No one would want to live in a place where there would be no sunlight for 30 straight days ! I know I won’t, cause I would definately find it too depressing ! … unless if you are a descendent from Transylvania...a Vampire, that is !

The author Steve Niles had wanted to create a scary vampire story and had originally meant for his story to be a movie, but due to a lack of interest, he decided to turn it into a comic instead and it became an instant hit as a comic series. Finally in year 2004, Columbia Pictures requested that Niles's initial screenplay to be rewritten in preparation for production and director David Slade was signed on to the project.

The movie stars Josh Harnett as Sheriff Eben Oleson and Melissa George as his love interest wife, Stella Oleson. The story is set in Barrow, Alaska, a small town on the Arctic Circle where every year, there would be a period of 30 days in winter where the sun would be hidden. People who do not want to suffer from the lack of sunlight, would make plans to temporarily leave town to avoid this period of time. During this particular winter, the town is making preparations for its annual “30 Days of Night” as per usual. But this year, a stranger (Ben Foster) arrives into town, and strange things start to happen. Dogs are mysteriously killed, the last helicopter out of town is sabotaged, and people start to die in strange manners.

As Sheriff, Eben would of course have to do the investigation, all the while dealing with a huge distraction, that being that his ex-wife, Stella is in town. What started out as the work of 1 suspect, turns out to be the prelude for bigger things to come! Soon the town is invaded by a group of vampires, who are determined to make sure that mankind realize that Vampires are not just stuff of bad dreams.

From then on, the movie evolves into a series of gruesome killings. We are talking head-chopping, machine bone grinding, neck-arteries biting kind of killing. There are also numerous human verses vampire battles, with humans waging a war against the vampires despite being weaker and with their limited knowledge of the enemy.

Finally the story ends in a typical love-story style, with lots of hugging, loving and sunset scenes.

It must be mentioned that even though the film is set in Barrows, Alaska, the actual filming took place mostly in New Zealand. In addition, the number of days during which the sun is down in Alaska, should be 60 days and not 30 days as the movie title suggests. During the sun down period, the place would also not be that isolated as the movie suggests. In reality, there are daily 737 jet services to Barrows from other cities in Alaska.

Overall this is a great date movie, especially if your date is someone who scares easily and would automatically jump into your arms with each scary horror scene! Unlike some other movies, I was barely squirming in my seat from boredom, and was chewing at my nails from mid-movie till the end. I was also pretty much awake throughout the movie even though I saw it rather late at night. (proof that it is a fascinating movie !)

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