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Every year in Barrow, Alaska, they have 30 days without a minute of sunshine.
The town empties out and only the die-hards remain - this year there are
152 souls brave enough to face the sunless winter. Into this dark day comes
a stranger (Ben Foster), warning that "they are coming" and the
people of Barrow are all going to die. First, they take out the cell phones,
then all the sled dogs and the helicopter (and any other way to get out
of town). They also take out the power, but generators in Alaska seem to
run forever. Sheriff Eben Oleson (Josh Hartnett) tries to find out who
"they" are, but before he can get an answer, people start screaming
and dying and generally making a bloody mess of the place.
The culprits - a pack of hungry vampires who don’t speak English. They’re taking over the town and picking off the townsfolk one by one; they mostly communicate with each other by these shrill ear-piercing screeches.
Eben and a group of hearty survivors gather first at the café, then
the police station, before settling on an attic hideout that is almost
impossible to discover (unless you can smell human blood nearby). His brother
Jake (Mark Rendall) is with him, along with his estranged ex-wife Stella
(Melissa George), who conveniently came into town for only a day but got
stuck when chaos ensued, and several other future victims that shall remain
nameless. They spend days and days sitting in their attic and watching
other people die outside, but they decide they can’t last 30 days without
finding a better place to hide. Is that such a good idea?
For people who are tough enough to survive the harsh conditions, they are
an extremely noble, self-sacrificing bunch. One after another they offer
to give themselves up to act as a diversion so the rest of the group can
be saved. It gets a little ridiculous with all the offers – "it’s
my turn to be the hero/dinner." If this was our only complaint, the
movie would still have a chance to be at least interesting, but alas, it’s
not.
Recently, vampires have been depicted as sexy beasts that seduce you into
exposing your own neck to their bite. These guys are not models of the
night - there’s nothing sexy about this group. Plus, they’re very messy
eaters – swarming down on a victim and basically biting the head off (which
prevents any victims from becoming new recruits to the dark side – they
don’t want to have to share their food supply).
When it comes to destroying the evil ones, there are no stakes through the heart or holy water sprinkles, just beheading or sunlight (although you can substitute the UV lights used to grow marijuana, thanks grandma). After a while, the vampire attacks get a little boring – with the exception of the trencher machine, which is an awesomely twisted vampire-exterminator. There are a couple of good scares and lots of blood, but it doesn’t make up for the ridiculous dialog or the fact that the story doesn’t have enough going for it to last a month.
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