Review of Near Dark (1987) by Manuel M — 16 Sep 2009

Released only a few months after Joel Schumacher's classic vampire film, The Lost Boys (1987), Near Dark treads similar territory, only not as well and at a slower pace.

After picking up a strange, yet attractive, woman outside a local store, Caleb Colton (Adrian Pasdar) makes the biggest mistake of his life, as dawn approaches, he shuts off his truck and requests a kiss from his traveling partner before he'll start his truck to take her home. Mae (Jenny Wright) obliges and Caleb gets more than he asked for. After kissing Caleb, and biting his neck, Mae heads into the dawn on foot. Later, Mae and her fellow vampires (oddly enough, the word 'vampire' is never used in the film) return to pick up Caleb from the road as he is running home, burning in the morning sun.

Part of a misfit family of vagabond vampires, Mae attempts to teach Caleb the way of the vampire. Not wanting to kill others in order to feed, Caleb clashes with the clan as they go on a cross country killing spree, hiding by day, and traveling and feeding by night. Meanwhile, Caleb's father, Loy (Tim Thomerson), and sister, Sarah (Marcie Leeds), head out to search for him.

Along with Mae and Caleb, the vampire fold includes Jesse Hooker (Lance Henrikson), who fought for the South in the Civil War, Severen (Bill Paxton), the young and highly energetic scene stealer who enjoys playing with his food as much as he enjoys feeding on it, Diamondback (Jenette Goldstein), Jesse's main squeeze whose voluptuous figure brings men to their knees, and lastly, Homer (Joshua John Miller), a child who has outlived his small body, but still knows how to use it to his advantage.

Near Dark is Kathryn Bigelow's (Point Break (1991), Strange Days (1995), The Hurt Locker (2008)) second feature film. It started out as a western, but eventually she, and co-writer Eric Red, settled on crossing it with the horror genre in an effort to fill more seats in theaters. What started out as a unique concept, ends up not living up to its expectations. There are several great moments in the film and Bill Paxton's presence is a big reason for this, however, it's all to obvious the film makers were new to horror, especially when it comes to pacing. In a western this can be forgiven, but in a horror film a slow pace, more often than not, bogs down the film.

Near Dark does deserve credit for an ending unlike any I have seen in a film about vampires. This, along with Bill Paxton's performance and a few other great moments, make it worth seeing, just don't expect it to take the place of The Lost Boys as one of your favorite vampire films.