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30 Days of Night
Columbia Pictures


6.6

based on 29 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 78 votes
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FILM:

Hard Candy

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

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...

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.

Empire James Dyer

This slick and sticky horror is the most accomplished treatment of vampire lore since Near Dark.

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.

Philadelphia Inquirer Tirdad Derakhshani

It's a bloodsucker's paradise.

Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell

It's not perfect or "Shining"-level inspired, but it's solid.

San Francisco Chronicle Peter Hartlaub

A well-paced and entertaining horror debut.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

It is well-made, well-photographed and plausibly acted, and is better than it needs to be.

Premiere Eric Alt

It's all pulled off with a firm sense of the fun in being scared.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

A proficient, atmospheric fangfest that does nothing you haven't seen before but still does it passably well.

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.

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.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

It's seductive in its buildup but overall as subtle and, alas, as humorless as a hatchet to the brain.

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.

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.

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.

Village Voice Robert Wilonsky

Director David Slade's stab at the story is actually rather ordinary.

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.

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.

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.

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

Lighter on horror than it is on inadvertent humor.

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.

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.

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.

The average user rating for this movie is 6.6 (out of 10) based on 78 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

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.

BRANDI A. gave it a10:
This is the scariest movie i have ever seen in my life!!!!! my husband loves it and whenever he watches it my heart starts beating really fast and i feel like i cant breath and i have to leave the room!!!!! but it is the most awesome movie b/c no movie has ever scared me like that and i watch alot of scary movies!!!!!

Tom D. gave it a9:
This was surpisingly good, dark, and scary. I was riveted watching it. Don't know why this movie was deserving of a metacritic 50?

Laurie G. gave it a1:
I was extremely frustrated during this movie. They go from day one to day seven and then day eighteen yet nothing changed. It all seemed to be going on during the first night. Terrible story line.... I never even made it to the ending....

Kent C. gave it a9:
I haven't seen a more entertaining vampire movie in a long time. You people who gave it a bad grade, what were you expecting? Sure, it has a lot of gore and blood, but if you don't like that kind of stuff, then it's your fault for not seeing the content descriptions. This movie did a good job of keeping the feeling of the graphic novel, in my opinion. The plot isn't hard to understand, the action is well paced, the acting is pretty good for the horror genre, the script is decent, and of course the vampires are awesome villains. There are some effective camera angles, especially the birds-eye view. The visuals and soundtrack are great. This is one hell of a vampire movie.

R gave it a4:
I went to this movie thinking it was going to be terrible...it was. But it was better than expected. Would have been ok if not for the terrible design of the vampires and the screaming. It wasn't scary it was just aggravating.

30 Days of Night Columbia Pictures

30 Days of Night
Columbia Pictures