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30 Days of Night: Blood Trails

30 Days of Night: Blood Trails is a 2007 American horror web series of seven episodes produced by FEARnet with Sam Raimi's Ghost House Pictures as a prequel companion to the feature film 30 Days of Night, which opened in theaters on October 19, 2007.1 It premiered on FearNet.com and FearNet's video-on-demand service on September 13, 2007, and ran weekly until the film's release.1 • 2 Victor Garcia directed the series from a script by Ben Ketai, with comic co-creator Steve Niles serving as creative consultant.3

Key factDetail
FormatSeven webisodes released weekly on FEARnet and FEARnet On Demand, September 13 to October 18, 20071 • 2
PurposePrequel and marketing companion to the 30 Days of Night film released October 19, 20071
Story sourceThe New Orleans storyline from the original graphic novel by Steve Niles, a subplot omitted from the film4 • 5
SettingNew Orleans, two days before the vampire attack on Barrow, Alaska, in the film6
Main castAndrew Laurich as George, Marilyn Johnson as Judith, with Trip Hope and Geoff Stirling Jr.4
AudienceFEARnet reported more than 5 million views for the series7
IMDb rating5.3/10 from 511 user votes8

Spoilers

Premise and story

The series adapts a New Orleans subplot from the original graphic novel that the feature film dropped. It follows George (Andrew Laurich), a young drug addict trying to get clean who earns money gathering covert information for Judith (Marilyn Johnson), a weary New Orleans vampire hunter. George plans one final job so he can leave town, but his contacts begin turning up dead as the vampires, aware of the hunters' activities, try to eliminate loose ends. Judith's network attempts to crack the servers the vampires use; a dying contact writes a code in his own blood on George's arm.4 • 5 The story is set two days before the events of the film, in which vampires attack the Alaskan town of Barrow during its month of polar night.6

The webisodes also supplied background the film did not, including the detail that the vampires used the Internet to coordinate their descent on Barrow.9 Original artwork by Ben Templesmith, the graphic novel's illustrator, was used within the production.5

Sequel

FEARnet followed Blood Trails with 30 Days of Night: Dust to Dust, a six-part series of 3-to-7-minute episodes that premiered at San Diego Comic-Con in July 2008 before airing on the service. It continues the New Orleans storyline: George, blamed for the trail of bodies, escapes during a prison break, and detective Nick Maguire searches for his sister Sara, a prison nurse whose wounds may be turning her into a vampire. Shawnee Smith starred, with cameos by Ken Foree and Ted Raimi; Ben Ketai, who wrote Blood Trails, made his directorial debut on a script by Ed Fowler.7 • 9

Production and release

FEARnet, a horror-themed destination available on FearNet.com and as a Comcast On Demand channel, announced the series in July 2007 in conjunction with Ghost House Pictures. Diane Robina, President of FEARnet, framed it as a platform for short-form thrillers, and Rob Tapert, a partner in Ghost House Pictures, said the graphic novels' existing fan base was a factor in producing it.1 A trailer appeared in late August 2007.10

The Los Angeles Times reported that the episodes run three to five minutes each and that the seventh and final episode went up in mid-October 2007, the week before the film opened.3 IMDb and Plex instead list a 30-minute episode runtime for the series.8 • 4 The project was aimed at the genre's most engaged fans, whose online discussion could drive an opening-weekend surge at the box office.3

Reception and home video

FEARnet reported that the miniseries was viewed more than 5 million times.7 On IMDb it holds a 5.3/10 rating from 511 votes, with individual episode scores between 6.1 and 6.5.8 • 2

The series was later released as a standalone DVD. A 2008 review judged it worthwhile as a free web series but weak as a paid product, citing shaky camerawork that became apparent on larger screens, minimal characterization, and the interruption of the episodes by recurring "Next time on" segments and opening credits; the reviewer scored it 3.5 out of 10.5 A German DVD and Blu-ray edition, 30 Days of Night: Blutspur, packaged Blood Trails with the sequel Dust to Dust and the short film Devil's Trade, released by EuroVideo in 2016 with a total runtime of about 74 to 80 minutes depending on format.11 • 12

References

  1. FearNet Launches 30 Days of Night Miniseries, Broadcasting & Cable (July 25, 2007)
  2. 30 Days of Night: Blood Trails – Episode list, IMDb
  3. Vampire film gives audience a foretaste, Los Angeles Times (October 15, 2007)
  4. 30 Days of Night: Blood Trails, Plex
  5. 30 Days of Night: Blood Trails – review, Taliesin Meets the Vampires (April 16, 2008)
  6. 30 Days of Night: Blood Trails, Midnight
  7. Shawnee Smith's '30 Days of Night' Web scare, Los Angeles Times Hero Complex (July 23, 2008)
  8. 30 Days of Night: Blood Trails (TV Mini Series 2007), IMDb
  9. CC: More Webisodes for 30 Days of Night, CHUD.com (June 5, 2008)
  10. Trailer for 30 Days of Night: Blood Trailers, SuperHeroHype (August 28, 2007)
  11. 30 Days of Night – Blutspur Blu-ray Review, blu-ray-rezensionen.net
  12. 30 Days of Night: Blutspur DVD product listing, rebuy.de

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026

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