Read @ Joe’s

30 Days Of Night (2007), a stylish vampire film based off the graphic novel by the same name, put some bite back into a genre that was – and really still is – becoming long-in-the-tooth. A clever pitch, honest-to-goodness scary creatures, claustrophobic setting and a script by Steve Niles, the original comicbook writer, aligned into an enjoyable and memorable horror film.

30 Days of Night: Dark Days tries to build on that accomplishment but falls prey to general sequel-itis as well as the subterranean domain of direct release banishment.

Title: 30 Days of Night: Dark Days (2010) 
Director: Ben Ketai 
Writer: Ben Ketai  //  Steve Niles 

IMDb Plot: After surviving the incidents in Barrow, Alaska, Stella Oleson relocates to Los Angeles, where she intentionally attracts the attention of the local vampire population in order to avenge the death of her husband.

Joe Says: Another cliché direct-release horror movie that desperately needed a stake in the heart.

The film starts off, as does the comic, with a tired and angry Stella Olemaun, now played by Kiele Sanchez (Lost, A Perfect Getaway), trying to get people to believe in the vampire threat. After teaming with another group of survivors, oh heck, let’s just call them vampire hunters, the movie quickly turns away from the original comic script of recovery and understanding and becomes just another horror cliché unnecessarily heavy with vengeance.

And those clichés?

Be Astonished… as the hunters walk around LA, guns out in open and armed for war!

Gasp… at the ludicrous post-Matrix Goth wear the vamps garb themselves in!

Cringe… at the forced dialogue the summer repertoire actors spurt!

Scream… at the low-budget CG F/X added to make the mess even bloodier!

Laugh… at the trapped old woman uttering the well-used line: “Kill… me…”!

Dark Days misses all the charm and thrills of its well-produced predecessor. A sharp beginning and pseudo-twist ending unfortunately could not save a story that desperately needed a stake in the heart.