Customer Reviews

30 Days of Night: Dark Days (Two-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(13)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

I love 30 days of night. Everything about it. I've read all of the comics, and really enjoyed the first film. Though there was a difference between the first film and the first set of comics, the first film effectively relayed the horror, and creepiness the comics had. The visuals where stunning and disturbing and the acting was brilliant.
When the sequel Dark Days was announced...I was immediately excited. I anxiously followed the production news and pre-ordered the DVD months in advance from my local DVD store. It arrived yesterday. First thing..if you think the DVD cover is poorly designed by looking at the picture on Amazon...wait until you see this turd in real life. It looks like a high school kids photo shop project. But like books movies should not be judged by the cover.
30 Days of Night: Night Dark Days starts out similar to the graphic novels, save for the fact that in this dvd the best looking scenes in the beginning are taken from the original movie and given as flashbacks. The story follows Stella the sole survivor from the Barrow Alaska vampire incident while she is traveling the US giving speeches on what really happened in Barrow and trying to get people to believe the truth. Overall the production value of this movie is very low...but that is not why it is a bad movie..as low production value in an direct to DVD horror is not unusual. The vampires in this sequel are in no way comparable to the vampires in the graphic novel...or even those in the original movie. Sure...they are dressed in black...and have the full set of pointed teeth ( the teeth look prosthetic..no where near as believable as the first flick)..but they are missing that 'creature from hell' feel that the vampires had in the novel and the first movie. In this movie the vampires seem like humans dressed in Halloween costumes as the vampires from the first film. In fact...instead of a town full of vampires like the first film...there are only maybe seven vampires in this whole mess and the vampires here act more human than any vampire in any vampire movie I've ever seen. Instead of biting many of them choose to simply shoot their victims with guns. !!!? what?
The sense of urgency and fear that the first film relayed is also lost in this film. In fact...the characters just go from scene to scene spouting putridly boring lines to build up to a brief interaction with vampires who are not scary in the least. This film has no...repeat no scare factor..no chills...none of what you want from a good horror.
The worst part of all about this sequel is that I could not give a damn about any of the characters. They where all played flat and there is close to no development on any of them, Ketia relies on the fact that you know Stella and that is enough for him, sadly it is not enough to make a robust story line. The characters are not the same as they where in the novel, but in a screen adaptation that is to be expected most times...the bad thing is that Stella is so far removed from the novel version of her in "Dark Days" that the whole story does not make sense the way it does in the novel, and nor is the end as disturbing as it should supposed to be.
I love horror, and independent film and always want to find something good in the DVDs I watch and purchase..that being said the 30 Days of Night: Dark Days does have some good editing, and some decent shots...but there is probably only one scene out of the entire film that I somewhat enjoyed and overall this movie was the one of the biggest if not the biggest disappointments I've ever had in terms of sequel follow up to a cool film. It is this kind of mess that ruins the franchise...I doubt that we will ever see "30 days of night: Spreading the disease" as Dark Days is so completely terrible this franchise, sadly is probably over.

I LOVED 30 Days of Night... this movie however is just terrible. It's bland, generic, predictable and just not good in any way in my opinion.
Seriously I predicted the entire Dane thing and Eben thing by the end of the opening credits.

It may be faithful to the second graphic novel, I don't know I didn't read it. I understand it was a smaller budget film but this was just inexcusably bad. the writing, the dialogue, all of it.

I'm actually disappointed that I could have bought the original on blu-ray for less than I paid for this. it's like they tried to frankenstein together "30 days of night", "Daybreakers" and "Blade trinity" into a coherent storyline using the cheapest actors they could find and get them to play characters that always make the worst decision possible.

Save your money, watch it online before you buy it and I don't see how this is getting 5-star reviews but clearly those reviewers saw something worthwhile I did not.

What a waste of 92 minutes! I've been awaiting the release of this sequel since i viewed the first. I loved 30 Days of Night, but Dark Days was such a disappointment. I'm not even sure why "30 Days of Night" was in the title. This movie was like a very bad cross between Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Blade. The vampires didn't look the same, and regular bullets could fatally wound them. The story line made no sense and the end... well even more stupid. If you must watch this movie please don't purchase. RENT!!!!

30 Days of Night: Dark Days tries to be a woman vampire action film in certain parts. It has dull women both as vampires, and vampire hunters. They are so tedious to watch though. It is filled with impossible, ridiculous and even painful battles in Los Angeles and vampire massacres, many with no explanation since none could be hoped for.

The vampire hunting characters, one of whom we recognized as being played by a member of the cast of "Lost," launch poorly conceived or planned attacks on vampires in dark ghettos. They do diametrically reversed and polar opposite things and get into harm's way so idiotically that you, too, will be quivering then scoffing and finally puking every minute.

The acting is terrible, the script is stupid, and the vampires are not even scary. Mia Kirshner is definitely miscast as the evil vampire leader, she's so boring.

If you're looking for to be frightened, you won't really find it in 30 Days of Night: Dark Days.

I did enjoy the first 30 Days of Night. It isn't an all time favorite, but I thought it was effective and well made. This direct to dvd low budget sequel just doesn't hit on any level. Stella the only survivor of the first encounter(different actress in the part) goes around the country trying to tell people through lectures that vampires killed 98 people in Alaska and not an oil fire mishap. I'm not sure why the highly organized vampires wouldn't just kill her for trying to expose them. Instead they wait until she meets up with a group of vampire hunters ala Blade II before they decide to try and take her out. The acting is very flat and the characters don't garner much sympathy, the vampires and rules of the vampires have changed from the first movie. If you loved the first movie I know you will want to just make a blind buy, but I think everyone should rent this before purchasing.

Given the fact that Steve Niles had a hand in this sequel, I was expecting something that was at least fun and entertaining. Alas, it was junk. The best parts of the movie were the brief flashbacks of carnage from the original film. The original wasn't incredible, either, when it comes to story and character development, but it was still one heck of a fun rollercoaster ride of gore, action and atmosphere with a cool premise. The second film is a mess. I was surprised to read a few favorable reviews for this from horror film sites and magazines that I admire. That's probably why my expectations were a bit raised. Anyway, character development is non-existent, the plot is blah, and there is no sense of consistency between the first and second films. To me, sorry Niles, it just seems like another vampire-fad cash-in that was thrown together and sloppily executed. Sorry if my review lacks specifics, but the movie was so unimpressive that I barely remember it just days after I watched it. Skip it. Definitely don't buy it!

i agree with everyone about how disappointing this movie is. it's more of a angel/buffy rip-off than sequel, except for the first 5 minutes. first problem the movie takes place in los angeles and looks like the sets are the same ones used by josh wheton. stella meets 3 other vampire hunters and they go down to a vampire lair. of course one gets bitten and now they argue who's gonna decapitate their friends head. yes, then there is a friendly vampire they work with who was only "nicked" and not bitten. he drinks blood from packets that look like cranberry juice. although stella is reflective of her husband's death, she gets it on with one of the guys, clothed of course. even though bullets don't stop vampires, they constantly use guns en masse throughout the movie. lillith, the evil vampire looked like spike's love, drucilla. stella and her boyfriend (?) take on an entire ship of vampires themselves. bad dialogue throughout the movie. the ending is so stupid, i'm not going to waste any more time or space on this stinker. rent it if you have to, or buy it used, i'll assume there will be tons and tons of copies really cheap.

I like Mia Kirshner - plus she's been in dozens of vampire TV episodes and movies - but she's all wrong for this part. If a veteran vampire actress can't pull it off, what about the rest of this misbegotten cast? Even worse. This is one of those are movies that manages to accomplish a very difficult task: make the viewer not give a darn about any of the characters.

The "feeding rooms" look like a screen grab from the "Fallout 3" high school locker room. What is supposed to be scary or sexy is neither. It's pathetic. When the vamps are torturing someone, all I could think was "Just shut up and die already!" Zero empathy.

While the original 30 Days was a great and original horror vamp film, this is just another example of Hollywood's greed - an attempt to capitalize on a successful movie by releasing garbage that has nothing to do with the original.

Even the death of Mia's character and the final scene were so idiotic and such an insult to the original movie. It's as if they intentionally wanted to wreck the original movie's values and selfless ending. I can't see how the owner of the rights to this property allowed it, unless greed and cash blinded them. Welcome to Hollywood.

The original 30 DAYS benefitted from its locale--a small town in Alaska. It's isolated, barren landscape provided a chilling background, heightening the desperation of its doomed citizens.
This inferior follow-up moves the story to LA and makes it like an extended episode of ANGEL.
Kiele Sanchez (of TV's THE GLADES) tries valiantly in her heroine role and does pretty well, Rhys Coiro from ENTOURAGE is a stalwart, if doomed, hero and Mia Kirshner is creepy as vampire queen Lilith.
Not a total disaster, the movie suffers from cheesy effects and a ludicrous finale.
A sequel seems likely, but I think I'll pass.

Wow. When watched back to back with the first movie, there is no real comparison. This sequel is pretty dismal. Worse. They made the mistake of using the last shot of the first movie as a continuation for this one. When the character Stella looks away from her husband's corpse, well, how can I put this, from one shot to the next, in the blink of an eye, a new Stella. (I guess the explanation they want us to fall for is that Stella was so devasted by the Barrow town masacre that she literally became a whole new woman.) And one hell of a motivational speaker too.
Otherwise, so many, too many problems: cliches abound, dopey dialog, unlikable characters, and a really poor casting choice for the role of the matriarchal vampire (a short, slack-face woman who came off as continually bored rather than menacing). I kept thinking, so that's what a queen vampire looks like!? Huh. I've seen dust bunnies look more ferocious than that.

Can't hide its low budget quality.

Just please don't let them attempt a third installment!
Sooooooooo not a keeper.