Writer(s): Bigelow, and Eric Red
Starring: Adrian Pasdar, Jenny Wright, Lance Henriksen, and Bill Paxton
Near Dark is
a horror movie that seems intently hellbent on avoiding being called a horror
movie. Just take a look at the IMDb
entry for it, and you will find that it’s billed as an “Action/Crime/Drama”
film; it’s not until you scroll down for the remainder of the genre
classifications that the rest are revealed: “Horror/Romance/Thriller/Western”
(?). Much to my shock, and my wife’s excitement,
“romance” should actually be in the top 3, because despite all of its
(occasionally) gruesome violence, and vampiric theme, this is, above all, a
love story. Think of it as Twilight done
right, if that will help.
Adrian Pasdar plays Caleb
Colton, a simple country man who lives with his father, and young sister. One night, while out and about, Caleb
stumbles upon Mae (Jennifer Wright), a woman who’s looking for a ride
home. Caleb happily obliges, but things
soon take a turn for the weird, when Mae suddenly seems very concerned about
making it home before sunrise. Not
realizing the gravity of the situation, Caleb messes around with her, making
her kiss him before taking her home—bad move.
As you can probably surmise by now, Mae is a vampire, and she gives him
a “vampire’s kiss” before exiting the car and running the rest of the way home.
A confused Caleb attempts to
return to his own home, but as luck would have it, his car won’t start—he
instead has to make it home on foot. As
the sun rises and starts beating down on him, he gets sicker and sicker. He’s about in his own yard when inhabitants
of an RV kidnap him. Inside is Mae, and
the rest of her vampire family, lead by a genius-as-always Lance Henriksen, as
the coolly-named Jesse Hooker. It seems
he has just a few days to prove “he belongs” with the nomadic vampire family,
and of course his initiation consists of murdering innocent people for their
blood.
And so Caleb must choose—does
he ditch his “real life” family for true love, or vice versa? Or does he find a convenient cop-out loophole
that allows him to sacrifice nothing, while still ending up with the woman of
his dreams?
Near Dark
was directed by a young Kathryn Bigelow, well before she hit the big time with
films like The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty. She makes the most of her comparatively low-budget
here, amassing a solid cast, while also delivering some convincing special
effects for the time period. There are some clever scenes, like a daylight shootout with cops at a motel, in
which every bullet from the police send piercing rays of light into the room, capable
of injuring the vampires even more than the bullets can. It’s inspired scenes like this that elevate
Near Dark above typical vampire fare.
I have to confess that this
movie just didn’t grab me the same way it did when I viewed it as a teenager
about fifteen years ago. I always
remembered it being endlessly creative and genius, and while there are some
cool scenes (like the aforementioned motel sequence), most of it is just
straightforward and fairly predictable.
I actually did like how the “romance” aspect comes to the
forefront, with both Caleb and Mae making literal sacrifices to prove just how
much they love and care for each other (without either of them having to
“sparkle”), but the end just felt a little too neat and straightforward for my liking.
RECAP: If you are a vampire
movie fan, and don’t mind some intriguing twists on the genre, this is a solid
film that should be required viewing.
Hell, really fans of most genres will find something to like here, as
the horror aspects are generally downplayed (though there is a massacre
sequence at a bar that’s pretty violent, especially for those not familiar with
horror films), and the love aspects stand front and center. The performances are solid, the effects are
good, and there are enough clever twists on the vampire subgenre to keep even
seasoned fans intrigued. It’s generally
predictable, and not nearly as excellent as I remember from an earlier viewing,
but still a million times more inspired than average mainstream fare these
days.
RATING: 7/10
TRAILER
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