October 20, 2007: 30 Days of Offal
Or at least it felt like thirty days.
We went to see 30 Days of Night last night, and I've now come to realize two things:
- The vampire sub-genre has only three good works: Dracula, Salem's Lot, and I Am Legend. Once you have read those books (and avoided the terrible movies), you've experienced the totality of vampiric creativity and excellence.
- If you see the name "Sam Raimi" attached to something, you might as well just smear feces on your face instead of going to see it; the effect will be the same though less expensive.
I hate vampires. They're the most dull and exhausted of all horror's tropes, and nobody does anything remotely interesting or creative with them. Put a black trenchcoat, boots, and fangs on glum teenagers or disaffected eurotrash, and you've hit the ceiling of modern vampire innovation.
Oh, and don't forget the cheap jumping-out scare tactics and the gouts of blood!
30 Days of Night was largely nihilistic violence porn, and I wish the federal government would deputize me to send all the gasping orgasmic gore-drinkers from last night's audience to Iraq.
On a more personal level, last night was a social experiment for me. Noted ruefully among my friends for my utter refusal to take recommendations for my entertainment from others, I decided to "go along to get along" to see this. The lesson? Trust your instincts.
Comments
My sympathies on being subjected to that movie. Though something good came out of it -- I was reminded that I've somehow never read I Am Legend... which I will shortly correct.
And lest you despair at the news that 30 Days killed at the box office over the weekend (HA!), consider people's other movie options. The other heavily promoted opener was Rendition, and it came in 9th! (Behind a Tim Burton movie that first came out 14 years ago!) I take that as a good sign, since that flick was such a cartoonish piece of lefty anti-American propaganda that even the NYT had to acknowledge that.
I hope that this means that when given the chance between a soul-less fable of grim violence and unrelieved despair, attacking all that is right and just... and a vampire flick :) ... most folks chose the vampire flick.
Posted by: Mart | October 22, 2007 6:04 PM