Ghost House Pictures have gone the age old Hollywood route of following up the successful 30 DAYS OF NIGHT with a direct to DVD sequel in conjunction with Stage 6 a direct to DVD production arm of Sony who also ushered through the direct to DVD VACANCY 2 and THE GRUDGE 3.
The story returns to Stella after surviving the vampire attack on the Alaskan town of Barrow. She has written a book on the event and uses her book launch in LA to flush out some actual vampire living in the city of Angels. This brings her to the attention of a small group of vampire hunters lea by a human sympathising vamp called Drake who intends to lead Stella and the hunters to the head vampire Lilith.
The biggest problem with Stage 6s direct to DVD production is it's lack of scope. The Dark Days comic book goes all out ALIENS, Stella becomes a tough bitch with a gang of armoured mercenaries out to take a war to the vampires, where as here she's become whining and simpering and has to be convinced by a group of underground vampire hunters to take on the dark forces. The major comic sub plot that was dropped from the original, where video evidence was taken from a helicopter and is now in possession of the pilots mother, is missing once more from the sequel. There is some nice running in dark corridors photography that has more in common with The Descent than 30 Days Of Night but we've been treated to nothing more than a fare to middling vampire tale that lacks the talent and depth of the original. The lack of Melissa George doesn't help neither nor does the lack of depth to the characters and the cliched beat sheet the plot strives to meet. It's all too safe and dull really.
The sequel needed to be bigger in scale and direct to DVD is not going to cut it. It's a floppy for Dark Days.
No comments:
Post a Comment