Review of Near Dark (1987) by James M — 03 Aug 2009

All I can really say about this movie is that it is the anti-Twilight of vampire films. The fact that the word "vampire" is never used in the film I think speaks volumes. Instead of following a group of aristocratic or higher-class vampires that want to fit in; we follow a group of violent, sociopathic drifters who kill freely. They have fun in their bloodlust, at one point massacring an entire bar at their leisure for sustenance. After leaving and holding up in a motel, they engage in a shootout with police shrugging off bullets and treating the whole thing as a nuisance.

The vampires are strong, they crave blood (yet bear no visible fangs), burn in sunglight, are immortal (they never age a day beyond their appearance upon turning) and heal gunshots and burns in between scenes.

The film opens up with a Oklahoma cowboy named Caleb (Adrian Paskar aka Nathan Petreli) who meets a girl, Mae (Jenny Wright) who turns out to be a vampire. She tries to avoid him knowing that she'll just turn him if they gets close. He does get turned and the film quickly descends into a road trip of sorts with Caleb, Mae and her gang of vampiric drifters who don't take kindly to an outsider. They try to let him into their group as they wreck chaos and destruction but we find out he still holds onto a bit of his humanity.

The film bears a lot of resemblences to the Western genre choosing it as a backdrop for it's vampirism. The characters wander from town to town during the day, leaving chaos and destruction in their wake as outsiders. The scenery of rural Oklahoma along with a chilling electronic score makes this film a very powerful experience to watch. The fact it was made on 5M and sports so many impressive special and practical effects along with solid direction make it a winner.

This is among the best of vampire films and pretty damn brutal to watch. If you still are not sold; it has Lance Henriksen, Bill Paxton and Jeanette Goldstein in it so now you have no excuse.