History YMMV / ThirtyDaysOfNight

* SugarWiki/AwesomeArt: Ben Templesmith's unique and gritty style in the first three arcs of the series, as well as ''Red Snow'' and ''Juarez.''

* EnsembleDarkhorse: Creator/BenFoster's character, "The Stranger".

* {{Sequelitis}}: The first ''30 Days'' is noteworthy for its departure from so many worn-out vampire cliches, even borrowing a few details from zombie stories back before it was fashionable to do so. ''Dark Days'', by contrast, is as paint-by-numbers as you get, replacing tense survival horror with generic guns-blazing action and reintroducing several of those vampire cliches in the forms of Dane, a FriendlyNeighborhoodVampire who [[VampireRefugee works with the vampire hunters]] and [[VegetarianVampire feeds on blood packs]]; and Lilith, an EvilIsSexy [[BloodBath blood-bathing]] VampireMonarch (named Myth/{{Lilith}}) whose design hits much closer to CuteMonsterGirl than even other female vampires. She even has a [[TheRenfield human pet]]! [[spoiler: [[VampireVannabe That doesn't stay human.]]]] The kicker to this? The script is co-written by one of the creators to the comics.

* {{Narm}}: While a creepy character, [[spoiler: the little vampire girl is hard to take seriously when you notice she was a ''friggen Music/EinsturzendeNeubauten tattoo'']].

** First film: The mysterious figure known only as "[[LesCollaborateurs The Stranger]]" is a VampireWannabe out to sabotage Barrow for the coming massacre. [[BadPeopleAbuseAnimals Murdering the animals]] of Barrow, the Stranger proceeds to cut the power and all communications, leaving Barrow open so all its people can be massacred. The Strange then tries to murder the Sheriff's brother, all the while mocking the people about the monsters coming for them.

* CompleteMonster: [[VampireMonarch Lilith]], from ''Dark Days'', is the vampire queen responsible for the attack on Barrow. She tortures a couple who saw the remains of a vampire, [[TheToothHurts tearing out the man's tooth]] and lapping up the blood pouring from his mouth. Later on, she orders Norris to murder the woman by ripping her throat out before turning him. On board her ship, she keeps many humans captive—including children—and has them slowly drained of blood. When Lilith ambushes Stella and Paul, she orders Norris to bleed them out before chasing Stella across the ship when they escape, taunting her about the death of her husband.

* CriticalResearchFailure: The original comic states that the month long darkness lasts from October 17th to December 18th, which is impossible at any location in the world because the darkness is caused by the arctic night, which occurs when a pole is as rotated away from the sun as possible, causing it to stay out of the sun (and winter in the process). At winter solstice (around December 21st) the earth starts to turn the other way around. It's at this time the darkness is at its peak. Right before winter solstice and right after is when such a period will occur. All areas around above the arctic circle will experience a period where the sun will not be able to reach above the horizon because of the earth's position. Barrow is actually located so far north that it actually has ''67'' days where the sun does not reach above the horizon.

* CompleteMonster:
** Bork Dela, introduced in ''Immortal Remains,'' is a vicious, vampiric SerialKiller dubbed "the Headsman", who goes on a killing spree in Savannah, Georgia. He kills men and women alike—often in their own homes—leaving behind very little if any blood behind in the process, and always [[OffWithHisHead beheading his victims]]. While investigating the series of murders, Dane discovers a woman whom Dela had raped. It's revealed that prior to his turning, Dela was said to have been [[{{Ghostapo}} the one who introduced Hitler to the occult]], and may have had a hand in his death. He had also been Vicente's bodyguard before Eben killed him. When Dane confronts him, he calls Dela out for his FantasticRacism, and Dela retorts that Dane's sympathies for humans are like celebrating having once been apes. Later in the book, it's revealed that he has been supplying the rogue vampire Elder Enok with blood. AxCrazy and bloodthirsty even by vampire standards, he cares nothing for the Masquerade enforced by the Elders, and his evil deeds cannot be even remotely justified by TranshumanTreachery or a need to survive.
** Enok, introduced towards the end of the same book, is a dreaded rogue Elder who turned both Vicente and Lilith--who is shown to be still very much "alive", yet dismembered and incapacitated, and in Enok's captivity--thus being somewhat responsible for both the destruction of Barrow and the slaughter in Los Angeles, respectively. He dwells in a human slaughterhouse where people are rounded up, shot in the head, and their blood is drained into buckets to be fed upon like free samples, and plans to overthrow humans as the dominant species and reduce them to cattle, presumably to be [[HumanResources farmed for their blood]] and slain in slaughterhouses like this across the globe. When Dane and Eben confront him, he sentences Dane, whom he considers a CategoryTraitor, to be killed by a horde of ravenous vampires while he tries to fight Eben—a WorthyOpponent in his eyes, to contrast with Dane—into submission, or kill him if he refuses. Malevolent and horrifically ambitious, Enok is by far--at least prior to Eben's FaceHeelTurn in the comic--the most terrible vampire in the series, Elder or not.

** Introduced towards the end of the same book, Enok is a dreaded rogue Elder who turned both Vicente and Lilith--who is shown to be still very much "alive", yet dismembered and incapacitated, and in Enok's captivity--thus being somewhat responsible for both the destruction of Barrow and the slaughter in Los Angeles, respectively. He dwells in a human slaughterhouse where people are rounded up, shot in the head, and their blood is drained into buckets to be fed upon like free samples, and plans to overthrow humans as the dominant species and reduce them to cattle, presumably to be [[HumanResources farmed for their blood]] and slain in slaughterhouses like this across the globe. When Dane and Eben confront him, he sentences Dane, whom he considers a CategoryTraitor, to be killed by a horde of ravenous vampires while he tries to fight Eben—a WorthyOpponent in his eyes, to contrast with Dane—into submission, or kill him if he refuses. Malevolent and horrifically ambitious, Enok is by far--at least prior to Eben's FaceHeelTurn in the comic--the most terrible vampire in the series, Elder or not.

** Introduced towards the end of the same book, the aforementioned Enok is a dreaded rogue Elder who turned both Vicente and Lilith--who is shown to be still very much "alive", yet dismembered and incapacitated, and in Enok's captivity--thus being somewhat responsible for both the destruction of Barrow and the slaughter in Los Angeles, respectively. He dwells in a human slaughterhouse where people are rounded up, shot in the head, and their blood is drained into buckets to be fed upon like free samples, and plans to overthrow humans as the dominant species and reduce them to cattle, presumably to be [[HumanResources farmed for their blood]] and slain in slaughterhouses like this across the globe. When Dane and Eben confront him, he sentences Dane, whom he considers a CategoryTraitor, to be killed by a horde of ravenous vampires while he tries to fight Eben—a WorthyOpponent in his eyes, to contrast with Dane—into submission, or kill him if he refuses. Malevolent and horrifically ambitious, Enok is by far--at least prior to Eben's FaceHeelTurn in the comic--the most terrible vampire in the series, Elder or not.

* {{Sequelitis}}: The first ''30 Days'' is noteworthy for its departure from so many worn-out vampire cliches, even borrowing a few details from zombie stories back before it was fashionable to do so. ''Dark Days'', by contrast, is as paint-by-numbers as you get, replacing tense survival horror with generic guns-blazing action and reintroducing several of those vampire cliches in the forms of Dane, a FriendlyNeighborhoodVampire who [[VampireRefugee works with the vampire hunters]] and [[VegetarianVampire feeds on blood packs]]; and Lilith, an EvilIsSexy [[BloodBath blood-bathing]] VampireMonarch (named UsefulNotes/{{Lilith}}) whose design hits much closer to CuteMonsterGirl than even other female vampires. She even has a [[TheRenfield human pet]]! [[spoiler: [[VampireVannabe That doesn't stay human.]]]] The kicker to this? The script is co-written by one of the creators to the comics.

* TheWoobie: [[spoiler:Jake, he loses his grandmother and then later on Eben, who becomes a vampire to save the remaining survivors and Stella]].

* SpecialEffectsFailure: The CGI "blizzard" is [[Film/SyfyOriginalMovie Syfy-standard]], as is [[spoiler:the killing of the head vampire and Eben's death.]]

* TearJerker:
** The Stranger's murder of the dogs may be difficult for any animal lover to watch.
** Carter Davies [[spoiler:pleading Eben to MercyKill him after he reveals that he's been turned.]]
-->'''Carter:''' The little girl in the store. [[spoiler:I changed. I'm just so thirsty now. I couldn't tell you. That photo's all I've got left of my family. Martha was taking the kids to visit her mom. They were hit... by a drunk driver. I wanted to be with them so much. I... I couldn't bring myself to do it. But I know they're waiting for me. I can't live forever. I can't. Eben. Don't let me.]]
** [[spoiler: Eben allowing himself to turn into a vampire, much to the horror of Jake. You can see the fury and sadness in Jake's eyes when he screams at a survivor to not touch Eben when he turns into one]].
*** [[spoiler: Stella's reaction to Eben becoming a vampire...and [[OhCrap and even more so when he mentions dawn]]. What follows afterwards is the two laying in each other's arms as Eben allows himself to burn away as the sun rises. Stella's empty stare and the depressing ambiance ''does not help either'']].
* TheWoobie: Jake, [[spoiler: he loses his grandmother and then later on Eben, who becomes a vampire to save the remaining survivors and Stella]].
** [[spoiler: Carter, who had lost his family in the past and willingly allows Eben to kill him so he can't live as an immortal]].

* AwesomeArt: Ben Templesmith's unique and gritty style in the first three arcs of the series, as well as ''Red Snow'' and ''Juarez.''

* HilariousInHindsight: ''Three Tales'' has an issue entitled ''Dead Space.'' Ben Templesmith — the artist for ''30 Days of Night,'' ''Dark Days'' ''Return to Barrow,'' and ''Red Snow'' — ended up doing the artwork for some of the ''Francise/DeadSpace'' comics.

-->'''Carter:''' The little girl in the store. [[spoiler:I changed. I'm just so thirsty now.]] I couldn't tell you. That photo's all I've got left of my family. Martha was taking the kids to visit her mom. They were hit... by a drunk driver. I wanted to be with them so much. I... I couldn't bring myself to do it. But I know they're waiting for me. [[spoiler:I can't live forever. I can't. Eben. Don't let me.]]