessly one-note.
Read Full Review

What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this movie is 6.6 (out of 10) based on 82 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Glen F gave it a6:
Clearly, based on reviews from Alaskans, this movie made the Alaskans seem to smart.

Andrew M gave it a7:
Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: New Zealand *is* a cold place, you twat. No Alaska maybe, but you ever been to the South Island in winter? Anyway, this is a very good horror film...certainly better than most that come out these days (which alone probably deserves recommendation.) If the synopsis tickles your fancy, then you should be smiling throughout.

Scott Q gave it a4:
Okay, this movie has its moments but really is a diappointment and could have been so much better. The vampires are cool and the lead vampire is great but there needed to be more plot to take up all the 30 days of this film and I was willing to forgive everything that I didn't like except the ending, doesn't make sense at all. If you haven't seen the movie, stop reading this review as I reveal the ending. Josh hartnet puts the vampires blood into his which is fine because he wants to have their power to fight back at them but that is the problem, he should want to kill all of his friends once he changed fully. He can't be part human and vampire, doesn't make sense. Disappointing, but I love some originallity it had.

Gabriel gave it an8:
First to Nolan, your comments are totally stupid...I couldnt care less if Barrow was depicted accurately or not...for accurate information I got to an enciclopedia or many other resoruces...for movies I dont expect it...if you do, you need a reality check. The movie is very nice...far from perfect but good and easily the best vamp movie in years.

Qapqana M gave it a2:
I am from Alaska and this was horribly inaccurate of Barrow. I hate to think what Barrow people thought of it. I couldn't enjoy the movie because the IDEA of Barrow was so off in not just the big things but the little ones as well. I know it was just a movie, but some reality or just some investigation on Barrow would have made the movie a little better in my eyes. If it had been about maybe Canada or somewhere else in the North that i wasn't familiar with i may have enjoyed it more. Some research does wonders for the modern movie!

Lauren gave it a10:
This is one of my favorite movies! It has an entirely different view of vampires and I love its originality. In the cinema they always try to depict vampires to be such haunting, erotic, melancholy souls. I just loved how this one went beyond that boundary and portrayed them as vicious creatures. It is one of the best vampire flicks I have seem in a while. It definitely had me on the edge of my seat! My favorite scene is when the camera does an overhead pan of the town, it captured the chaos, blood and pure madness that these creatures were havocking on the town.

Nolan gave it a0:
Worthless movie. Ridiculously inaccurate. Now everyone thinks Barrow has 200 people and is a major oil town. Here's the deal folks- the two oil towns in Alaska are Prudhoe Bay and Valdez. Useless.

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