several people had shotguns and still got taken down. I'm not sure if they mentioned what exactly happens to the vampires once they are harmed - whether they heal faster like the classical traditional vampire, or if they are like humans in healing, or if they are like the 28 days later neo-vampire and simply don't feel pain, but are just as harmable as a normal humans. They showed a head being cut off killing it, but they also showed the vampire who got uv'd getting her neck broken, which you wouldn't think would be enough.
essentially, when your dealing with someone who is 10x stronger then you and 3x faster then you could ever be even at your peak condition - chances are you will not be able to take them down on skill alone. if you have distance between them, you can probably get them with an auto if you have good aim, and the ability to track motion reliably. however, because of the close building to building distance and dark nature of the town, you probably wouldn't have much time or distance to work with when they started closing the gap on you.
the other problem with a katana is that you would have to make every single shot count, and count HARD. meaning head shots. otherwise, as they showed with the girl being thrown back and forth between houses, they can grab any part of your body and throw you like you weighed 10lb's. I'd go with something large, automatic and portable, with plenty of extra ammunition. high ground preferable, somewhere where you could watch all your directions equally. katana certainly at hand, but I would not want to rely on it, as it would be a ticking clock on when I was about to die.
I thought it was a spectacular awesome film up until the last 15 minutes. sure, you COULD go your route and hope it works. OR you could just shoot the lead vampire in the head. I would have much, much, much preferred the latter. having a super anticlimactic sniper shot to the back of the head and having them scatter would have been better then the conversation they had at the end (not between him and the girl, when he decided what he "had to do").
so far nothing yet has come close for me to the scariness of the zombies in 28 days later /28 weeks later. the two scenes where they are running away from the molotov'd zombies who weren't even phased by the bombs, and when scene where the father is running away from 30 or so zombies sprinting full tilt at him and closing have yet to be surpassed. 30 days of night held it's own for ambiance and lead in up until the last 15 minutes. then it went the "guys, how the hell do we end this thing?" route.
