30 Days of Night: Dark Days (directed by Ben Ketai and starring Kiele Sanchez, Diora Baird and Mia Kirshner) is the sequel to 30 Days of Night, both of which are adapted from the Steve Niles’ graphic novel series of the same name.  The film centers around Stella Oleson (Kiele Sanchez) who has coped with the vampire massacre of her Alaskan hometown (far enough north that it experiences a month of darkness, which the light-sensitive vampires take advantage of) by publishing an account of the attack which claimed the lives of many of it’s citizens – including her husband, Eben.

Stella uses her book tour to draw out and publicly expose vampires to warn people of their existence (and maybe kill one or two of them in the process). During one such tour in Los Angeles, she is contacted by a small group of fellow vampire-attack survivors as well as an unusual vampire named Dane, who still retains enough of his humanity to mourn the loss of his own family, casualities of the attack which turned him.

Acting as a kind of support group, the band convince Stella to work with them as they seek retribution for their mutual losses with the primary goal of destroying the vampire Lilith (Mia Kirshner) – who apparently has control over the other nests of vampires – believing that her eradication will aid in their plan to annihilate vampires entirely.

Shifting the setting from northern Alaska to Los Angeles creates a different tone – both in color and general atmosphere.  The first film established a helpless feeling of isolation for it’s characters with it’s remote, dark and snowy location.

To evoke a similar climate of desolation, Ketai shot the film in areas that appeared to be uninhabited or overlooked – like Skid Row – and it is very effective.  Claustrophobic, dark tunnels are utilized to establish an overall feeling of tension, particularly as characters are preyed upon and picked off one-by-one.

By Shannon Hood and Jane Almirall

On day two, we got several screenings in, and an interview.  Here’s how it all went down.

Mother’s Day Directed by Darren Lynn Bousman.  Starring Jaime King, Rebecca De Mornay, and Deborah Ann Woll.

Jane’ thoughts: Mother’s Day is an interesting remake of the 1980 Charles Kaufman feature.    Bousman updates the original by changing the story from a camping trip gone wrong (in which several campers are held hostage and terrorized by a criminally insane family) to a horrifying tale of home invasion – based on actual events – (in which friends at a birthday party are held hostage and terrorized by a criminally insane family).

Mother’s Day maintains a palpable tension throughout it’s running time as the party-goers turned hostages are humiliated, tortured and killed by this extremely dysfunctional family.  There are several nods to it’s roots in Troma – particularly Rebecca De Mornay’s performance, which is peppered with camp – though for the most part the torture and kill scenes play without a wink.  This film went on a little bit long for my tastes, but to it’s credit kept my heart rate up for it’s entirety.

Interview: Edward Norton

Shannon:  I got to attend a round table interview with Edward Norton, who was in Austin to promote Stone, co-starring Robert De Niro and Milla Jovovich.

Edward was charming and intelligent, and gave us some insight into how he prepared for his role as an inmate, why ambiguity is not a bad thing in movies, and gave us some details regarding the creative process that director John Curran worked through to bring the movie to fruition.  Interview is forthcoming.

I have to admit, as we get closer to Fantastic Fest I’m getting more and more excited. It’s a great festival full of an incredible mix of films from around the world that can satisfy even the most demanding critic’s taste for something new, unusual and entertaining.

Previously, we brought you news of the fist films selected for the Fest and more. Now, the Fest’s organizers have announced a new wave of films that will be showcased during the event. Some of these films include the Gala premiere of Buried starring Ryan Reynolds (which was announced last week), the US premiere of the Edward Norton starer Stone, the world premiere of 30 Days of Night: Dark Days, the US premiere of Tony Jaa’s Ong Bak 3, the US premiere of Andrew Lau’s  Legend of the Fist and so much more.

With these new films announced, and even more still to come including, I’m sure, a few surprise screenings, the Fest looks to be even more amazing than last year. If you’re a fan of films and a great time, you don’t have an excuse not to be in Austin from September 23-30. For more on the great lineup of films announced today, check out the full press release after the jump.

Remember that movie where the vampires came to the town in Alaska during the 30 long days of night and killed pretty much everyone? Yeah, I liked that one too.

Obviously a few more people must agree with me because now we’ve got a sequel to 30 Days Of Night known as 30 Days of Night: Dark Days. Want to know more of what its all about?

If so, check out all the info you could ever need, including the brand new trailer that just dropped, right here and after the break.

It’s been almost a year since the Alaskan town of Barrow’s population was decimated by vampires during its annual month-long sunset. Riddled with grief over the death of her husband, bound by nightmares and void of all emotions beyond hate and sorrow, Stella (Kiele Sanchez) has spent the past months traveling the world, trying to convince others that vampires exist.

Met with skepticism and laughter, Stella is ready to throw in the towel when a group of lost souls (Rhys Coiro, Diora Baird and Harold Perrineau) offers an incredible opportunity: the chance to exact revenge upon Lilith (Mia Kirshner), the vampire queen responsible for the assault on Stella’s sleepy Alaskan town. With nothing remaining to live for, and nothing left to fear, Stella joins their mission and ventures into the uncharted underbelly of Los Angeles where she pushes herself to the most extreme limits to stop the evil from striking again.

The release will be direct to DVD and Blu-ray and contain a a host of special features including filmmaker commentary and The Gritty Realism of Dark Days, a new featurette that provides an all access behind-the-scenes exploration of the production design, make-up effects and cinematography used to create the gory war on the vampires.

The Blu-ray/DVD  combo pack is also enhanced with an exclusive Blu-ray interactive featurette, Graphic Inspirations: From Comic to Film, which compares and contrasts the visuals of the graphic novel with the imagery from the film, with discussion by director Ben Ketai.

Check out the new trailer after the break. 30 Days of Night: Dark Days arrives on DVD and Blu-ray October 5th.