...One of the most slept-on movies of the late '80s. Near Dark, the second feature from director Kathryn Bigelow (she of subsequent Point Break and Hurt Locker fame), is a modern vampire tale that distances itself from the transluscent love-fests we're used to seeing on TV screens and within the confines of movie theaters.
I mean, what other film can boast the badass pairing of Bill Paxton and Lance Henriksen as the villains? (Answer: None, though both actors were in Aliens... But that doesn't count. I mean Henriksen was a goddamn android in that flick!) This tale of an American teen who reluctantly becomes part of a roving gang of vampires who ride America's highways in the same way hobos used to run railroad tracks is everything that's missing from the current crop of neck-biting capers: the film is bloody, action-packed and the word 'vampire' is never actually uttered during the movie.
The film acts like an operatic take on the classic Western, mixing elements of horror mythology to make an original tale full of anti-heroes and tough decisions. Unlike 1987's other take on vampire lore (The Lost Boys, a film that seems more fondly remembered in the minds of nostalgic adults everywhere), Near Dark operates on a much more mature level than Joel Schumacher's glossy production. Whereas The Lost Boys' marquee, which included '80s dreamteam Corey Haim, Kiefer Sutherland and Jason Patric, was filled with a certain boyish angst about the problem of becoming a vampire, Near Dark is a nihilistic in tone. The course is set, the tone bleak and the performances outstanding, suggesting much more than a simple movie about people with fangs.
The finale, an ingenious take on the classic movie gunfight, caps off a difficult film that at times finds the viewer rooting for the villains simply because they are afflicted with a condition that they cannot rid themselves of, and one that makes them make tough choices.
The biggest subsequent downside is since this explosion of "lovely vampires", the kinds of posters they've been using to promote the movie (an original theatrical poster, for example) have been changed to fit the current fad (peep the BluRay box art) and it may unfortunately turn away many of the horror hopefuls. Still, don't let the packaging turn you away from an awesome film.
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