Near Dark

Rating:
Summary: Thte best vampire movie made to date
Review: I as a true lover of vampires would tell those looking for a movie that is it worth see. Forget the kiddy stuff an watch a real movie and see for your self the true vampire movie.

Rating:
Summary: A Classic
Review: They really need to re-release this one on DVD. One of the best Vampire movies ever made. The fore runner that brought about Dusk till Dawn, The Lost Boy's, and don't forget about Buffy.

Rating:
Summary: A spell-binding "teenage angst" vampire flick.
Review: The plot is not so great but the mood and actors are. It's about a "teenage" guy who is trying to "fit in", win the girl, etc. and turns into a vampire in the process. It's eerily interesting but dated.

Rating:
Summary: A Classic Vampire Flick
Review: This low budget film weaves a haunting and tragic tale of modern day vampires. It is an underrated and forgotten classic of the genre and still remains my all time favourite vampire flick. Four stars only, sadly because it's dated.

Rating:
Summary: good verses evil in this action packed vampire fable
Review: Going after the girl can be hazerdous to your health as Adrian Pasdar finds out in this well acted vampire fable. Adrian Pasdar is Caleb, a fun loving teen who is sucked into a world of terror and violence, when he falls for a girl who is not what she appears to be. Taken in by his new found friend and her band of vampire drifters, Caleb is forced to choose love or family in this good vs. evil love story.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent fun
Review: "Near Dark" has only two flaws:
(1) Joshua Miller, the bratty kid you wanted to slap in the face in "River's Edge", plays a bratty vampire, and you want to slap him in the face in this movie, too.
(2) The soundtrack by Tangerine Dream does not hold up well. It stinks. It is almost distractingly bad at times.
That said, the rest of the movie is awesome. Using a great chunk of the cast from "Aliens" (Bill Paxton, Lance Henrickson, and Jeanette Goldstein) was a stroke of genius. Their chemistry together, which was so good in that movie, proves to be even more devilish good fun in "Near Dark", featuring the trio as a nomadic group of dustbowl vampires. Paxton fans in particular will be delighted by his goofy, scenery-chewing character. Adrian Pasdar does a great job too, as a hick named Caleb who is kidnapped by the group after one of its other members, a sweet young thang named Mae (the lovely Jenny Wright), takes a liking to him and nibbles on his neck.
The special effects are outstanding. There are some genuine spine-tingling moments that you will remember for a long time. Especially the "roadhouse massacre" scene, which gives us big laughs, gross-out gore, and some good scares as well. This scene alone rightfully earns "Near Dark" its spot (on my list, anyway) as one of the most genre-twisting, intelligent, and all-out entertaining horror flicks of all time. The DVD extras are great, too. You won't be disappointed. "Near Dark" is certainly worth buying for any serious horror film collector.

Rating:
Summary: Midnight Snack
Review: NEAR DARK is one of those rare films that somehow creeps forth, and escapes the sanitized glitter of hollywood. We are treated to a band of roaming nightmonsters, played to perfection by a dream-cast of nobodies (at least in 1987). Lance Henriksen (Aliens, Pumpkinhead) is Jesse, the leader and father figure of the group. Jenette Goldstein (Aliens, T2) plays Diamondback, the "mother" with a nack for slitting throats. Bill Paxton (Aliens, Titanic) is Severen, the leather-clad killer who is a demonic force with a true sense of glee. He enjoys killing and feasting on human prey! Josh Mitchell is Homer, a little kid on the outside, an old man within. He's pretty scary, especially since he kills without conscience! Jenny Wright is Mae, the young, beautiful girl who messes things up royally by falling for a human, and turning him into an undead. Caleb (Adrian Pasdar) is that human, a texas cowpoke who now finds himself unable to eat human food or stay out in daylight without melting. He is captured by Jesse and company, runs away, and reluctantly rejoins them when he realizes that he can't make it in the world of mortals. Mae keeps him alive by allowing him to drink from her veins. Caleb is given a week to make his first kill, or face the consequences of being a drag on the group. NEAR DARK is bleak and sinister in it's portrayal of this drifting anti-family of blood-drinkers. Paxton is the most violent and ruthless, making sport out of murder. The bar scene is his show-stopper! Anyone who thinks of Bill Paxton as that goofy, but loveable guy from Twister or Titanic MUST see this! You'll never see him (or spurs) in the same light again! I believe this sequence was a direct influence on Cameron's T2 bar scene. I mean, the first guy to get knocked across the room (by Caleb) also played the biker in T2 who puts his cigar out on Arny's chest! This movie is a ghoulish, explosively violent tribute to low-budget horror done right. There's even a love story in there somewhere! Sink your teeth into it and drink deep...

Rating:
Summary: Fresh And Interesting Movie Weakened By Duff Ending
Review: The excellent `Every Young Man's Guide to Girls' clearly explains to anyone who cares to read it that it is really very unwise indeed to make passes at vampires. They can be very dangerous and, what is more, are not usually nice, upstanding, moral people. This excellent advice is ignored by the foolish young Caleb (Adrian Pasdar), a decent enough young fellow from a wholesome Oklahoma farming family, when he hits on Mae (Jenny Wright), oblivious to the warning contained in her dramatic effect on horses. Next thing he knows he has begun to suffer from a disagreeable medical condition that only seems to get better if he drinks fresh blood, and has been introduced to Mae's frightening group of associates, including leader Lance Henriksen and hellraiser Bill Paxton, who travel about in a big minibus with blacked out windows eating people, and who will see how suited Caleb is to their lifestyle before deciding whether to let him live.

Hollywood is a supposedly progressive place but it's striking and depressing how few major American film directors are women. In fact even modestly notable mainstream American women directors seem to emerge at the woefully low rate of about one a decade. So in the naughties we have Coppola Jnr., in the nineties Mimi Leder and in the eighties it was Kathryn Bigelow, this being the film that really got her noticed. It more or less coincided in the 1980s with Schumacher's `The Lost Boys' both of which did an interesting job of reworking the vampire theme in the spirit of gang movie, dropping any thought of Transylvanian camp in favour of very American leather jacket clad vampire outlaws. It's a nice fresh fun movie, not very scary but with a satisfyingly spooky atmosphere. But a very weak cop-out of an ending comes close to ruining it.




Rating:
Summary: "Near Dark" is near perfection.
Review: In 1987, two vampire movies were released. The teen audience went to see "The Lost Boys"; the older audience went to see "Near Dark". Perhaps unfortunately, more people went to see "Lost Boys" than "Near Dark", forcing the latter to drop off the face of the earth for years. Until 2002, actually. DVD wonder company Anchor Bay released a 2-disc special edition of the film, prompting a new generation of horror fans to investigate the film. One of them was me.

The biggest problem with "Near Dark" is that it is somewhat pointless until the end of the film; there is little or no story at all. The film begins with young Texan Caleb (Adrian Pasdar), who wants more than anything to leave Texas - until he meets beautiful yet mysterious Mae (Jenny Wright). Predictably, Mae is a vampire - and after Caleb attempts to score with her, she accidentally brings him across into the world of the undead. Now, while being hunted by his worried father and young sister, Caleb is forced to join a band of evil vampires, of which Mae travels with.

That's just about the whole story.

This film is another dated eighties film - but then again, most films of the decade were dated. Tangerine Dream, a popular 80's band, contributes the very fine, sometimes creepy score. The cast is very good - particularly Lance Henriksen, who is great as the leader of the vampires, and Bill Paxton, who is awesome as the "fun"-loving vampire Severen.

Kathryn Bigelow, who most recently directed "K-19: The Widowmaker", directs and co-writes this film. Her direction is one of the highlights of the film, which is very dark but in some bizarre way, poetic. The script is something of a mix between violent horror and dramatic western - which works out well in creating an eerie vampire film.

The biggest question, other than how good the film is, is would I have gone to see "Lost Boys" or "Near Dark"? I have to answer both. They are both excellent films, two of the very best featuring vampires, and it's hard to choose which is my favorite. "Lost Boys" had a mixture of teenage style and pre-teen humor, while "Near Dark" has a mixture of bloody violence and dark drama. Both are great, and I'll leave it to you to decide which is the better film.

Rating:
Summary: A great film with one big flaw (4 1/2 stars)
Review: Caleb ( Adrain Passar) is a young and naive man living in Texas. One night he sees Mae ( Jenny Wright). She is everything that Caleb could want in a girl, except for the fact that she is a vampire. Caleb is soon seduced and then bitten by her. With the sun rising, and his skin beginning to burn, Caleb is thrust into a world that you can only see after dark. Mae belongs to a vampire clan who is led by a soldier from the civil war named Jesse ( Lance Henricksen), The rest of the pack contains an extremely sadistic ladies' man named Severn ( Bill Paxton), a beautiful and violent mother figure named Diamondback (Jenette Goldstien), and an old man trapped in the body of a 10 year old named Homer ( Joshua John Miller). This group of nightstalkers are not suceptable to the old legends of crosses, holy water, etc, and only see humans as food. Now Caleb has a week to make two choices. One is to make a kill and become one of them. The other is to do nothing and be killed himself.

The film's initial release suffered when it was brought out mere weeks after "The Lost Boys". Both have a similar story of a young man being brought into a clan of immortals against his will. " Lost Boys" had a popular and well known cast, as well as Richard Donner directing. "The Lost Boys" may have grossed more at the box-office, and the film may be more popular, but "Near Dark" is far superior to its archrival, and is perhaps the greatest vampire film ever made. The vampires in this film are extremely violent and sadistic. They rely on more than just their vampire powers, and use guns , knifes, etc. This adds more action and firepower to the film. When director Kathryn Bigelow decided to go ahead with the movie, she also wanted no mention of the actual word " vampire". The characters do not spend time analyzing the life that they have lived for years. There is no need to marvel at their powers or abilities, and the word "vampire" does just that. The film is extremely gory and has amazing special effects too. The infamous bar scene is by far the best scene in the film and it will amaze you. The script is amazing, and offers killer dialogue like "finger lickin good". This causes the film to be extremely funny at times.

The peformances are what set this film apart. The cast of "Aliens" shines here. Lance Henricksen, and Bill Paxton give the best roles of their careers. The violence and horror they display are surprisingly frightening and realistic. They bring the role of being a vampire more down to earth, and make it less supernatural. Adrian Passar is outstanding. I love his naive behavior towards what he is. The inner conflict that he must face between choosing his regular family, and his new family is emotional to watch. Jenny Wright, Joshua John MIller, and Jenetter Goldstien are also outstanding. While the characters are frightening, they also bring a sense of emotion to the film with how they live and act like one big family. Kind of like the " blood sucking Brady Bunch."

Overall Near Dark was almost a perfect film. The performances that were given in this movie, combined with the unique view it takes on the vampire genre made Near Dark an extremely enjoyable movie. However, there was one major flaw with this movie that got under my skin. The one consistency with the vampire genre, has been that once you are a vampire, there is no cure. Near Dark's main strength is that it offers an original take on the vampire genre. But it also happens to be the film's weakness in this case as well. In the film, a person who is a vampire, is able to return to being human with a simple blood transfusion. After watching the stuggle that Caleb went through, it was frustrating to see the problem go away so easily. The film should have stuck with the one rule of there being no cure for vampirism. The DVD is amazing, and definately worth the money. The 47 minute documentary " Living In Darkness" features Adrian Passar, Bill Paxton, Lance Henriksen, Jenette Goldstien, and director Kathryn Bigelow. It is nice to watch the stars of the film comment on their characters, working with each other, and their overall difficulty of shooting. You also get deleted scenes, and much more.

4.5/5