# 30 Days of Night (Spoilers Possible but not in OP) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 19, 2007, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/30-days-of-night-spoilers-possible-but-not-in-op/423337 "2007-10-19T22:33:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2007, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/30-days-of-night-spoilers-possible-but-not-in-op/423337/1 "2007-10-19T22:33:08Z")
What do you call a group of vampires anyway? Are they a flock, a herd, or a pack maybe? Perhaps they’re a murder of vampires. Yeah, that’s it, we’ll go with a murder of vampires. So here’s the basic plot. A murder of vampires descend upon the town of Barrow, Alaska right before the sun sets for an entire month. This town is miles away from the nearest civilization and the vampires cut off all communication between this town and the rest of the world. From them on it’s like an all you can eat buffet. I don’t usually go to see vampire movies because, well, they generally don’t offer anything new. I’m not saying this movie is innovative or anything but the premise seemed unique enough that I’d give it a shot. If you don’t like gory movies then you might want to stay away from this one. I would have liked a little more exposition on what the vampires were all about, but heck, they’re there to murder the citizens of the town in a place where there’s no sun for 30 days. What more is there to know? I find the move overall to be an enjoyable flick. Marc ---
**Author:** ![SoulSearching](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@SoulSearching](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SoulSearching)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2007, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/30-days-of-night-spoilers-possible-but-not-in-op/423337/2 "2007-10-19T23:45:15Z")
_SPOILER ALERT_ I saw the movie thursday at midnight. Some questions bugged me. What was the significance of killing the dogs? Are vampires fearful of canines? Why did Evan inject himself to become a vampire in order to save his ex-wife when all there needed was a distraction long enough for the sun to rise? When did the older man with darker skin get bitten as he revealed later just before turning and had to be taken into the room for beheading? When the head vampire was killed by Evan, did the other vampires leave because of the impending sunrise or rather because they feared Evan as being the new most powerful vampire? ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2007, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/30-days-of-night-spoilers-possible-but-not-in-op/423337/3 "2007-10-19T23:49:02Z")
So it’s Aliens with Vampires instead of Xenomprphs and a small dark mountain town instead of a starship? As with all such movies, it’s either good or not. Being original is something else. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2007, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/30-days-of-night-spoilers-possible-but-not-in-op/423337/4 "2007-10-21T02:03:07Z")
I had hopes that this would be a worthy double-feature companion to “The Thing” (either version). It wasn’t. Some great images, but I’m sorry: shaky-cams and frenetic editing does not equal scary. ---
**Author:** ![Aioua](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@Aioua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aioua)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2007, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/30-days-of-night-spoilers-possible-but-not-in-op/423337/5 "2007-10-21T03:46:22Z")
[QUOTE=SoulSearching] I saw the movie thursday at midnight. Some questions bugged me. What was the significance of killing the dogs? Are vampires fearful of canines? Why did Evan inject himself to become a vampire in order to save his ex-wife when all there needed was a distraction long enough for the sun to rise? When did the older man with darker skin get bitten as he revealed later just before turning and had to be taken into the room for beheading? When the head vampire was killed by Evan, did the other vampires leave because of the impending sunrise or rather because they feared Evan as being the new most powerful vampire? [/QUOTE] They were _sled_ dogs. Another route of escape. Otherwise the ending wouldn’t’ve been as dramatic :smack: The crazy girl bit him, I think he said. I have no idea… I got the impression that they didn’t know what to do when their leader did, but it seemed like there was still enough time before the sun rose for them to kill him. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2007, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/30-days-of-night-spoilers-possible-but-not-in-op/423337/6 "2007-10-21T03:59:55Z")
[QUOTE=SoulSearching] What was the significance of killing the dogs? Are vampires fearful of canines? [/quote] Like Aioua said they were sled dogs and as such were an alternative form of flight. Although it didn’t seem as though the vampires would have had much difficult catching up to running dogs. > [@](#): > > Why did Evan inject himself to become a vampire in order to save his ex-wife when all there needed was a distraction long enough for the sun to rise? There were so many vampires concentrated in one area that they just would have ripped him to shreds before his distraction would have been useful. Or at least that’s what the logic was. Even though sunlight wasn’t far off there wasn’t enough time to come up with a super duper plan before his former wife burned to death. > [@](#): > > When did the older man with darker skin get bitten as he revealed later just before turning and had to be taken into the room for beheading? He got bit by the little girl in the shop I think. > [@](#): > > When the head vampire was killed by Evan, did the other vampires leave because of the impending sunrise or rather because they feared Evan as being the new most powerful vampire? They don’t exactly make that clear. One of the vampires looks like he’s going to go after Evan but he thinks twice and backs down. I agree with blondebear about the shaky cameras and the editing. Sometimes I couldn’t figure out what was going on. I did like the grinding machine though. Marc ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2007, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/30-days-of-night-spoilers-possible-but-not-in-op/423337/7 "2007-10-21T20:33:27Z")
Yeah, the shakey-cam thing gets old quick. Had a bit of a hard time with it. If it’s open season for 30 days, why are they trying kill eveone on the first night? And why, if they feed only on human blood, do they waste so much of it? Or do they actually feed on grisley ripped throats? The vampires were intersting. The townsfolk…not so much. And is there a worse actor working today than Josh Harnett? We needed more time with the vampires and maybe a little history. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2007, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/30-days-of-night-spoilers-possible-but-not-in-op/423337/8 "2007-10-21T21:10:06Z")
I haven’t seen the movie, just read the comics. In the comics, there was still over a day until sunrise when they finally got rid of the vampires - plenty of time for the rest of the citizens of Barrow to be hunted down or burnt to death. Also, did they seriously change Eben’s name to Evan? Because that would be a pretty silly change. Not nearly as silly as making Eben and Stella divorced mind, but silly. (Seriously…what the **hell**? Several of the most fun scenes revolved around the fact that they were a happy couple.) ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2007, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/30-days-of-night-spoilers-possible-but-not-in-op/423337/9 "2007-10-21T21:19:25Z")
I saw this last night, and was really surprised by how good it was. I was expecting something pretty cheeseball, but it turned out to be a tight, fully fleshed-out little horror movie. In a wierd way, I was surprised by how restrained it was. For example, four or five people get their heads hacked off in the film. But you only ever _see_ it happen with the very last guy. All the other times, the camera cuts away, or frames the shot so you can’t see the vampire from above the neck. If they’d gone for all the gory detail each time, it would have become routine. By keeping it just out of eyesight until the end, it became incredibly jarring to see the whole thing played out. Like the other posters said, the dogs were sled dogs. Not much use in outrunning a vampire, but if someone got a sled hitched up and headed out while the vamps were slaughtering people on the other side of town, they probably wouldn’t be able to find him out on the tundra. Towards the end, the lead vampire talks about how they have to make sure no one in the town survives, because they don’t want their existence to become common knowledge again. The dark skinned guy who has Josh Hartnett cut off his head was bitten by the little vampire girl in the convenience store. He says so when he reveals that he’s been turned. The vampires appear to have a strong pack psychology. When Hartnett is hiding in his grandma’s grow shed, with the UV light, when all the vampires are outside, the lead female vampire lunges for the door, but draws up short and waits for the alpha vampire to give her the go-ahead, just like would happen with a pack of wild dogs. At the end of the movie, when Hartnett kills the alpha, he becomes the alpha. When none of the other vamps was willing to challenge him, I suspect he just told them, “Get the hell out of this town,” and they took off. > [@spooje](#): > > Had a bit of a hard time with it. If it’s open season for 30 days, why are they trying kill eveone on the first night? Most likely, they wanted to decimate the population quickly, before the town understood what was going on, so they wouldn’t be able to mount an effective defense. Once the nature of the vampires was understood, the survivors who were the focus of the film were able to mount a respectable defence until daybreak. If there’d been sixty people, instead of six, working together to fight the vampires and knowing how to kill them, they might have been able to save the town. > [@](#): > > And why, if they feed only on human blood, do they waste so much of it? Or do they actually feed on grisley ripped throats? This is just speculation, but it seems like the vampires don’t need to feed regularly to survive. It looks like their plan is to hit one small Alaskan town a year, wiping it out during the one month when there’s no sun. Maybe they hibernate for the rest of the year or something? Anyway, the vampires were probably fully satiated by the end of the first night. But beyond being simple blood-drinkers, they’re also sadists who like to hurt and terrify people for sport. And, apparently, blood-drenched is quite the fashion statement for these people. The bloody excess of the attack was more about fun than food. > [@Tengu](#): > > Also, did they seriously change Eben’s name to Evan? Because that would be a pretty silly change. No, it was Eben in the movie. > [@](#): > > Not nearly as silly as making Eben and Stella divorced mind, but silly. (Seriously…what the hell? Several of the most fun scenes revolved around the fact that they were a happy couple.) I haven’t read the comic, but in the movie, the broken marriage really worked, dramatically. It created an interesting tension between the two characters. ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2007, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/30-days-of-night-spoilers-possible-but-not-in-op/423337/10 "2007-10-22T05:35:31Z")
[spoiler] > [@SoulSearching](#): > > What was the significance of killing the dogs? Are vampires fearful of canines? Animals are more perceptive of the presence of undead than living humans are, because they’re closer to nature and they instinctively recognize abominations against same. Killing the dogs was a good way to disable the town’s most effective early warning system, a _great_ way to demoralize the people of the town, and (in Alaska) an extra precaution to rob the town of another form of transportation. > [@SoulSearching](#): > > Why did Evan inject himself to become a vampire in order to save his ex-wife when all there needed was a distraction long enough for the sun to rise? That bugged me a little, but the fact is that there was no way to distract them without putting himself _and_ the rest of the town’s remaining population in danger. He did what he felt he had to do to make sure that only he would die. Remember, too, that since the vampires so greatly outnumbered the townspeople at that point, there was no plausible way for the living to construct a distraction on the massive scale required to allow for their escape. Consider that the town was on fire and they had to act quickly. > [@SoulSearching](#): > > When the head vampire was killed by Evan, did the other vampires leave because of the impending sunrise or rather because they feared Evan as being the new most powerful vampire? Something like the latter. Vampires have a pack mentality and a social structure, and the only options when that social structure is destroyed are to (a) pledge allegiance to the new alpha, which in this case would have been humiliating for them, or (b) GTFO, and make haste. > [@spooje](#): > > If it’s open season for 30 days, why are they trying kill eveone on the first night? Getting the bodycount as high as possible–and visibly patrolling the town for fresh blood–ASAP was a great way to terrify the whole town and keep them irrational. Mostly a power thing, methinks. Not to mention that they wanted to minimize the amount of time the townspeople had to find their weakness and/or find a way to communicate with the outside world. > [@spooje](#): > > And why, if they feed only on human blood, do they waste so much of it? They’re brutal, vicious beasts, who live on fear and respect. And any good horror movie needs gore. :D[/spoiler] ---
**Author:** ![norinew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb9ed0/32.png) [@norinew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/norinew)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2007, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/30-days-of-night-spoilers-possible-but-not-in-op/423337/11 "2007-10-22T17:26:47Z")
> [@MGibson](#): > > I did like the grinding machine though. Hubby used to work for Waste Management, and saw just such a machine in action a number of times. Of course we knew as soon as they showed the machine that _someone_ was getting turned into ground round! Anyway, he says the actual machines grind _much_ more slowly than the one in the movie. We both agreed, talking it over afterwards, that that particular scene would have been better if the machine had actually been slower. Imagine, him falling in, the machine grinding slowly, just one leg to start with; he has time to try to climb out, and plenty of time to realize what’s happening. . .::shudder:: We pretty much enjoyed it, though; creepy. ---
**Author:** ![Fionn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Fionn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fionn)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2007, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/30-days-of-night-spoilers-possible-but-not-in-op/423337/12 "2007-10-28T03:37:10Z")
[QUOTE=Miller] This is just speculation, but it seems like the vampires don’t need to feed regularly to survive. It looks like their plan is to hit one small Alaskan town a year, wiping it out during the one month when there’s no sun. Maybe they hibernate for the rest of the year or something? [/QUOTE] I also wondered what the vampires would do when the 30 days of night were up. It looks like they keep some humans for different purposes, like the girl they used as bait and the man they used to destroy the phones, so they could at least have someone looking out for them while they hibernated. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2007, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/30-days-of-night-spoilers-possible-but-not-in-op/423337/13 "2007-10-28T04:10:28Z")
I saw this today and I thought it was pretty mediocre. The premise was OK. A few individual scenes were creepy enough. My problem was with the protagaonists. It was very predictable who would live and who would die. I think a proper horror film really only works if the audience is not allowed to feel that any character is safe. In this thing, there are at least three characters who we know will not be allowed to die. The sequences where they are supposedly in danger don’t generate any tension because you _know_ it’s the kind of movie where those characters are guaranteed to be safe, so the scenes just play like manufactured, manipulative, fake drama bullshit. It doesn’t help that the acting isn’t very good. Josh Hartnett is as wooden as always and the chick that plays the female lead isn’t much better. There is no chemistry betwen them and nothing intriguing about their backstory so we have no reason to care about their relationship. The subplot about how they used to be together and now they’re not is shallow, tedious filler. Neither of them has a personality and their dialogue is bland and uninvolving. I also thought there were some annoying inconsistencies with the internal vampire “rules” in this movie. Some people would turn into vampires very slowly, over hours or days while others would turn instantly. Sometimes the vampires would seem invincible and impervious to bullets, but then other times Hartnett can fling them around like Jean Claude Van Damme. Also, why was Josh Hartnett the only person on earth who could withstand his vampire urges, not only during his fight with the other vampires, but even long enough to sit and watch the sunset with his department store mannequin girlfriend? Is he just that special and noble? I didn’t buy it. It’s not the worst movie I’ve ever seen but I found it fairly pedestrian and formulaic and it didn’t have the courage to create a real sense of uncentered chaos and uncertainty. ---
**Author:** ![Fionn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Fionn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fionn)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2007, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/30-days-of-night-spoilers-possible-but-not-in-op/423337/14 "2007-10-28T13:40:29Z")
The vampires could clearly resist the urge to kill when it suited them, so I have less trouble believing that Eben could have resisted the urge to kill Stella long enough to watch the sunrise. Does anyone know if towns in Alaska actually ban alcohol sales during extended periods of darkness? It was a creepy touch, but I wondered how realistic it was since I’ve never been to Alaska. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2007, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/30-days-of-night-spoilers-possible-but-not-in-op/423337/15 "2007-10-28T15:00:15Z")
[QUOTE=Fionn] Does anyone know if towns in Alaska actually ban alcohol sales during extended periods of darkness? It was a creepy touch, but I wondered how realistic it was since I’ve never been to Alaska. [/QUOTE] The real Barrow does, which is part of what inspired Niles to write the comic in the first place. [Barrow’s Wikipedia page mentions it.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barrow,_Alaska#Notable_facts) ---
**Author:** ![Iggins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Iggins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iggins)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2007, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/30-days-of-night-spoilers-possible-but-not-in-op/423337/16 "2007-10-28T16:40:12Z")
At the very end of the movie, it looked like there were several more survivors coming out of hiding. Was that the case, or was I imagining that? ---
**Author:** ![bienville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@bienville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bienville)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2007, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/30-days-of-night-spoilers-possible-but-not-in-op/423337/17 "2007-10-28T17:38:43Z")
[QUOTE=Diogenes the Cynic] My problem was with the protagaonists. It was very predictable who would live and who would die. \ In this thing, there are at least three characters who we know will not be allowed to die. [/QUOTE] Eh, disregarding the dozen or so people seen coming out of hiding at daybreak- characters who’s story we did not see at all, there were six? **The ex-wife and the brother** : I agree. I fully expected them to live. **The little girl** hiding under the car with the ex-wife: I expected her to live, but then again, she wasn’t introduced until nearly the end of the movie. She was a “new” character so I hadn’t spent the entire movie watching her saying “yeah, sure, no way she’s gonna die.” **Sherrif Eben** (sorta): I thought it could go either way, with him either surviving or dying a “noble death”. I didn’t expect him to go willingly into vampirism to gain battle powers. O.K., that’s four. The two left were **Two entirely generic unheroic women with no character story** : These two could easily have been meat- especially at the point that the suggest making a run to save their own skins rather than follow the hero’s plan (an otherwise sure sign in a horror film that you’re gonna get killed). On the flip-side however, although there were people who lived who weren’t “guaranteed” to live, there was no one who died who I didn’t expect to die- both those that died noble deaths and those that died stupidly or cowardly. > [@](#): > > I also thought there were some annoying inconsistencies with the internal vampire “rules” in this movie. Some people would turn into vampires very slowly, over hours or days while others would turn instantly. Sometimes the vampires would seem invincible and impervious to bullets, but then other times Hartnett can fling them around like Jean Claude Van Damme. Also, why was Josh Hartnett the only person on earth who could withstand his vampire urges, not only during his fight with the other vampires, but even long enough to sit and watch the sunset with his department store mannequin girlfriend? Is he just that special and noble? I didn’t buy it. “Turning” seemed to start right away and become complete in short time- for everyone who turned. But it’s made clear that the turned person’s sense of self and memories remained. No doubt, over time, the bloodlust becomes unbearable such that it destroys the vampire’s sense of humanity. But early on, it seems perfectly reasonable that one can feel the torment of bloodlust while recognizing the horror of harming others. The guy who had been hiding under his house, although not understanding what had happened to him, had turned long before Eben found him. He had been experiencing an increasing bloodlust over time, yet still did not set out on a kill-crazy rampage. It wasn’t until “meat” was placed right in front of him that he attacked- but more out of not being able to stop himself, rather than out of a disregard for human life. The little girl in the shop, we have no idea how long it had been since she had turned. The guy bit by the little girl had been feeling the effects for hours, recognized that he was not only a goner but also would become a threat to those around him. He volunteered his own death. The last guy turned, the guy who had killed his family, welcomed death before he had even really finished turning. Based on the model set up by the previous examples of humans being turned, I think it was entirely realistic for Eben to control himself as he did for as long as he did. [QUOTE=Iggins] At the very end of the movie, it looked like there were several more survivors coming out of hiding. Was that the case, or was I imagining that? [/QUOTE] Yep. That was in the movie.