Stella (this time around portrayed by the anonymous Kiele Sanchez) is one of the few survivors of the Barrow Massacre. News and media sold the events their as a tragic oil-rig accident. This pushes Stella into a crusade for truth, where she roams the country holding seminars about what really happened during the Alaskan darkness. At one such event she decides to out the vampires by turning on ultraviolet lights, which kill a couple of night-stalkers, but also cause havoc and mayhem amongst the viewers. Stella is soon whisked away by the FBI and one agent Norris (Troy Ruptash), who seems to know too much about the vampire threat. Soon released she is confronted by a group of vampire hunters, who enlist her to kill Lilith, apparently the head-honcho bloodsucker.

Loosely based on the follow-up graphic novel of the same name it follows the exploits of Stella. But this time around the film increasingly moves away from the origin material and in doing so quickly losing the intricate planning of the novel. Hence the rushed, unfinished feel of the whole movie, where even actors seem incoherent, erratic and chaotic. In certain scenes the mix of sub-par acting capacity and bad scriptwriting makes the characters run a slalom between panic, drama, heroism, laughter and stoicism, where within a matter of seconds emotions change drastically.

Everything about this movie reeks of quick fixes and short cuts, not enough is done to build atmosphere, storyline or characters themselves. Even more irritatingly the only character that is even remotely recognisable and at the same time likable is killed off within the first vampire hunt (Todd played by Harold Perrineau). I would also like to add that given this was supposed to be a bunch of seasoned killers the whole sequence of the hunt was exceptionally badly scripted.

In the end even the small homage to the original novel does not dispose of the bad taste left over lingering in your mouth. On the plus side the SFX crew did a good job and it never felt like a film working on a shoe-string budget.

Kiele Sanchez assumes Melissa George's role in this sequel where we find Stella Oleson moving on from Alaska to Los Angeles as the vampires return to rip apart more humans at night in the dark. Stella tries to warn people, and, of course, is considered crazy, until one particular meeting when sunlights she has rigged reveal vampires among a crowded auditorium of citizens, burning alive right before their very eyes, resulting in a frightened stampede. Stella, however, gains allies who have lost loved ones to the vampires and the four of them decide to go a hunting. There is a "queen" of the vampires named Lilith(Mia Kirshner, born to play a head vampiress) who has built a nest in tunnels underneath LA. A vampire named Dane(Ben Cotton), who has somehow retained his humanity, will help them find and hopefully destroy Lilith so that her network of bloodsuckers will fall apart ending their threat to the human race. Stella is obviously reluctant to follow the orchestrated plan of a vampire, and she has little faith in such a small group walking into the lair of Lilith to destroy her. But, with no home to go back to, without anyone believing her story about the deaths of those in Barrow, Alaska, Stella will join forces with these three and the four of them will head into the tunnels after Lilith, prepared with enough weaponry for a war. When this backfires and one among their group is killed, the remaining three will have to reorganize, finding out through the information of a vampire they torture that Lilith plans another night siege on Barrow. The eventual plan becomes simple, find the ship which will carry a whole gaggle of vampires, and destroy it before Lilith can leave.

Harold Perrineau(OZ)has a small part as one of the trio who wishes for Stella to join his group. Rhys Coiro(as Paul)and Diora Baird(as Amber)are the other two who have lost and now hunt the undead savages. Katharine Isabelle(GINGER SNAPS)has a very small part as a tragic victim of Agent Norris(Troy Ruptash), a dying human desperately wanting Lilith to turn him. Somewhat effective direct-to-DVD sequel has its moments, although the climax(a decision Stella makes in regards to dead husband Eben)is preposterous, not to mention the vampires are a bit different than those in the previous film. Kirshner, with those black eyes and mouth full of sharp teeth, is quite stunning as the vamp leader, although her final showdown with Stella is a bit disappointing. The ultra-violence does the trick, you get neck ripping, bloodletting, bodies torn asunder by machine guns, vampires disintegrating by sunlight in gruesome fashion, beheadings, and a face is bashed in with a cinder block. Pretty steamy sex scene between Sanchez and Coiro, although its executed without nudity. My main beef is that the whole point of "30 Days of Night" is the Alaskan setting and the idea of having no escape through sunlight to help you. I would've seriously dug this film a lot more if the filmmakers had decided to follow the heroes into the tunnels a little longer..alas, this is not the case. And, for some reason, the vampires just aren't as scary or ferocious as in the original movie.

SO THIS IS THE SEQUEL?

I don't know where to start. It wasn't that great. The ending of the movie epitomized the deplorable script writing. Stella is attempting to tell the world about vampires while the government is trying to cover it up. The local FBI man is in cahoots with the vampires as he desires to be one. A group of vampire hunters meets Stella in her room and asks her to join them (along with a turncoat vampire) to go into the underground tunnels of L.A. and hunt down and kill Lilith, the vampire queen. Lilith speaks a strange tongue with subscripts, until the very end when she can suddenly speak English. The acting wasn't all that great. This is another movie which uses the high tech "special effect" of jerking the camera around to make us feel the terror of the scene (yawn!) because the script can't do it.

Lilith, in ancient folklore, fed off the blood on infants. They seemed to have messed that up too. If you watched the first one, go ahead and get disappointed on this one.