Screaming for 30 Days

[dotinthesky]

30 Days of Night has a terrible script, full of plotholes and cardboard characters that you wish to slap sense into rather than watch get killed by vampires. The hero always tries to save the day; the heroine always needs to be saved; the town loner comes to the town's rescue; and a whole lot of things are left unexplained by the end. However, I was completely sucked in and was terrified by the horrific vampires that invade an isolated Alaska town for a 30-day-long human carnage. Kudos goes to the director for injecting tons of suspense and gore into a film that could have easily got lost under a weak story.

I don't watch horror movies on the big screen very often so, when I do, I jump, cower, cover my face, suffer through heart palpitations and think of leaving a million times. I think it all boils down to when I was 5-years-old and my aunt convinced me to go into an amusement park's haunted house with her eventhough I was scared shitless. I've been chasing that combination of fear and excitement ever since.

I sat in the theatre between kixie and denalyia, while the boys - bottled_cat, his housemate and zenithed - flanked us. I actually felt part of the girls since there was a lot of jumping, mouth-covering and groans between the three of us. I even held hands with Kixie at one point! And, of course, we muttered and nearly shouted at the screen when characters did (the expected) stupid things that would call the vampires' attention to their hiding places. All in all, it was a really fun afternoon which I need to repeat more often. It's the closest I get to riding a roller coaster these days.

The trailer for an upcoming horror film, Shrooms, caught my attention. I've known so many people who've had bad experiences with magic shrooms, as well as heard some horror tales bordering on urban legends regarding bad trips, that it's actually a wonder nobody thought of making a movie about it before. If anyone feels like holding my hand through it, let me know!

Comments

[naturalbornkaos.livejournal.com]

I quite want to see 30 Days Of Night even though I hate the comics. I think it's such a wonderful IDEA, even if the way the plot develops is clumsy and quite ridiculous. I was kind of hoping there might be slightly better characterisation in the film, but I guess not from what you say.

I'll try to check it out this week nevertheless.

I missed Shrooms when it showed at Frightfest this year on the grounds that it didn't start until about midnight and after a whole day of being pummelled by rubbish horror films, it wasn't too appealing, but I'd be up for seeing it.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

I can tell you will be very irritated with 30 Days of Night. However, it has a big budget behind it, and the director did some nifty things with the suspense and the gore - so that at least is a worthwhile reason to see it. :-)

Yes, let's go see Shrooms together! Although it seems at first to be another teen horror film, the trailer seems to suggest that it's actually more involved than that.

[naturalbornkaos.livejournal.com]

I was afraid that all the gore in 30 Days would be CGI, which generally looks horrible. :(

Shrooms is a date though. It's out on the 23rd and I'm away for a few days after that up in the Midlands for the book stuff but when I'm back, we will go and you can get your book!

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

Cool! Then I can get you to sign my copy. :-)

I actually don't think there was much CGI in 30 Days. The gore is pretty awesome actually, which left us a bit shocked when we realized it was rated 15. Some of the stuff is really graphic.

[kixie.livejournal.com]

The gore is brilliant - I've not read the comic, although I want to now (worth it?), but I thought the movie was fun. It's nice seeing different vampires every so often - you know, you get used to the whole Bela Lugosi vamp, Buffy vamp, Blade vamp - these are new vamps! Who appear to lack language skills! It's fun! But it's a fun film and the gore is top notch - I wonder if K&B did it? Great decapitation and a stupid yet brilliantly done hand-through-skull scene :)

You'll probably hte the movie and complain about CGI and stuff, of course ;P

[naturalbornkaos.livejournal.com]

Looks like I'll probably go to see it this weekend. The comics are, from the ones I've read, a bit of a waste of time. They're really loosely written; no characterisation, ultra-thin plots, tons of splash pages. They look quite nice I guess and the idea, as I say, is wonderful, but bad scripting prevails. :( They have language skills in the comics though and talk Cliché Bad Guy.

I expect the film to be better, to be honest, from what you and Ollie say!

Don't know what did the FX. I'll keep an eye out when I go see.

(Oh yeah, and I'm seeing Beowulf at the Imax on Wednesday! That'll be painful!)