Movie 30 days of Night (Barrow, Metlakatla: rent, travel, work)

[megensmom]

I was guessing it wasn't filmed in the "real" Barrow but how close did the come to making it look like the actual place?
When I first heard about it all I heard was remote village in Alaska so I was expecting something like zuzu village or something that doesn't really exsist so it was a shock to see a name that was an acutal place.

[Metlakatla]

Well, I haven't seen the movie so I can't answer that. When I said that Barrow was like that, I meant that it had a pretty long period of time when the sun doesn't rise.

[mal_flisk]

It's a largish community of about 4,000, and varies widely in areas. Has a Wells Fargo and a half way decent grocery store (for Bush Alaska). About 4-5 restaurants, and at least one decent hotel (King Eider Inn). No smoking in the KE Inn, and no shoes past the lobby - They pass out slippers for you. There's a little monument to Wiley Post and Will Rogers across from the hotel and a signpost with arrows and distance to various cities. Beyond that, you can watch polar bears at the dump in winter, but there aren't any malls, theaters or any other form of entertainment in town. You make your own or do without.

It's a hub for the smaller villages of Pt. Hope, Pt. Lay, Nuiqsuit, Atkasuq, etc. People are great. And Pt. Barrow is the northernmost place in the US ( and proud of it, by gum!)

[Xa'at]

Ugh, that movie sounds intolerably stupid.
First of all- filmed in New Zealand... WTF, right?
Probably the monsters/zombies were really just pissed off locals who got tired of stupid tourists.

[warptman]

Actually Mal, Kotzebue is the hub for Point Hope, its a bit closer and there are flights out of Otz on a daily basis.

[stiffnecked]

Parts of the movie were filmed in Barrow. The 3 months of dark is spot on. You better get used to it cause in Central you are going to have a lot days that don't see much daylight. Not as extreme as Barrow but you actually get colder weather than they do up there. Blessed and cursed all at the same time. Trade darkness for warmer temperatures.

[Floyd_Davidson]

Originally Posted by mal_flisk

It's more on the order of 3 months of dark offset by the 3 months of daylight in the summer. Not having seen the movie, I couldn't comment on the similarity or lack thereof to Barrow. But if they're gonna say it's in Barrow, it ought to be filmed in Barrow.

Probably the wimpy crews and actors couldn't take the real thing.

Well, all of that last part is certainly true! I didn't see the movie, but I've heard several Barrow residents describe it. It didn't look at all like Barrow. We get 3 hours of twilight even on the shortest day, actually there are 60+ days when the sun doesn't make it above the horizon, there are no trees here, and we only get about 20-30 inches of snow so there are no buildings buryied in drifts.

Here's a picture taken at the brightest time of the day on the shortest day of the year. This is a different view of what is probably the most photographed object in Barrow, the whalebone arch at the Brower's whaling station (now Brower's Cafe).



Obviously it would be possible to drive without headlights on, but
it also wouldn't be very smart either! That's the frozen Arctic Ocean on the left.

The number of days when it does not get dark are significantly higher. Long before May 10th it doesn't actually get dark (the sun goes "down", but not far enough), and on that day it no longer goes down at all until August 2. But again, it still doesn't get dark until maybe 2-3 weeks later. It totals something more than 90 days.

Oddly it isn't the so many days without direct sunlight that bother people. Nor is it not having any "night" for the whole summer. All across Alaska it has virtually always been the case that the change from shorter days to longer days causes people's internal clocks to go berzerk. "When it's spring time in Alaska..." we all get drunk, howl at the moon and shoot at the neighbors!!!

[megensmom]

Those buildings don't look anything like what was on the movie for sure but the atmosphere does. The kind of foggy,totally white blanket really did look the same.

[DannyL]

I'm gonna get this flick, I love a good cheesy horror movie. The more zombies the better, especially if I can give co-workers names to some of the characters....lol

[megensmom]

Actually they weren't zombies and they weren't the traditional 'sexy" vampires either they were quite strange looking. I wasn't paying as much attention to them as I was the area that they were claiming was Barrow and wondering if that was what it looked like.
I don't think it was cheesy at all,in fact most people I know that have seen it said it was pretty good because they didn't have the chick that was all attracted to the vampire dude and it didn't have anything to do with sex like most of the recent vampire movies.