MovieChat Forums > 30 Days of Night (2007) Discussion > Some problems with it

Some problems with it

posted 14 years ago by Painbow
12 replies | jump to latest

1 - I didn't feel that the passing of time was effectively conveyed - the film felt like it took place over a few days at best and the notion that 30 actual days had gone by just didn't convince at all - i could have just about accepted the days in the atic but after that, it seemed like the following events took place on the same day

2 - similarly, the size of the town was also not convincingly portrayed - it felt like everything took place in one main street - i never got the impression the town was as big as it was presented in the opening scenes

3 - surely there must have been other survivors but they were never shown or even hinted at by the group or by the vampires

4 - there was no explanation for how Jake got out of the sherrifs office and the woman didn't - he was just there in the diner waiting without any reference to how he got there or why she didn't - did he abandon her or what

5 - How on earth did the guy survive the explosion - he was stood right next to it

6 - When Stella finds the little girl, they hide under the car but this appears to take place on the final day - so how did this girl survive on her own for 4 weeks

[–] ThresholdDweller 13 years ago

I agree with all your points. The passage of time was poorly conveyed. Add to that the bothersome details about Hartnett's lack of facial hair growth and it's almost enough to make you not like the movie.

[–] 13 years ago

[deleted]

[–] tennessee_moltisanti 13 years ago

there was no explanation for how Jake got out of the sherrifs office and the woman didn't - he was just there in the diner waiting without any reference to how he got there or why she didn't - did he abandon her or what

I actually really liked the way they did that. Movies don't have to explain everything, and often would suck if they did.

How on earth did the guy survive the explosion - he was stood right next to it

I think that was the whole point of that scene, he planned to blow himself and all the vampires to hell in a massive explosion, but for some reason it did not detonate as he had intended, and thus simply created a small explosion followed by a fire. Similar to how people who see grenades go off in action movies think they create massive fiery explosions, then can't believe how small the blasts actually are and how little fire there is in real life. The explosion wasn't that big, it just created a wall of fire, which obviously wouldn't kill him in the few seconds he was in it.

When Stella finds the little girl, they hide under the car but this appears to take place on the final day - so how did this girl survive on her own for 4 weeks

I think you're missing the far, far more important question of "if these people had locations they could survive in for 4 weeks, why move with only a couple of days left before sunrise?" - they didn't know the vampires were going to be burning down the town, so they had no reason to move to a different building in the last couple of days. The girl presumably only did this because the vampire we see following her had found where she was hiding and she had escaped from it (hence all the blood), but for the other characters it remains a very valid point, and a far more pressing one than your question, which has a near infinite number of answers which make logical sense.

I couldn't agree more with your first point, though, that was a major flaw in the film.

[–] sjp118 13 years ago

7. Who the hell would leave an axe by a children's swing!

[–] LinkGoku 13 years ago

8. Why did the vampire's kill so many people on the first day?
Had they left more survivors they wouldn't have been so hungry.

[–] koga_ninja_Jubei 8 years ago

9. Why was there no insulation in the attic, and for that matter why didn't any of the characters take the cold into account at any point?

There's no way a month passed during this movie. The whole plot could have fit into a single night, 20 hours or whatever it would be.

"Man's mind is so formed that it is far more susceptible to falsehood than to truth"

[–] MrRazorz 10 years ago

1) True. That was one of my biggest gripes. The "thirty days" felt like less than a week.

2) Also true, but understandable, when related to #3.

3) Yeah, I felt it would have been better if they'd made it more of an ensemble piece, focusing on three or four smaller groups of survivors.

4) and 5) It's been a while since I saw the movie, so I can't comment on these.

6) IIRC, when we first see the little girl, she's walking down the street with a vampire following her at a distance, using her as bait. They pulled the same trick with a teenager earlier in the film. It's conceivable that they kept a few of the younger, weaker humans around to help weed out the survivors, probably keeping them locked up and feeding them. Or she might have been part of another group of survivors who the vampires recently found and wiped out, but saved the kid to use as bait.

[–] lorddeano 8 years ago

3 - surely there must have been other survivors but they were never shown or even hinted at by the group or by the vampires

There were 152(?) people in the town during the month, so you would have to assume there were a number of survivors spread out across the town.
Much like the little girl you mention in your 6th point.

4 - there was no explanation for how Jake got out of the sherrifs office and the woman didn't - he was just there in the diner waiting without any reference to how he got there or why she didn't - did he abandon her or what

He said in a conversation that she was killed by the vampires.
Maybe he ran whilst she was being attacked

I agree with all your other points

[–] joeg-10431 8 years ago

Also, oil doesn't burn like that. If you put a match into oil, the match will go out.

[–] paladinj 7 years ago

6 - The little girl, Gail, was hiding with her family. Zauriel found their hiding place, but missed her while attacking her family. She fled while her father was trying to fight him off. Explained better in the book.

[–] Zinger (2164) 4 years ago

Haven't seen this film in years. Hard to believe it was made 13 years ago!

Point one was it's biggest flaw.