30 DAYS OF NIGHT: DARK DAYS

Following the bloody events that took place in Barrow, Alaska, Stella Oleson travels from city to city to share her story with as many people as possible and in the hope of encountering vampires on whom she can vent her anger. Upon arriving in Los Angeles, the woman is contacted by a group of people who have lost someone due to vampires and who have now united to hunt and kill them. The group of vampire hunters, led by Paul, ask Stella to join them to search for and kill Lilith, the mother of all vampires, who is stationed in Los Angeles. After the success of the excellent «30 Days of Night» by David Slade, it was predictable that someone would think of a sequel. And so, indeed, it happened, a direct-to-DVD produced by Raimi and Tapert's Ghost House and scripted directly by Steve Niles. For those who don't know, Steve Niles is the author of the graphic novel from which it all started, «30 Days of Night», a beautiful volume comic drawn by Ben Templesmith from which Ghost House made Slade's film in 2007, inspired by the first volume. Naturally, the story continues chronologically, and «30 Days of Night 2» fairly faithfully follows the story told in «Days of Darkness», the second volume of the graphic novel by Niles and Templesmith. So we know primarily who to blame for the poor success of this cinematic sequel, because if «30 Days of Night 2» doesn't work properly, it has nothing to do with the inexperience of director Ben Ketai or the home video nature, but rather the story lacks particular bite and shows itself to be mediocre, especially when compared to what happened in the previous chapter. Among the various flaws that «30 Days of Night 2» carries, the greatest concerns the different approach to the theme. On the one hand, there was a vampire siege against a small community isolated due to weather and polar darkness, while here we have a variety of urban locations that flatten the film's basic idea and conceptually annex it to a myriad of other metropolitan vampire films that, since «Blade», have proliferated on the big and small screens. Thus, the originality that distinguished «30 Days of Night» is missing here, but the problem is that the eerie mystery that surrounded the figures of the vampires is also missing, which here are standardized into guys with black trench coats and sunglasses popping out of the damp alleys of Los Angeles' slums, another stereotype that, starting with «Blade», has crowded the cinematic vampire imagination. The vampires here also lose those monstrous traits that outline their facial features, and only sometimes speak that strange language with which they communicated in the previous chapter. There is a tendency to normalize on all fronts, and this choice seems entirely questionable, as it does nothing but subtract personality traits from a franchise that, from the second film, is dangerously becoming anonymous. Fortunately, however, one trait remains unchanged: the brutal violence and splatter that characterize some scenes. This time, computer graphics are overused, but there is no invasive and too fake effect that can ruin the whole, but rather we have a smashed head, a neck torn by bites, and several decapitations that will leave a mark for the lover of easy hemoglobins. The character side leaves a bit of a bitter taste. First of all, it must be said that the film's budget did not allow the production to recall Melissa George and Josh Hartnett, so their roles are played by other actors. Hartnett's character is seen for a few seconds, so the impact is minimal, but Stella is the protagonist of the story, and the absence of the talented George is somewhat felt, even if the substitute Kiele Sanchez («Lost»; «A Perfect Getaway») still manages to hold the scene in a rather convincing way. It is not so much the actress's skill that disturbs, but rather the fact that making a direct sequel and changing the face of the actress who plays the main character is the best way to annihilate any attempt at suspension of disbelief given by the cinematic medium. The character of Stella, however, holds the film together; she is the only interesting and truly developed one–strong, however, with another film behind her–because the entire new cast of characters leaves much to be desired, starting with the group of vampire hunters, among whom we recognize Harold Perrineau (the Michael Dawson of «Lost», as well as the Link of «Matrix» 2 and 3) and Diora Baird («The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning»). Poor is the character of Dane (Ben Cotton), the vampire converted to good, who deserves much more in-depth exploration but is instead reduced to a caricature to fill a couple of scenes. Mia Kirshner («The Crow 2»; «The Black Dahlia») also does not fare well as the big bad Lilith, who appears rather anonymous and not very threatening. «30 Days of Night 2» is a little movie; there's not much else to add. It cannot certainly be considered a bad film; on the contrary, it is well above the average of home video products, given the prestige of the packaging and the decent overall craftsmanship, but it is a film too easy to forget, a product like there are too many, capable only of going unnoticed among the masses. Considering then the huge step backward made towards the progenitor, the disappointment is double. Suitable for completists and fans of the comic.