Review of Near Dark (1987) by Jesse W — 16 Jun 2008

The last entry in my Eric Red (writer) double feature for the weekend is one of the only vampire films I've ever liked. Like The Hitcher, the desert landscape is an interesting setting that makes it seem like the antithesis of most vampire films. Our characters search for blood in small farm towns where the victims are cowboys and bikers. One of them is Caleb, and when Meg (probably the cutest vampire ever) fails to kill him, she turns him into one and he must prove to her gang that he can kill. Caleb struggle as he wants to go home and can't bring himself to kill to survive. Will he try to go back to being human, make his first kill, or be killed by the coolest actor ever Lance Henriksen as Jesse (that's right)?

I'm down with anything that has an ensemble case with Lance Henriksen, Bill Paxton and Jenette Goldstein (Aliens). Lance is incredibly dark and rugged, Paxton is ridiculous and vicious and Jenette, well she doesn't do as much but she complements the group well. This trio stand out as the best actors and rival the two leads as best characters as well, which is unfortunate because the romantic theme involving Caleb and Meg is given plenty of focus. Jenny Wright and Adrian Pasdar as elements of the film do enough to make it work and have them be watchable but they're not particularly interesting to me. What makes their interactions work the best for me, especially for the beginning of the film and that great last shot is the atmospheric, if occasionally obvious score from Tangerine Dream that moves with the whole film.

This has become a cult classic apparently, and I would say it is a very interesting genre effort. It's not really scary, just more down and dirty with moments of graphic violence. It has a good story and good acting but I thought it fell short a little. On a technical level there was some very noticeable sloppy ADR and could've used more focused and precise editing. Towards the end a lot of scenes that should have more of an emotional punch feel rather lacking and I found myself thinking I was just watching images, not feeling anything. The bar scene will be incredibly aggravating to some people. While it is entertaining, stylish and violent, all the innocent people inside take their sweet time to try to save themselves or do absolutely nothing at all. Some even continue going about doing their own thing. I can imagine people being so shocked and surprised that they don't know what to do, it just seemed poorly executed. This might seem picky and too specific and perhaps missing out on the bigger picture of the film but it was a little distracting for me. This is a worthy film that could use a bit more dimension and I'd like to feel a bit more connected with it the next time I watch it.