Near Dark

Near Dark (1987)
Director: Kathryn Bigelow
Cast: Lance Henrikson, Adrian Pasdar, Bill Paxton, Jenny Wright, Jennette Goldstein, Tim Thomerson
Memorable Line(s): "Listen to the night, it's deafening."

A rural boys meets the wrong girl and is suddenly caught up in the wrong crowd - a crowd of vampires. This film became a cult classic and shows some style, albeit, a coarse and brutal one.

The Plot of Near Dark
Caleb (Pasdar) sees himself as rowdy and dangerous, but then he meets Mae (Wright) and she takes him down the path to the dark side. She introduces Caleb to her vampire clan which consists of their leader, Jesse (Henrickson), his girl, Diamondback (Goldstein), a wild one (Paxton), and a vampire child. These are violent and dangerous creatures that operate more like redneck vampires, playing cards and busting up out-of-the way honky-tonks.

After he is turned from human to vampire, Caleb is lost and disoriented, but then the truth becomes all too evident and he must choose their dark path or the one they took from him. The stakes are upped when they take him on a particularly violent escapade and demanding that he get in his first kill. He denies his thirst, but his fate seems inevitable.

His family is doing everything they can to find him, but it seems as if he will be lost unless he can find a way back to his humanity.

The Performances, Writing, and Direction of Near Dark
This is a heavily stylized movie in places. The pace is deliberate and takes its time, sometimes dragging, but the overall momentum carries the movie forward. Parts of the film do seem somewhat contrived and drawn out and the final showdown is downright clunky in places.

Pasdar has to carry the movie initially and his performance is a bit stiff, but Henrikson, Wright, and Paxton bring the movie up a notch. Wright plays her part with an innocence mixed with the necessary blood lust.

You can tell the movie has a limited budget and it shows in places, but director Bigelow does a great job of getting the most out of her limited resources. There are scenes that just cry out for a few more set-ups. The editing, while probably innovative in it's day, seems a bit turgid in places. Plus, the score works for the most part, but will seem somewhat dated to some.

Summary Judgment on Near Dark
Near Dark isn't for everyone's taste. It is violent and unrelenting for the most part, but there's some heart beneath it. Today, with a bigger budget and some more subtle direction, you could have a real break-out movie, but the movie, as is, still has some appeal.