30 Days of Night Notes

Thirty Days of Night is a 2007 vampire movie, signifying the fear of lack of technology and isolation in today's globalized electronic village. The fear is signified through the vampires themselves being intelligent enough to turn the power supply off before hunting the village in Alaska which the film is set.
This film is very distant from the generic conventions of previous vampire films, making it a very post-modern take on the genre. The first element that differs from the conventions of traditional vampire films  is the screen portrayal of the vampire themselves. They seem to have a language of their own which humans are not able to comprehend, but can easy manipulate humans into being bait for them, which is a strange identity for a vampire to have due to our exposure to previous vampires. Another sign that these are unconventional vampires is the lack of bats or capes in the movie, which tend to be a cultural element of any vampire film to date. The location of the film is also very unconventional, as most traditional films of this genre are based in Eastern Europe, whereas 30 Days of Night is based in Alaska to symbolize and represent the fear of isolation. There is a central scene in the film which shows a mass killing of the community living in this village, where the view is portrayed from above. In this scene, it can be argued that we are seeing the killing from a fellow vampires view, which changed the mode of address slightly and lets the audience see and feel how a vampire would when hunting down their next killing. The generic narratives that are valued in vampire fictions are unusually displayed here, such as love, sex, romance and desire. The broken relationship of the protagonists is an unconventional way of showing love and romance. Love is also shown through the father and son relationship between two survivors who stay with the group. When the ill father forgets there s an invasion of vampires and runs out into the streets, his son unquestioningly runs after him which signifies the narrative of love in all forms being played here.