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AICN HORROR: ZOMBIES & SHARKS Debuts with a contest + interview / review of 30 DAYS OF NIGHT: DARK DAYS!
Good eeeeevening…and welcome to AICN HORROR: ZOMBIES & SHARKS. I’m your humble host, Ambush Bug. Normally, I am editing and reviewing over at AICN COMICS, but I decided to give it a go with a new weekly column focusing on all things horror. Why ZOMBIES & SHARKS? Well, those are the two things that I’ve had the most nightmares about. It’s the reason I rarely swim in the ocean. It’s the reason I have an escape plan from my apartment just in case of a zombie apocalypse. Now if you’ve ever had those fears or fears like them, inspired mainly by nights upon nights of watching films of the frightening kind, this is the place for you.
I’m not here to beat people to the punch or to blaze new territory or anything like that. Some of the films covered here have been covered on the site. Some haven’t. But as much as I like to talk comics over at AICN COMICS every week, I love to take part in conversation about horror. I will say, I have a soft spot for indie and B through Z grade films and usually can find something positive to say about even the worst schlocker. More than anything, this column will serve as a means to start a discussion that I hope will go on long and strong in the Talkbacks. Be sure to chime in below and join in.
Over the next few weeks, I’ve got a lot of fun things planned for this column. So look for AICN HORROR: ZOMBIES & SHARKS every Friday for the foreseeable future, horror hounds, where we’ll be covering horror in all forms; retro, indie, mainstream, old and new.
NIGHTMARES CONTEST!
First column, first contest! There’s a new documentary out on DVD called NIGHTMARES IN RED, WHITE, & BLUE: THE EVOLUTION OF THE AMERICAN HORROR FILM which covers over 100 years of American horror cinema. The documentary is from Lorber Films and is narrated by the gruff n’ tough Lance Henriksen. The good folks at Lorber have given me eight copies of the NIGHTMARES IN RED, WHITE & BLUE DVD and I want to pass them along to eight lucky readers. All you have to do is send me an email with NIGHTMARES CONTEST in the subject line, giving me your full mailing address and letting me know what horror film (mainstream or obscure, past or present) you’d like to see covered here at AICN HORROR. I’ll announce the eight most intriguing suggestions next week in our second Zombies & Sharks column. Good luck, folks!
Looks like our friends over at Fuel the Fear.com are having a second annual celebration of horror hosted by Doug (HELLBOY) Jones on October 9th at the Vine Theater in LA. Wish I could make it out to LA to catch it, but I’m Chicago-locked for the moment. Check out the website for more info and go check it out. There are some pretty sweet previews on the site as well so click over there and be sure to support indie horror!
While everyone is in line to watch LET ME IN this weekend, I had a chance to catch up on another vampire outing that’ll be released on DVD and BluRay on October 5th. Director Ben Ketai was on my horror panel at this year’s San Diego Comic Con and as I started coming up with ideas for this new horror column, I thought I’d check back in with Ben about his new film 30 DAYS OF NIGHT:DARK DAYS. After the interview, be sure to check out my review of the film below. Here’s what Ben had to say about 30 DAYS OF NIGHT: DARK DAYS…
AMBUSH BUG: So how did you come to be the director of 30 DAYS OF NIGHT: DARK DAYS?
BEN KETAI (BK): I had been involved in a couple of 30 DAYS OF NIGHT web-series projects with Ghost House Pictures, both in a writing and directing capacity. It was sort of a proving ground for me, I suppose, to show that I had a good grasp on the 30 DAYS universe. We got really good results from the series and then the rest was history.
BUG: I see you wrote the screenplay for the film with Steve Niles. What was it like collaborating with Steve on this project?
BK: Working with Steve was great. We already had a good creative relationship cause he acted as a consultant on the web series I did, so it was an easy transition to make. It's of course intimidating because he's the creator of the entire universe in which we were working, but it's also super helpful because he's right there to give his blessing on the things that needed to be changed for the purposes of structuring a film.BUG: You had quite a cast to work with here. Can you tell me a little bit about your decisions assembling them for the film especially the roles of Stella and Lilith, Queen of the Vampires?
BK: Casting, as you can imagine, was tricky on this one because we lost Melissa George due to a scheduling conflict. But we tried to look at it as an opportunity for a fresh start, and especially with the dramatic shift in Stella's character from one story to the next, it seemed almost like fate that we would recast her. Kiele stood out as someone who could bring both a realism and a vulnerability to the character. She was also someone who was in the running for the role in the original film it turns out, so it all made sense. When it came to casting Lilith, it was sort of a no-brainer. Mia Kirshner was someone we all had in mind even before scripting. There's few people as delicate and beautiful as her who can also convey such menace.
BUG: What did you try to do in 30 DAYS OF NIGHT: DARK DAYS to make it stand out from all of the other vampire films out there today?
BK: Well, I definitely came into this wanting to do something different considering just how many friggin' vampire movies there are out there right now. My intention was to continue with the uniqueness of these vamps as established by the graphic novels and by the first movie, but offer it in a world that felt grounded and real. I really enjoyed embracing our lower budget and attempting to do something a little grittier and more character driven.BUG: What was your biggest challenge making this film?
BK: As I mentioned... "embracing our lower budget." I wanted to try and deliver as much action and gore as the first movie but with a lot fewer resources. So it sort of becomes a foot-race every day. We had a great crew who was super gung-ho to go for it, but the rushed schedule was definitely exhausting.
BUG: The film takes some deviations from the DARK DAYS comic. Can you talk a bit about the changes that were made translating this film from page?
BK: As is the case with any adaptation, it was necessary to trim some ideas and add new ones to help shape it into a more three-act film structure. But Steve and I both felt we were hanging on to what was most important in terms of the premise and characters, and especially Stella's arc as it carries through to the end of the story.BUG: What do you have coming up next?
BK: There's a couple of projects I'm really excited about developing right now but I don't think I can say anything without getting in trouble.BUG: Thanks for taking the time to answer these questions and congratulations, you’ve made a very cool horror movie.
BK: Thank YOU, Mark. Really appreciate your support.30 DAY OF NIGHT: DARK DAYS (2010) Directed by Ben Ketai Screenplay by Ben Ketai & Steve Niles Starring Kiele Sanchez, Rhys Chioro, & Mia Kirschner
I was a huge fan of 30 DAYS OF NIGHT the comic when it first came out. Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith had a winning concept; a town in Alaska (Barrow) for one month of the year is sunless, which made it a perfect place for a clan of vampires to go a huntin’. The concept was gold and coupled with Ben Templesmith’s beastially surreal art, the series was the shot in the arm that horror comics needed. The comic spawned quite a few sequels and to this day, IDW is still publishing 30 DAYS books.
The first of those sequels, DARK DAYS, followed Stella, the only survivor of Barrow, as she attempts to educate an unbelieving world that vampires are real. It also pulled the lens back a bit to reveal the vamps as a secret society living in secret among humans and it took the action out of Barrow and into the dark streets of Los Angeles. This was a ballsy move on Niles’ part, since one of the main things that set his story apart from other vamp stories was the barren, snowy locale. But riding on the success of the original, DARK DAYS was still pretty popular, though, in my opinion, not nearly as good as the first series.Director Ben Ketai’s 30 DAYS OF NIGHT: DARK DAYS has a lot of similar elements as the comic book sequel with only a few of the hang-ups. Ketai’s film is a worthy successor to the original film. The vamps are still toothy and bizarre looking with their shark-like maws. Stella (this time played by Kiele Sanchez, best known as the other chick in THE PERFECT GETAWAY and Niki “Razzle-Dazzle” Fernandez from one of the lesser popular subplots of LOST) is still tough as nails. But again, the barren landscape which was such a character of its own in David Slade’s original, doesn’t show up in DARK DAYS and it’s absence is definitely noticed.
Ketai does a good job though creating a landscape just as barren by making the city of Los Angeles look more like a seedy BLADE RUNNER-esque landscape. The movie is filled with dark corridors, steaming pipes, wet back alleys, and dingy trash filled streets. If the story is guilty anything, it’s of trying to be too different from its predecessor, which is gutsy not only for the comic, but also a Hollywood film which often calls for carbon copies of successful properties. For that, Ketai should be applauded for trying something different.But the only way that ballsy move would work is if the new concept is just as good as or better than the original. Here the film comes close throughout most of the first half of the flick. Stella team-ups with a group of vamp hunters which includes former LOST co-star Harlod Perrineau, hottie Diora Baird, and ENTORAGE’s nutty director Rhys Chioro. They argue a lot. They kill some vampires gruesomely. Stella gets her groove back with one of them, which kind of takes a bit of the impact away from the subplot of her desperately missing Eben, her dead husband from the first film. And they all end up on a boat full of vampires on its way back to Alaska.
For me, this is where the fun starts for this movie. The last half of the film takes place on said boat and they’re by far the best minutes of the movie. Humans are hung like cattle below deck. Buckets of blood provide sustenance for the vamps. More dark corridors and steamy pipes make for a truly moody backdrop for the climax to take place. Mia Kirschner takes center stage here as Lilith, Queen of the Vampires and does a fantastic job of looking freakish with her tiny little pointy teeth and jet black eyes. Though she doesn’t have many lines other than screeching and barking in an ancient vampire language, her moments on screen are definitely creepy.As Alaska looms across the ocean ahead, there’s real tension in the final moments as Stella and her vampire hunters try to stop the Barrow Massacre from happening again. This is where the movie is most successful. Though Stella’s uneasy partnership with the vamps is a prominent plot point in the comic, here the final moments of the film as Stella attempts to bring her dead husband back to life seem more like an afterthought. The money shots were done on the boat and this sequence turned out nicely full of gore, scares, and other forms of creepiness. This makes for fun action, but takes some of the heft out of the final moments. Had the film focused more on Stella’s yearning to bring back Eben rather than fighting vamps with machine guns, I think it would have been more effective though.
Though not as good as the original, DARK DAYS was a decent movie, especially considering that the comic book sequel wasn’t as good as the original comic either. In fact, I liked this film better than the comic book sequel. Still, there’s nary a twinkling teen, and compared to some of the other vamp flicks out there these days, DARK DAYS is a worthy successor that goes in brave new directions and doesn’t shy on the gore. 30 DAYS OF NIGHT: DARK DAYS is available on BluRay & DVD on October 5th!And finally, keeping with this week’s vampire theme, I give you this because I always thought the vamp in this video was pretty sweet…
See ya, next week, folks!
Ambush Bug is Mark L. Miller, original @$$Hole / wordslinger / reviewer / co-editor of AICN Comics for over nine years. Support a Bug by checking out his comics! MUSCLES & FIGHTS VOL.3 & MUSCLES & FRIGHTS VOL.1. VINCENT PRICE PRESENTS: THE TINGLER #1-2 (interview, interview, preview, & review) VINCENT PRICE PRESENTS #20 WITCHFINDER GENERAL (preview, review, in stores now!) NANNY & HANK miniseries (interview, interview, interview, preview, & review, still available to order in Previews Order #JUN10 0824, in stores Sept 2010!) Zenescope’s upcoming WONDERLAND ANNUAL 2010 (in July Previews Order # JUL10 1200, in stores in September!) THE DEATHSPORT GAMES miniseries (in September Previews Order #SEP 100860, in stores in November 2010!)Readers Talkback
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Yeah Obits are contentious places – Herc banned me for pointing out that HE was being offensive and disrespectful in his actual obit for David Lloyd (and then edited his article to remove the thing I pointed out was disgusting). He was offensive, I got banned – see how it works. <p> This isn’t a club or a hangout or a democracy – they can do what the fuck they like and no amount of whining about how unfair it is will make the slightest shred of difference.
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That was one of the most over-hyped movies I've ever seen. The pacing was awful, acting just okay, and editing sucked horribly - pun intended. I don't plan on seeing the sequel unless reviews are outstanding outside of AICN. May faith in the reviews here is growing thin.
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There you go SyFy channel. Just add bad CG and Eric Roberts and you're good to go.
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I thought there was actually a movie called "Zombies & Sharks." instead it's just another column that will die a quick death (like "Cinematic Shrimp").
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I've done AICN COMICS for nine years. I'm kind of the obsessive sort. There's tons of horror to cover and I'm not going anywhere.
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zombie sharks with frickin laser beams attached to their heads !
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And I'm just a messenger representing the MANY absent TBers. <BR><BR>Lots of suspiciously new handles the last couple of days.<BR><BR>Oh, Bug. Please stop deleting my update posts. It's annoying.
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Just created today.<BR><BR>Nice try, mods.
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Something to look foward to every week. My Zombie escape route is only 2 miles to the Bass Pro Shops. They have a ton of guns and live fish for protien and plenty of beef jerky.
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I don't want to come across as a dick, so I apologize in advance if I do. The logo…a screen cap and tired fonts? Unless the designer has permission, that can be construed as copyright infringement, no? Either way, it's a pretty weak/confusing logo. IMHO.
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Unfortunately, the Pres stopped South Korea from trying to sell over 1 million M1 Garands and M1 Carbines back to US citizens. I don't care about the politics, but the M1 Carbine is considered one of the best anti-zombie firearms out there. Let's just hope the next administration changes their minds before the zombie apocalypse. :D
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Its truly awful straight to dvd piss all over the great original garbage.Definitely one of the worse sequels ever made.Its robocop 3,Highlander 2,MIB 2 bad.
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Excellent column. Thank you.
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That sucks.
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...debut!
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...shall look forward to it.
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Didn't have high hopes for this film, despite the fact that I really enjoyed the first "30 Days of Night." I can't say I have the most valid review, because I walked out of this flick about 30 minutes into it. Promising opening scene, but as soon as she meets up with the group of vampire hunters, the dialogue and action just goes down the shitter. The three hunters are completely indistinguishable from each other - if you'd swapped around their dialogue at random, it wouldn't change the characters one bit. Every scene was a variation on Goldilocks - Stella makes a suggestion: One hunter's for it, one hunter's against it, and one doesn't seem to give a shit. The action scenes were just a bunch of jump scares in the dark, and the vampires weren't nearly as dangerous as the ones in the first film. Total waste of time, sadly. That being said, outside of the "vampires attack a nightbound Alaskan town" concept of the first book, the stories never really had much along the lines of character.
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Thanks for this column. Was beginning to think this site was gonna be retitled Ain't It Quint News at one point; that ain't a bad thing but it seems like the guy can't be getting enough sleep lately. Not sure about the 30 Days sequel...I've seen quite a few crappy reviews. Got any WALKING DEAD exclusives coming up?
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My interview with Robert Kirkman was posted this week here: http://www.aintitcool.com/node/46762 <br><br> I'm working on bringing some more TWD stuff to AICN HORROR, so stay tuned.
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in time for halloween. this is what i wanna see from aicn. stuff like this and quint's movie a day. I'm totally checking out that horror documentary. Thanks for the heads up.
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...missed the Kirkman thing. Cheers!
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