30 Days of Night

** – Preceding by a year or two the current vampire craze that was launched by “Twilight” and the “True Blood” series but in the midst of the pre-semi-craze that was a result of the popularity of the “Underworld” films, the marginally successful 2007 film “30 Days of Night” probably missed out on a fairly good chance of cashing in. You know what, though? Even had it been released at the crest of the vampire wave, I don’t think it would have been all that popular. The main reason being that it actually goes for an unsettling vibe and contains some pretty graphic blood and gore, and is also missing the hallmarks of the non-threatening bloodsucker flicks of today: the hot young cast, the tepid and clumsy romance, and the forced vaguely menacing yet darkly faux-intriguing characterizations. Based on a graphic novel, the film stars Josh Hartnett as the sheriff of desolate Barrow, Alaska who gets more than he bargains for when a group of vampires decide to invade during the month-long night that town experiences every year. The setting alone (a dark place that rarely gets above 45 degrees even in the summer) pretty much precludes this from having the support of the “Twilight” crowd, because nobody is going to be walking around in skin-tight pants and fancy dresses in the frozen tundra. While it is nice to see a vampire movie that doesn’t go the lame emo route, features some actual violence, and makes the night-dwellers truly evil and dangerous, “30 Days of night” is still not a good movie. It plods along as we watch the main cast sneak around town from burned-out building to burned-out building while being punctuated occasionally by a vampire attack. It didn’t make a whole lot of sense, either.