If you’re looking for a scary, yet predictable horror film, then “30 Days of Night” might be exactly what you’re aiming for. The story is set in a small town in Alaska called “Borough,” in which every year, for one month the sun never shines. This sounds like a nightmare already.

Josh Hartnett plays as the town Sheriff “Eben,” who is the cute boy next door who eventually turns into a vampire-slaying bad ass. His estranged wife “Stella,” played by Melissa George, who is also the fire chief tries desperately to get out of Alaska for the month of darkness but was unsuccessful. Who in their right mind wouldn’t try to get out?

This film follows the trend of most traditional horror movies in that when the power and phone lines go out, weird things start happening and people start dying. The chilling tone was already set in this small Alaskan town with the darkness and extreme cold making the situation that much more dramatic. Although it has some of the typical horror movie characteristics, the setting for “30 days of Night” was unusual and involved some off-the-wall scenes and events that play out well in the film.

Once the lights are out the town residents become vulnerable. They are stuck in the middle of nowhere in the darkness and are quickly surrounded by man-eating creatures of the night. The villains are these disturbing vampire-like creatures with super human like strength and resistance to most weapons. They even have their own star wars-esq language! So much as a scratch from their long fingernails could turn you into one.

With the same plot of disgusting vampire like zombies filtrating into an area and either eating people alive or turning them into vampires, this film is very similar to Danny Boyle’s “28 Days later.” It also echoes “28 days later” in that the remaining human survivors huddle together and some are inevitably killed off throughout the film. The town is basically taken over by these creatures and everything in their wake is given no mercy, making for lots of gory and disturbing visuals. The plot keeps you interested and on the edge of your seat waiting for what crazy atrocity will happen next. The acting isn’t stellar, but effective.

Hartnett and a handful of other survivors are being hunted, which forces them into hiding. They have to seek out resources for survival and eventually outsmart their man eating enemies. In the mean time the underlying love story between Hartnett and George surfaces in the most random of situations. In one scene, George is hiding out under a car in the snow is talking back and forth on a walkie-talkie with Hartnett mumbles a horribly cheesy line like “I never should have left…” while the vampires are clearly within audible range. Parts of the film were also somewhat predictable and some of what was supposed to be scary turned out to be funny. When Hartnett rushed over to his grandma’s house to turn UV bulbs on the vampires, he burns one of them, and then says to his friends on the walkie-talkie “I think they’re going to cut the power” as he juggles both the UV light and the walkie-talkie.

The movie was actually somewhat inconsistent at parts; Hartnett uses his cell phone in the beginning of the movie, even after he and his partner saw some other cell phones were mysteriously destroyed in a fire. Granted the power was turned off throughout most of the movie, land line phones and internet didn’t work, but his cell phone wasn’t destroyed and could’ve reached help. Instead they were walking around with walkie-talkies the whole time. Another thing that always catches my attention in movies like this is people constantly doing stupid mindless things that could get themselves or those around them killed. For example, Hartnett leaves his 15-year-old brother, grandma and his wife to watch over a clearly possessed vampire like individual, who is tied up but manages to almost kill the little brother.

Overall the movie drags on a little longer than it needed to, but it does have one hell of an unexpected twist at the end. At the same time, it provides what is expected from a horror movie, guts, gore and it gives you that general feeling of “I’m glad I’m not there!”

Kate Jones can be reached at [email protected]