Review of Near Dark (1987) by Marita L — 28 Mar 2010

Kathryn Bigelow's choices as director have always been intriguing, whether it's the claustrophobic confines of a submarine (K19), the anarchic party to end the century & world (the criminally underrated Strange Days), or lately, the award-winning bomb-disposal action of The Hurt Locker. Her style is visceral, stylised, punchy, yet with an underlying twinge of heart.

So it was interesting to go back to the beginning and watch her first feature, Near Dark. From the beginning the atmosphere simply oozes from the screen, with moody sunsets and menace in the dark. This is a vampire western, confirmed as soon as we meet Severen, with his cowboy spurs. And we are quickly caught up in the blood lust of this fearsome family, who ride from state to state, killing, burning and moving on.

But this is also a love story, between young cowboy Caleb (Adrian Pasdar) and waifish, mysterious Mae (Jenny Wright; their first scene ripe with secret meanings), as Caleb is initiated into the ways of the vampire family, with mixed results. There is gore and blood aplenty, and real threat and quite shocking horror, and though it's probably not the case, it feels as though it's a new treatment of the vampire ethos (a singularly impressive trait that Bigelow manages to weave through all her films). The ending is particularly good, with the hero redeemed, the real human family threatened, and a violent, firey finale.

Vastly better than Joel Schumacher's teenage, The Lost Boys, and utterly involving from the start, it is easy to see why this is considered by some to be a horror classic.