IGX

I watched this last night (after giving blood, ironically enough).

First of all, what it isn't: it isn't a smug horror comedy. It isn't a parody. It isn't about wisecracking, hormonal teenagers. It isn't about some fucking yuppies whose perfect lives are ruined by ghosts. All of the above just piss me off.

What it is: a grim, bleak, unrelenting horror film, about working class people facing something terrifying. In the town of Barrow, Alaska, 80 miles from the nearest nowhere town, the longest night of the winter lasts 30 days. On that evening, the sheriff finds the town's sat phones destroyed, the sled dogs all killed, the helicopter vandalized. Once the town is cut off, the vampires show up. They've chosen this town for their next month-long feed.

This movie is not driven by the stupidity of its characters and their bad choices. Most people are smart; it just doesn't help that much, and the folks who do stupid things die very quickly.

The choices are hard, and sometimes people have to decide who's going to make it and who isn't. At one point a character in hiding has to watch someone get torn apart, because to interfere would not only get him killed, but also betray the other survivors' hiding place.

The vampires aren't elegant, aren't sophisticated or suave, just pale people with oddly angular faces, black eyes, and mouths full of jagged spikes.

It's a nice throwback to classic horror, but it is not a date movie. Gory, bleak, depressing. It's probably not best to watch it during a snowstorm.

Welcome to Barrow.

Shit, I didn't even know the name belonged to a real place; I just assumed it was a generic "very far Northern Alaska town."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barrow,_Alaska

On November 18 or 19 the sun goes down, and remains below the horizon for about 65 days until it re-appears, normally on January 22 or 23. During that time there is a decreasing amount of twilight each day, and on December 21st, about the shortest day of the year, civil twilight in Barrow lasts for a mere 3 hours.[8][9]

Serious cold weather usually begins in January, and February is generally the coldest month, averaging −16 °F (−27 °C). By March 1st the sun is up for 9 hours, the average temperature is 2 or 3 degrees warmer, and the winds are usually higher. April brings less extreme temperatures, with an average of about 0 °F (−18 °C), but on April 1st there are 14 hours of sunlight. In May the temperatures are much warmer, averaging 20 °F (−7 °C), and beginning on May 10 the sun does not set for 83 days, until August 2.

Popular culture

Barrow is the setting for a series of horror comics called 30 Days of Night. The stories center on vampires who take advantage of the more than a month of darkness that takes place annually in the town. A film, based on the comic, was released on October 19, 2007 and stars Josh Hartnett. In both the film and the comic, neither Barrow, nor the period of darkness in winter, are depicted accurately.

Friend of mine did one of those Northern Exposure deals to get through Med School. They sent him to Barrow.

He was actually a shrink. Back in the days when shrinks did talk therapy. So he spent a lot of time on the radio, during winter, trying to talk down drunken guys who were going to kill themselves or someone else.

I always thought that would be a good TV series: Frontier Shrink.

Seconded on this movie, I liked it.
It's 'Night of the Living Dead' meets 'The Thing', and is one of the few horror movies that succeeds because of the vampires.

As GDG said, the vampires are totally unsympathetic, what background is given on them is just enough to explain WHY they're doing what they're doing now. And what they're doing now? They're trying to fucking eat you, that's it. No world domination, no grandiose plans, just fucking eating people.

So yeah, it was pretty awesome.

NOMMITY NOMMITY NOMMITY

i kan haz an eskimo?

Cool. Now I definitely want to see this movie. Too bad my wife would never watch it.

RyanH wrote:Cool. Now I definitely want to see this movie. Too bad my wife would never watch it.

It's a tearjerker and gets all chick-flicky at the end. She'd love it.

There is one horrifying scene that's pretty much your standard gang-rape, only with haemolagia substituted for the sex. Toying with this girl, passing her from hand to hand, etc.

GoDogGo! wrote:

RyanH wrote:Cool. Now I definitely want to see this movie. Too bad my wife would never watch it.

It's a tearjerker and gets all chick-flicky at the end. She'd love it.

There is one horrifying scene that's pretty much your standard gang-rape, only with haemolagia substituted for the sex. Toying with this girl, passing her from hand to hand, etc.

Maybe that will get her in the mood.