30 Days of Night Plot

30 Days of Night is a 2007 horror film based on the comic book miniseries of the same name. The film is directed by David Slade and stars Josh Hartnett and Melissa George. The film was released in the U.S. on October 19, 2007 and has a set release date of November 2, 2007 in the UK.

In sleepy, secluded Barrow, Alaska, the sun sets and doesn't rise for an entire month. As everyone prepares to either leave or wait the month out, Sheriff Eben Oleson (Josh Hartnett) investigates a number of bizarre crimes around town. Cell phones are being stolen and burned, sled dogs are being killed, and basically any object allowing outside communication is being destroyed. These events are soon tracked to a stranger (Ben Foster) who has somehow made his way into the town without a visible means of transportation. The man only warns that "they're coming."

As night falls upon the town, vampires appear and disable the power plant. Before anyone is fully aware of what's happening, the vampires begin to massacre the town. Eben manages to save himself and a small group, including his estranged wife Stella (Melissa George), from the vampires, but they are forced into hiding. As they try to wait out the month, one by one they are either infected or killed, soon leaving only Eben, Stella, Eben's brother, and two other women.

With the end of the month approaching, the vampires break a nearby oil pipeline open, planning to burn down the town in order to keep their activities secret. Stella, having hidden under a wrecked car during this time, is trapped between the vampires and the fire. Realizing that she cannot escape on her own, Eben opts to infect himself in order to buy her the time to escape. Eben does battle with the vampire leader, managing to kill him, and the other vampires retreat when light starts to return. With the vampires gone, the few survivors of the attack leave their homes. As the film ends, Eben and Stella watch the sunrise together, and she holds Eben as he begins to combust from exposure to sunlight.

Following the publication of the 30 Days of Night comic book miniseries in 2002, studios, including DreamWorks, MGM, and Senator International, bid in the $1 million range for rights to a potential vampire film based on the story. Director and producer Sam Raimi expressed interest in adapting the miniseries and was negotiating a production deal with his producting partner Robert Tapert to establish a label with Senator Entertainment, of which Senator International is the sales division. In July 2002, Senator International acquired the rights for 30 Days of Night in a seven figure deal with Raimi and Tapert attached as producers. 30 Days of Night author Steve Niles originally conceived of the story in the form of a film but after meeting a lack of interest in initial pitches to studios, Niles was able to produce it as a comic with Ben Templesmith deciding to collaborate on the project and provide artwork. When Niles and his agent, Jon Levin, shopped the comic around as a potential film adaptation, Niles found that the idea "went shockingly well," with Sam Raimi and Senator International picking up the property based on the original concept and Templesmith's unique mood and concepts for the vampires. According to Raimi, the potential project was "unlike the horror films of recent years".

By October 2002, Niles was working on adapting 30 Days of Night for the big screen, keeping the film true to the miniseries, though fleshing out the characters more significantly in the adaptation process. In February 2003, Columbia Pictures partnered with Senator International to work on 30 Days of Night, which was developing under Senator International's newly-established production company, Ghost House Pictures. Mike Richardson, the Dark Horse Comics publisher who supported the adaptation project from the beginning, after having turned down an offer to initially publish the project, was attached as executive producer. The following March, Richardson revealed that Steve Niles had turned in the initial draft for the 30 Days of Night screenplay. In March 2004, however, Columbia Pictures requested that Niles's initial screenplay to be rewritten in preparation for production. Sue Binder, the business manager of Ghost House Pictures, indicated that filming for 30 Days of Night was still at least a year away, as Ghost House planned to produce three films before the vampire thriller. The following May, Stuart Beattie, one of the writers for Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, was rewriting Niles's 30 Days of Night draft for production. Niles was pleased with Beattie's faithfully rewritten script, which was submitted to the studio in October 2004.

In September 2005, it was announced that director David Slade had signed on to 30 Days of Night, which would be distributed by Columbia Pictures mainly in North America and Mandate Pictures in international territories. In March 2006, Slade revealed that screenwriter Brian Nelson, who wrote the screenplay for Slade's previous film Hard Candy, was writing a new draft of the 30 Days of Night script, replacing Beattie's draft. The director said that filming would begin in summer 2006 in Alaska and New Zealand.

In June 2006, it was announced that Josh Hartnett was cast as the husband of the married couple that serves as the town's sheriff team. Melissa George joined the 30 Days of Night cast as the wife of Hartnett's character. Danny Huston joined the cast as the leader of the vampires. Filming did not begin immediately, but in a September 2006 interview, executive producer Mike Richardson said that 30 Days of Night would be shot on 35 mm film, though there had been discussion to shoot the film on Genesis. In an interview prior to filming, Slade explained that the illustrations of the graphic novel's illustrator, Ben Templesmith, would be reflected in production design. Slade also considered Nelson's draft to be the most faithful to the graphic novel. He also stated his intention to make a "scary vampire film", of which he didn't think there were many. "The rest of them, they fall into all kinds of traps. We're going to try to do our best... and one of the ways we have to do it is be more naturalistic than the graphic novel, because it's very over-the-top," said Slade.

By February 2007, the production phase was completed, and a rough cut of the film was prepared. In April, composer Brian Reitzell was hired to score the film, enlisting the help of musicians Dave Palmer and Timothy Young. The soundtrack to the film will be released on Ipecac Recordings on October 30th, 2007.

30 Days of Night was released in 2,855 theaters in the United States and Canada on October 19, 2007. In its opening weekend, the film grossed an estimated $16 million, placing first in the box office. On Rotten Tomatoes, 54% of the 97 film critics gave the film positive reviews, considered "Rotten" by the website. On Metacritic, the film received a metascore of 53 out of 100 from 27 reviews, considered to be mixed or average reviews.