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Late to the Party – 30 Days of Night

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Vampires have never been my preference. Sure, I enjoyed Bram Stoker’s Dracula, the first From Dusk ‘Til Dawn, and Blade, but I’ve never been lost in the mystique of the vampire as some people have.

That’s why it took me so long to watch 30 Days of Night.

Vampires, themselves, run the range from animals only looking to sate their hunger to lonely, sophisticated immortals who are to be pitied as much as feared. 30 Days of Night is about the former type more than the latter, but not as much as I was initially led to believe.

30 Days of Night

Spoilers below this point!!

The movie starts in a remote Alaskan town, on the last day of sunlight. This alone is an incredible idea I can’t believe nobody has thought of before.

It makes perfect sense that such a dedicated nocturnal predator would thrive in a part of the world where the sun literally disappears for a month or more at a time. A stranger wanders in and sets the stage for the invasion, destroying satellite phones and killing sled dogs.

The stranger is caught stirring things up at the local bar by the sheriff, Ebon Oleson, played by Josh Hartnett (The Faculty, Pearl Harbor), where he gives them a chilling warning. “They’re coming.”

In the first attack on the edge of town, the radio tower is destroyed. Then the blood begins to flow in earnest as people are dragged screaming from their homes and torn apart, one after another.

As the sheriff and his estranged wife piece things together, they grab a small group of survivors and hole up in a dark, hidden attic. We also meet the vampire’s leader, played by Danny Huston (X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Wonder Woman), and we see these aren’t simply animal-type vampires, although they only talk to each other in guttural grunts and screams.

30 Days of Night

Then we jump to seven days later.

Yeah. I didn’t really expect them to show all 30 days on screen, but it wasn’t something I thought about until those words flashed across the screen, either.

The vampires have already all but killed the rest of the town, save for a few stragglers they push out into the street as bait for other survivors. A few more deaths, and the remaining people move from the attic to the grocery store, under the cover of swirling snow.

Day 18.

The remaining survivors make a run to the police station while Ebon creates a diversion. It works and he rejoins the others.

So the movie goes until the end, bouncing from hiding place to hiding place. Occasionally losing another human or killing a vampire. Until the final climactic battle.

With the town burning and the survivors down to Ebon, his ex, his little brother, and a few others, the hero makes the dramatic self-sacrifice of injecting himself with vampire blood to gain their strength while he goes out and challenges their leader in bloody hand-to-hand combat. He wins, and he and his ex watch the sun rise on the 31st day, where he crumbles to ash in her arms.

30 Days of Night

As far as vicious, monstrous vampires go, this is a pretty damn good movie. It wasn’t quite what I was expecting, and it has a fair few of the vampiric cliches to it, but those are more personal issues.

All the actors do well in their respective roles and the cinematography is excellent, even if nothing really stands out.

That’s really my biggest problem with the movie. I remember it getting a lot of hype when it was first released, and there’s really nothing about it that stands out.

30 Days of Night isn’t a bad movie by any means, but don’t expect to be sleeping with the lights on. Just grab some popcorn and sit back for a fun ride, and you’ll be good to go.

Check back next week when iHorror author Kelly McNeely checks out the movie Prom Night!

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Brad Dourif Says He’s Retiring Except For One Important Role

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Brad Dourif has been doing movies for nearly 50 years. Now it seems he is walking away from the industry at 74 to enjoy his golden years. Except, there is a caveat.

Recently, digital entertainment publication JoBlo’s Tyler Nichols talked to some of the Chucky television series cast members. During the interview, Dourif made an announcement.

“Dourif said that he’s retired from acting,” says Nichols. “The only reason he came back for the show was because of his daughter Fiona and he considers Chucky creator Don Mancini to be family. But for non-Chucky stuff, he considers himself retired.”

Dourif has voiced the possessed doll since 1988 (minus the 2019 reboot). The original movie “Child’s Play” has become such a cult classic it’s at the top of some people’s best chillers of all time. Chucky himself is ingrained in pop culture history much like Frankenstein or Jason Voorhees.

While Dourif may be known for his famous voiceover, he is also an Oscar-nominated actor for his part in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Another famous horror role is The Gemini Killer in William Peter Blatty’s Exorcist III. And who can forget Betazoid Lon Suder in Star Trek: Voyager?

The good news is that Don Mancini is already pitching a concept for season four of Chucky which might also include a feature-length movie with a series tie-in. So, Although Dourif says he is retiring from the industry, ironically he is Chucky’s friend till the end.

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Editorial

7 Great ‘Scream’ Fan Films & Shorts Worth a Watch

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The Scream franchise is such an iconic series, that many budding filmmakers take inspiration from it and make their own sequels or, at least, build upon the original universe created by screenwriter Kevin Williamson. YouTube is the perfect medium to showcase these talents (and budgets) with fan-made homages with their own personal twists.

The great thing about Ghostface is that he can appear anywhere, in any town, he just needs the signature mask, knife, and unhinged motive. Thanks to Fair Use laws it’s possible to expand upon Wes Craven’s creation by simply getting a group of young adults together and killing them off one by one. Oh, and don’t forget the twist. You’ll notice that Roger Jackson’s famous Ghostface voice is uncanny valley, but you get the gist.

We have gathered five fan films/shorts related to Scream that we thought were pretty good. Although they can’t possibly match the beats of a $33 million blockbuster, they get by on what they have. But who needs money? If you’re talented and motivated anything is possible as proven by these filmmakers who are well on their way to the big leagues.

Take a look at the below films and let us know what you think. And while you’re at it, leave these young filmmakers a thumbs up, or leave them a comment to encourage them to create more films. Besides, where else are you going to see Ghostface vs. a Katana all set to a hip-hop soundtrack?

Scream Live (2023)

Scream Live

Ghostface (2021)

Ghostface

Ghost Face (2023)

Ghost Face

Don’t Scream (2022)

Don’t Scream

Scream: A Fan Film (2023)

Scream: A Fan Film

The Scream (2023)

The Scream

A Scream Fan Film (2023)

A Scream Fan Film
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Movies

Another Creepy Spider Movie Hits Shudder This Month

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Good spider films are a theme this year. First, we had Sting and then there was Infested. The former is still in theaters and the latter is coming to Shudder starting April 26.

Infested has been getting some good reviews. People are saying that it’s not only a great creature feature but also a social commentary on racism in France.

According to IMDb: Writer/director Sébastien Vanicek was looking for ideas around the discrimination faced by black and Arab-looking people in France, and that led him to spiders, which are rarely welcome in homes; whenever they’re spotted, they’re swatted. As everyone in the story (people and spiders) is treated like vermin by society, the title came to him naturally.

Shudder has become the gold standard for streaming horror content. Since 2016, the service has been offering fans an expansive library of genre movies. in 2017, they began to stream exclusive content.

Since then Shudder has become a powerhouse in the film festival circuit, buying distribution rights to movies, or just producing some of their own. Just like Netflix, they give a film a short theatrical run before adding it to their library exclusively for subscribers.

Late Night With the Devil is a great example. It was released theatrically on March 22 and will begin streaming on the platform starting April 19.

While not getting the same buzz as Late Night, Infested is a festival favorite and many have said if you suffer from arachnophobia, you might want to take heed before watching it.

Infested

According to the synopsis, our main character, Kalib is turning 30 and dealing with some family issues. “He’s fighting with his sister over an inheritance and has cut ties with his best friend. Fascinated by exotic animals, he finds a venomous spider in a shop and brings it back to his apartment. It only takes a moment for the spider to escape and reproduce, turning the whole building into a dreadful web trap. The only option for Kaleb and his friends is to find a way out and survive.”

The film will be available to watch on Shudder starting April 26.

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