30 Days of Night is a 2007 American horror film based on the 2002 comic book miniseries of the same name by Steve Niles, who also co-wrote the film's screenplay. Directed by David Slade and starring Josh Hartnett and Melissa George, the story focuses on an Alaskan town beset by vampires as it enters into a 30-day-long polar night.
The film was released by Sony Pictures Releasing on October 19, 2007 to mixed critical reviews, and grossed $75.5 million against a budget of $30 million. Its success resulted in a franchise, including a two television miniseries, Blood Trails and Dust to Dust, and a sequel film, Dark Days.
Contents
Plot
As the town of Barrow, Alaska prepares for the annual month-long polar night, a stranger arrives from a large icebreaker ship that is hidden some ways off and walks into town. Evading detection, he begins sabotaging means of communication and transportation by stealing/burning all of the satellite phones, destroying a helicopter, and killing all of the sled dogs.
Barrow's sheriff, Eben Oleson, is busy investigating the seemingly separate instances of sabotage with his deputy, Billy Kitka, when he learns that his estranged wife, Stella, is in town on her rounds as a fire marshal.
She tells him that she needs a ride to catch the last plane out, or she will be forced to stay for the month. Eben has another urgent call that he must attend, but sends Billy to give Stella a ride. Billy, however, deliberately takes too long, and Stella misses her flight.
As darkness falls, things around town begin to rapidly escalate, and Eben runs into Stella when she assists him in corralling the stranger, who he finds harassing the waitress, Lucy, at the local diner.
After taking him back to the police station and locking him in a holding cell, the phone lines and internet go down. Eben heads out alone to check on Gus, the technician in charge of Barrow’s telecommunications station.
Unbeknownst to anyone but the stranger, a band of vampires arrives from the ship, prepared for an attack.
After killing Gus and destroying the equipment, they leave his head on a spike outside the building. When Eben shows up and sees this, he rushes back to town, stopping only to tell some concerned citizens that they should return home, lock their doors, load their firearms, and wait for more information, or meet at the diner if they don't have generators.
As he returns to the police station, still unaware of what is coming, the slaughter of the townspeople commences, beginning with Ellie Riis, who is dragged out of her house through her kitchen window. Her husband, John, is injured and left for dead while trying to save her.
Production
Development
30 Days of Night author Steve Niles conceived of the story in the form of a comic, but after meeting a lack of interest in initial pitches, tried to pitch it as a film. When this did not work out, Niles shelved the idea until he showed it to IDW Publishing. IDW published the comic and Ben Templesmith provided the artwork. When Niles and his agent, Jon Levin, shopped the comic around again as a potential film adaptation, Niles found that the idea "went shockingly well", with Sam Raimi and Senator International picking up the property rights based on the original concept and Templesmith's unique mood and concepts for the vampires.
According to Raimi, the potential project was "unlike the horror films of recent years".
Following the publication of the 30 Days of Night comic book miniseries in 2002, studios, including DreamWorks, MGM, and Senator International, bid in the $1 million range for rights to a potential vampire film based on the story. Raimi expressed interest in adapting the miniseries and was negotiating a production deal with his producing partner Robert Tapert to establish a label with Senator Entertainment, of which Senator International is the sales division. In July 2002, Senator International acquired the rights for 30 Days of Night in a seven-figure deal with Raimi and Tapert attached as producers.
By October 2002, Niles was working on adapting 30 Days of Night for the big screen, keeping the film true to the miniseries, though fleshing out the characters more significantly in the adaptation process. In February 2003, Columbia Pictures partnered with Senator International to work on 30 Days of Night, which was developing under Senator International's newly established production company, Ghost House Pictures. Mike Richardson, the Dark Horse Comics publisher who supported the adaptation project from the beginning, after having turned down an offer to initially publish the project, was attached as executive producer. The following March, Richardson revealed that Steve Niles had turned in the initial draft for the 30 Days of Night screenplay. In March 2004, however, Columbia Pictures requested that Niles's initial screenplay to be rewritten in preparation for production. Sue Binder, the business manager of Ghost House Pictures, indicated that filming for 30 Days of Night was still at least a year away, as Ghost House planned to produce three films before the vampire thriller. The following May, Stuart Beattie, one of the writers for Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, was rewriting Niles' 30 Days of Night draft for production. Niles was pleased with Beattie's faithfully rewritten script, which was submitted to the studio in October 2004. Adi Hasak also made uncredited contributions to the script.
Casting
In June 2006, Josh Hartnett was announced as having been cast as the husband of the married couple who serves as the town's sheriff team. Some criticized the choice because the main character (Eben Olemaun, with the last name changed to Oleson for the motion picture adaptation) was originally Inuk in the comics. Melissa George joined the 30 Days of Night cast as a sheriff and wife of Hartnett's character. Danny Huston joined the cast as the leader of the vampires.
Filming
Filming did not begin immediately, but in a September 2006 interview, executive producer Mike Richardson said that 30 Days of Night would be shot on 35 mm film, though discussion had occurred to shoot the film on Genesis. In an interview prior to filming, Slade explained that the illustrations by Ben Templesmith would be reflected in production design. Slade also considered Nelson's draft to be the most faithful to the graphic novel. He also stated his intention to make a "scary vampire film", of which he did not think many existed. "The rest of them, they fall into all kinds of traps. We're going to try to do our best... and one of the ways we have to do it is be more naturalistic than the graphic novel, because it's very over-the-top," said Slade. Also, concern was expressed that while the vampires needed to communicate, talking might lessen the effect. To counter this, a fictional vampire language, with click consonants, was constructed with the help of a professor of linguistics and the nearby University of Auckland. Slade explained, "we designed this really simple language that didn't sound like any particular accent that you would be aware of, that was based around really simple actions, eating, hunting, yes, no, really basic, because that's what vampires do."
Post-production
By February 2007, the production phase was completed, and a rough cut of the film was prepared. In April, composer Brian Reitzell was hired to score the film.
Music
Brian Reitzell composed the film's score, with Justin Meldal-Johnsen performing. A soundtrack was released by Invada Records, with an artwork by Marc Bessant in summer 2015 on vinyl.
Novelization
To coincide with the film's release, a novelization by Tim Lebbon was published by Pocket Star on September 25, 2007. It is one of six novels based on the franchise.
Release
Box office
30 Days of Night was released in 2,855 cinemas in the United States and Canada on October 19, 2007. In its opening weekend, the film grossed $16 million, placing first in the box office. The film grossed $39.7 million in the United States and Canada and $35.7 million overseas for a total of $75.3 million worldwide.
Critical reception
On the review aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 50% based on 156 reviews, with an average rating of 5.5/10. The site's critics consensus states: "While 30 Days of Night offers a few thrills, it ultimately succumbs to erratic execution." Metacritic reports a weighted average score of 53 out of 100 based on 29 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C" on an A+ to F scale.
Roger Ebert gave the film 2.5 stars out of a possible 4. He criticized several plot holes, such as the vampires moving with supernatural speed in some attacks, but ponderous slowness in others, but also singled out Danny Huston for being "quite convincing" as the vampire leader, and summed up the film as "well-made, well-photographed, and plausibly acted, and is better than it needs to be."
Home media
30 Days of Night was released February 26, 2008 on DVD, Blu-ray, and UMD for PlayStation Portable in the United States. The video sold 1,386,716 copies earning a profit of over $26,524,542.
TV series, prequels, and sequel
A prequel miniseries Blood Trails was released in 2007.
A sequel miniseries Dust to Dust was released in 2008.
A straight-to-DVD sequel entitled Dark Days was released on October 5, 2010. The script for the sequel was written by Steve Niles and Ben Ketai with Ketai also positioned as director. When filming began on October 20, 2009, Rhys Coiro and Mia Kirshner were named as leads, with Kirshner playing the lead vampire villain Lilith. Other cast named included Harold Perrineau, Kiele Sanchez, Diora Baird, and Monique Ganderton. Three days after filming began, Niles revealed that Kiele Sanchez replaced Melissa George in the role of Stella Oleson. The sequel was produced on a lower budget, but being straight-to-video allowed the writers to more closely follow the comic book.