Kiele Sanchez, Sex Scene, 30 Days of Night: Dark Days, Dread Central Review

Producing a successful film sequel is a daunting task, particularly when its predecessor is a film as beloved by fans as 2007’s horror hit 30 Days of Night. Fortunately, director Ben Ketai’s 30 Days of Night: Dark Days, which streets to DVD and Blu-Ray on October 5th from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, is a worthy successor to David Slade’s 2007 original. It’s dark, disturbing and nihilistic, and one hell of a ride.

Co-written by Ketai and originator and co-producer Steve Niles, the film stars Kiele Sanchez as ‘Stella’ (stepping into the role previously essayed by Melissa George in the original), a woman bent on illuminating the public to what actually transpired in her Alaskan town of Barrow a year prior–namely, the massacre of ninety-eight men, women and children at the clawed hands of a group of particularly nasty vampires. With her speaking engagements rather unsuccessful in convincing the masses of the supernatural menace, Stella is unexpectedly recruited by three other victims of related vampire attacks (Coiro, Baird and Parrineau), who alert her to the existence of Lilith (Kirshner), the vampire queen ultimately responsible for the genocide of her Alaskan town’s inhabitants. Together, the quartet set off to avenge the murders in the underbelly of Los Angeles.

A faithful adaptation of Niles’ 2004 graphic novel of the same name, 30 Days of Night: Dark Days opens with a brief and effective recount of the events of the original film and then segues into a Se7en-esque title sequence, which serves to ground Dark Days’ narrative in the urban decay of downtown L.A. Exposition is kept to a verbal minimum with Stella’s pathos following the death of her friends and husband Eben in the first film laid out quickly via the pill bottles and handgun which occupy the bedside table of her seedy hotel room, and with that Dark Days is off and running. (more…)

Kiele Sanchez as Stella in 30 Days of Night, DVD for Halloween 2010

Kiele Sanchez Sexy Scene, 30 Days of Night

Dark Days is the sequel to 30 Days of Night and is loosely (and when I say that I mean very loosely) based on the graphic novel Dark Days. It is often unfair to compare and contrast with the books a film is based on but I find it difficult not to with this. There are obvious reasons why it is only loosely based – after all 30 Days of Night (the movie) deviated from the original but there are further changes.

The Attack
So, before I go on a spoiler spree – for those who don’t want that I will say that Ben Ketai cut his teeth on the short presentation 30 Days of Night: Dust to Dust and does what he can with an obviously reduced budget. He certainly proves himself a better director of action sequences than Davis Slade but script, story and effects leave us with a product that perhaps floats below average, all told…

Burning under sunlamps
Okay spoiler time. We begin with a recap of the events in Barrow, with a new Stella (Kiele Sanchez). Aspects of the original are shown along with Stella replaced. Stella is now trying to make the world listen and has come to LA because a letter from a mysterious correspondent called Dane (Ben Cotton, Blood Ties and Stan Helsing) has suggested a presence of vampires in the city. Stella is giving a talk on what really happened at Barrow, people laugh when she mentions vampires but she has a surprise. Sunlamps – these fry the two vampires in the audience causing a panic. Stella is arrested.

She is in an interrogation room when Agent Norris (Troy Ruptash) comes in and tells her that no-one will buy her clever little hoax. He unhooks the camera and then tells her that the bodies are gone and that he would kill her but someone else feels that such an act would draw too much attention. The threat is clear and Stella heads for her motel.

Hunters
She gets into her room and is faced with three strangers – Amber (Diora Baird), Paul (Rhys Coiro) and Todd (Harold Perrineau). These are hunters sent by Dane and I was unsure as to this set up. In the graphic Stella had set the group of hunters up herself and this indicated a lot about the character that had occurred in the intervening year. Anyway they suggest no-one will believe Stella and Amber wanders off for a smoke, disgusted with the supposed new recruit’s attitude. (more…)

Kiele Sanchez does an Excellent job taking over as Stella Oleson

Kiele Sanchez as Stella Oleson

The original 30 Days of Night was a great film with a superb and scarily stark story. Set in Barrow, a small town in Alaska where every year they have a month without sunlight, it followed the terrified town folks fight against a 30 day vampire siege. The great concept and mix of action and horror was bound to inspire a sequel and Dark Days is that sequel, continuing the story straight from the final scene of the last movie. Flashing forward several years Stella A Perfect Getaway’s Kiele Sanchez taking over from Melissa George who stared in the first film) is still traumatized by the events in Barrow and the loss of her husband and many friends at the hands of the hungry bloodsuckers.

Driven by grief she tours the country trying to convince others that vampires do exist, meeting only skepticism and mockery. On the verge of giving up, a group of lost souls find her and offer her the opportunity to get revenge on the vampires who destroyed her life. Armed to the teeth, the team set out on a mission to destroy the vampire network and kill their queen, Lilith (Mia Kirshner from 24 and The L Word) with bullets and brute force. However it seems that the enemy is everywhere, and faced with the possibility of finally eradicating the fanged freaks from the face of the planet Stella must journey straight to the vampire’s lair if she wants to be free from the ghosts of her past. Like the first film Dark Days is based on a comic mini-series of the same name, written by Steve Niles who also co-wrote this screenplay as well as penning the original 30 Days of Night comic and film script. Niles involvement and the fact that the film is an adaptation leads to a strong story-line, which continues and develops on the original, investigating the world of the vampires it created further and taking the character of Stella on an dark and interesting journey both actual and psychological.

Kiele Sanchez does an excellent job taking over a character already molded by another actress and the rest of the cast are solid. The vampires in general are your standard issue Goths in black leather with sharp teeth and unidentifiable Eastern European accents. However in her portrayal of the vampire matriarch Kirshner gives an untouchable regal air with boats of disturbingly detached sadism which makes the character all the more believable and brutal.

Taking a different tone to the first film director Ben Ketai takes his influence from the brilliant Blade Trilogy. With guns and gore, action and frights and a ‘hard ass’ heroine with a rag tag team of misfits all out for blood from the bloodsuckers.

In its pacing the film seems to sag a little in the middle, but its climax -  although predictable -  gives the audience what it wants.
The final scene is an excellent and emotional payout which ties the two movies together, yet leaves things open hopefully for more days of night to come.

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30 Days Of Night: Dark Days is a sequel to one of the finest vampire films to come our way for some time, UK Review

Kiele Sanchez in '30 Days of Night: Dark Days'

Stella (Kiele Sanchez – A Perfect Getaway) has survived the onslaught on her sleepy town of Barrow, Alaska and has taken it upon herself to warn humankind of the existence of vampires. During her tour of lectures she encounters a group of fellow survivors who are looking for one thing – revenge and they see Stella as the missing piece of their army.

30 Days Of Night: Dark Days is a sequel to one of the finest vampire films to come our way for some time. The original, starring Josh Hartnett and Melissa George, was a well-acted horror full of suspense and slow-burning tension. This sequel tries to further the story on from the events of the first film but the end product isn’t a patch on the original.

There are two ways we can look at 30 Days Of Night: Dark Days. On the one hand it completely changes the concept of the first film. That was a very well thought-out premise in the first place where vampires chose the isolated surroundings of Barrow, Alaska specifically because darkness blankets the town for a month, thus concealing their existence from mankind. This sequel shifts its focus to LA and it feels like a completely different concept right from the offset. It sullies the hard work of the first film and instead turns this into a run-of-mill human vs. vampire story full of graphic violence and obvious set-pieces.

The other way of looking at the film is that the first story was a classic and to try and extend the story further, liberties would have to be taken in order to broaden its scope. Dark Days ironically has more in common with Blade or Vampires in that it takes a group of rag-tag humans and makes them go up against a vampire army. The greater depth of the vampires’ infiltration to our society is explored a little further and that would explain the shift in location to a metropolitan city. But this is shining the film in a very sympathetic light. The real reason this film was made was that the original was successful and the straight-to-DVD market has ensured that anything with legs will be flogged for all its worth.

If you are willing to take the leap, 30 Days Of Night: Dark Days does offer some (very) light entertainment but only as a standalone film with no ties to the original. If you’d rather be a realist, this is a waste of time made solely to cash in on a known name. 30 Days Of Night: Dark Days may make light viewing for horror aficionados but anyone with a strong feeling towards the original should probably steer clear of this. It’s just not what you want to see in a sequel and fails to evoke the same sense of style and visual presence as the first film. On the whole, 30 Days Of Night: Dark Days is a straight-to-DVD release for good reason.

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30 Days of Night: Dark Days, Two-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo (2010) at Amazon.com

Kiele Sanchez, Diora Baird, 30 Days of Night

30 Days of Night: Dark Days (DVD) Review:

As someone who has both read the 30 Days of Night graphic novels and have seen the films, I have to say there are quite a few differences between the two variations. Usually, a book or graphic novel takes precedence over its film counterpart–ask anyone who has read a novel, and then saw a film based on the aforementioned novel. 30 Days of Night: Dark Days is no different.

For myself, it does have its good points, although it strays terribly from the original plot in the graphic novel until the main end, which I will not spoil. The only familiar things in the film that I noticed from the graphic novel were the opening sequence, the auditorium scene, a few of the new characters, like Dane, Lilith, and Agent Norris, Stella’s need for revenge, and the main ending. It was somewhat disappointing to see that the film’s plot diverged so far away from its graphic novel counterpart; but, in a way, it is understandable, since the first film contradicted certain aspects of its own graphic novel’s plot, or left out characters completely, so its Dark Days sequel had to change some of the storyline around, in order to remain consistent with the first 30 Days of Night film.

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