The movie is not a complete masterpiece, but it is damn close. It features cool vampires attacking an isolated town, people fighting for their lives, scenes with actual emotional impact and lots of blood. Oh, and Melissa George!

Somehow I have missed this movie when it appeared so I watched it back to back with the sequel that appeared in 2010. Man, were they completely different! If this film made me immediately jump to the computer and start the sequel to see how it continues, the other made me watch it in fast-forward.

The film gets a little of that Swedish movie Låt den rätte komma: the vampires are human-like, but not human; they are strong and fast and deadly; they do not glitter, wear fashionable clothing or have other interests than drinking your blood. In a sense it is similar to Near Dark as well.

Bottom line: There are holes in the plot and it doesn't really try to create a vampire mythos at all. But that is a good thing, as it adds to the gritty, visceral feel of the movie. It is the proof that vampire movies can be good! Therefore my recommendation is that you should not miss this film, but definitely avoid the Uwe-Boll-like sequel from 2010.

Having heard plenty of good buzz about this vampire film, I sat down to watch the DVD with high expectations. I was left both satisfied and disappointed. Disappointed, because it in no way breaks any kind of new ground. Stylistically it's heavily indebted to THE THING, conjuring up the same kind of icy wasteland backdrop and eerie isolation that goes along with that.

The vampire action is gory indeed, full of arterial sprays and bloodied fangs, along with severed heads galore, but that's all stuff that's way old. This even reminded me of the BLADE films, especially the ending of the first Wesley Snipes movie and the ending of this one. Kudos to the filmmakers for bringing back vampires as they should be – feral, ferocious, and frightening – but other than that, 30 DAYS OF NIGHT is simply more of the same.

What it does have is an interesting cast. I usually dislike Josh Hartnett, but here he's given the chance to show warmth as the town sheriff who leads the fight back against the vampire menace. Melissa George is a lovely actress, and she shines as Hartnett's ex. The villains are led by a creepy Danny Huston and Ben Foster, delivering another of his psychopathic roles as the mysterious Stranger. The special effects are, for the most part, very good, with only the occasional lapse into cheesy CGI acting as a detriment.

The pacing is spot on and the segment where the characters are holed up inside a hidden antic is well handled, with plenty of suspense. But I didn't care much for the 'twist' ending, which made little sense, and other elements just seem to be thrown in to shock the viewer (the little-girl-vampire reminded me of the zombie baby in the DAWN OF THE DEAD remake: just there to be unpleasant). It's a fun throwaway film that doesn't outstay its welcome, but would I want to watch it again? I don't think so.

Every year Barrow, Alaska has a mass exodus as it starts a period of 30 days without sunshine. Sheriff Eben Oleson (Josh Hartnett) finds a lot of strange things happening. His ex Stella (Melissa George) misses the last flight out of town. Then they arrest a mysterious drifter (Ben Foster) right before an invasion of deadly vampires.

This starts slowly, but there is a moody atmosphere building. The cold isolation works great as a way to ramp up the tension. The premise is something new for the vampire genre. I like the originality. The style also has a good look to it. The acting is pretty good for a horror movie. Ben Foster has the most interesting role. Josh Hartnett gets the leading man role. It's a good horror movie with something different.