The Grudge had a decent opening weekend--and two horror spec script sales were logged yesterday, Oct. 26, involving Sam Raimi and his new Ghost House Pictures.

30 Days of Night has been sitting since March 2003 and would seem to have achieved the go ahead based upon Grudge's stats.

Title: Dibbuk Box
Log line: A cursed relic containing mysterious familial tokens is mistakenly purchased. The new owner must solve its mystery to save her own family.
Writer: Stephen Susco
Agent: David Saunders of APA, mngr. Chris Ridenhour of Evolution Entertainment, adn atty. Alan Hergott
Buyer: Ghost House Pictures
Price: n/a
Genre: Horror
Logged: 10/26/04
More: A fictional retelling of L.A. Times writer Leslie Gornstein's article "Jinx in a Box." Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert will produce. Peter Schlessel, Stan Wertlieb, and Senator Intl.’s Joe Drake & Nathan Kahane will executive produce.


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Title: 30 Days of Night
Log line: In Barrow, Alaska, the northernmost town in the U.S, the winter sun sets and does not rise for 30 days and nights. From the darkness comes an evil force that strikes terror on the town, and all hope is pinned on a husband-and-wife cop team.
Writer: Stuart Beattie
Agent: Nancy Nigrosh of Innovative Artists
Buyer: Columbia Pictures
Price: n/a
Genre: Horror
Logged: 10/26/04
More: To be based on the comicbook by Steve Niles. Ghost House Pictures’ Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert will produce. Senator Intl.’s Joe Drake will executive produce. First set up in March 2003.

From Scriptsales.

Incidentally, another Ghost House release, Boogeyman, is slated to hit theatres in February 2005.

Glad to see that 30 Days of Night will finally get the go ahead. It's such a great concept.

"30 Days of Night" is basically "Salem's Lot" in snow.

It starts strongly, has a wonderfully eerie location, which is beautifully photographed (albeit in what appears to be CGI), builds tension, drips atmosphere; but then the vampires show up, and it all becomes quickly ho-hum. They just aren't scary enough, and look about as convincing as the extras on the Buffy show. Besides which, all the gory attacks are shot in that jerky rock video-style that we first saw utilized in the overrated "28 Days Later". It's all a bit old hat now.

Things aren't helped by the fact that one of the lead actors bears an uncanny resemblance to the young Prince Harry. Very disconcerting!

The dialogue is also pretty lame at times. At one point, in the middle of all the carnage, much is made of the fact that the asthmatic hero (Josh Hartnett) has lost his inhaler. Such an incident might be cause for concern in everyday life, but in a movie where human heads get stuck on poles and schoolgirls chew people's throats out, it seems somewhat daft.

I won't be rushing out to rent the much-praised "Hard Candy" on the strength of this.