30 Days of Night: Dark Days, DVD Review
30 Days of Night: Dark Days
Steppin’ to 30 Days of Night starring Josh Hartnet and Melissa George was a horror smash hit and it was only a matter of time before a sequel followed and it came under the title, 30 Days of Night-Dark Days.
The film would follow Melissa Georges character Stella however the director wanted a new actress to play the role. Initially it was sited they wanted someone younger and with more of a name to play the role but they ended up with Kiele Sanchez. I know who! She apparently was in ‘Lost’, ‘Samantha Who’ and is currently starring in ‘The Glades’. However she is no Melissa George.
Dark Days is set in LA so doesn’t quite have the same feeling of threat to it. It follows the character of Stella as she tries to expose Vampires to the world. A group of renegade Vampire hunters recruit her to go after Lilith, the Vampire Queen.
This plot-line was reminiscent of the Borg Queen in Star Trek, she comes out of nowhere and is the brains of the operation. When Stella discovers there is a new ship setting sail to the Arctic Circle for the next 30 days of night she brings the fight to them.
As a Vampire film the feature isn’t bad, L Words/Vampire Diaries ‘Mia Kirshner’ brings an element of horror to the film as Lilith but Dark Days works more as an action movie than a horror. Stella is now an ass kicking femme fatale in the same vein as Milla Jovovich Alice in Resident Evil.
That is why as a sequel to 30 Days it doesn’t fit. It’s no longer ordinary people fighting for their lives but seasoned hunters out for revenge.
The film is well worth watching but as a franchise movie it pales in comparison to the first installment.
Apparently there is going to be a third as they initially always wanted it to be a trilogy and that working title is ‘Return to Barrow’
It went straight to DVD in the States so expect the same here and can be currently viewed on line.
by candlemansa, Gaycork.com
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DVD Review: 30 Days Of Night: Dark Days, Examiner.com
DVD Review: 30 Days Of Night: Dark Days
30 Days Of Night: Dark Days, DVD Review: Examiner.com
Starring: Kiele Sanchez, Rhys Coiro, Harold Perrineau and Mia Kirshner
Directed by Ben Ketai
Despite being a source of revenue for actors and studios alike, the words “Straight-To-Video” have rarely produced anything worthwhile.
30 Days Of Night: Dark Days begins approximately 1 year after the attacks in Barrow, Alaska with Stella Oleson(Kiele Sanchez replacing Melissa George from the original) touring across the nation trying to tell her side of the story and what really happened those 30 Days in Alaska. She is of course dismissed as a quack and her story branded a hoax. That is until a rebel group of like minded survivors track her down in Los Angeles to present her with the opportunity to extract revenge upon the vampire queen responsible for all of their pain.
Replacing original cast members is never a good thing, but the semi-recognizable faces of the cast (Coiro & Kirshner have been seen in Entourage, and the L Word respectively, with Sanchez & Perrineau both veterans of Lost) do a passable job in keeping us interested for 92 minutes.
Director Ketai in his first feature length outing, does alright in recreating certain visual styles from the first film, helping the viewer bridge between the two films, but also does a fair amount of plagiarism borrowing from directors like James Cameron and Neil Marshall especially during a sequence towards the end of the film, that was reminiscent of either “Aliens” or “The Decent”.
Ultimately this film is for the rabid fans of the first one, but you might be better off tracking down the original graphic novels on which both films were based.
Available for rent and/or purchase at all major retailers like Amazon.com
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30 Days of Night: Dark Days (Two-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo) available at now Amazon.com
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30 Days of Night: Dark Days (Two-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo) available at now Amazon.com
Fantastic Fest 2010 Review: '30 Days of Night: Dark Days', Starring Kiele Sanchez, Diora Baird
Kiele Sanchez in '30 Days of Night: Dark Days'
As the film opens we learn that the only survivor of the Alaskan vampire massacre that we all enjoyed in the first film is one Stella Oleson (Sanchez here, Melissa George in Part 1). Of course nobody believes her story of how Barrow was destroyed by a pack of ravenous (and very opportunistic) vampires, but Stella is about to deliver a very unique lecture. Let’s just say she “outs” some vampire spies in very clever fashion (but neglects to bring a camera), and is then forced to hide out in Los Angeles while the local vampires hunt and harass her.
From this point on, 30 Days of Night: Dark Days goes quickly downhill. What starts with a nifty gimmick promptly devolves into a 17th-generation Blade sequel that would probably feel more at home on the Syfy Channel than pulsing through your over-qualified blu-ray player. Although certainly not without a few merits (director Ben Ketai has done fine short films and could probably deliver a slam-bang horror film given a halfway-decent budget), this disappointing follow-up fails to capitalize on even the most obvious of options. (more…)
30 Days of Night: Dark Days, Sexy Screen Captures
Click on each photo to enlarge!
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