NEAR DARK (1987)

 

DIRECTED by Kathryn Bigelow

SCREENPLAY by Eric Red & Kathryn Bigelow

STARRING - Adrian Pasdar as Caleb Colton

Jenny Wright as Mae

Lance Henriksen as Jesse Hooker

Bill Paxton as Severen

Jeanette Goldstein as Diamondback

Joshua John Miller as Homer

Marcie Leeds as Sarah Colton

Tim Thomerson as Loy Colton

PLOT - Caleb Colton is a small town boy living his everyday life in rural Oklahoma.

One night Caleb meets - and instantly falls for - a lone female drifter by the name of Mae. Their mutual attraction leads Mae to bite Caleb on the neck and very soon afterwards he finds that sunlight is now potentially deadly to him.

It soon becomes obvious that Mae is a vampire and now Caleb too is a member of the undead. Mae introduces Caleb to her vampire family - a cold blooded murderous band of killers. It's now Caleb's turn to prove himself to Mae's undead brood - prove himself or die...

PERFORMANCES - This so-called "Vampire western" has a pretty stellar cast of well known names in the horror/sci-fi genre which adds a sheen of extra quality to it.

The main protagonist is Caleb (Adrian Pasdar) - initially he's a pretty carefree young cowboy living with his dad and little sister. He comes over as quite cocky to begin with, especially when he starts chatting up Mae (Jenny Wright). However, this initial bravado soon turns into outright fear when Mae drinks his blood and pretty soon Caleb finds himself running for his now undead life when he finds that he's starting to set on fire whenever he steps out into broad daylight.

Luckily our hapless hero is rescued by Mae and her vampire "family" and Caleb now has to find acceptance amongst this band of highway roaming killers.

Unfortunately for him, Caleb now has to drink blood - something which he's opposed to doing - which draws scorn from the clan. The rest of the film follows Caleb's attempts to fit in with these ruthless killers. Pasdar is really good as Caleb - he's both a reluctant hero and - technically - a reluctant villain too. His scenes with Wright show a good depiction of the love the two share which ultimately becomes toxic due to their opposing physical natures. 

Wright is also very good as Mae - she manages to be both sexy and slightly vulnerable at the same time. She has very good chemistry with Pasdar and I'm surprised she didn't go on to become a more well known name judging by the strength of her performance here.

By far the best performance comes from Bill Paxton as Severen - a truly psychotic vampire who dresses like a biker and seems to spend most of the film covered in copious amounts of gore. Severen has a rivalry with Caleb and at first bullies him, then grudgingly comes to respect him before the two finally become bitter enemies. Paxton is gleefully evil here and easily steals every scene he's in.

Also great is Lance Henriksen as the cold and sinister leader of the clan  - Jesse - who's just as brutal as Severen but less of a loose cannon - he comes over as more pragmatic and sensible than his clan mate.

Joining Henriksen is Jeanette Goldstein as Diamondback - Jesse's "wife", who seems to have an almost Bonnie and Clyde style relationship with her undead "husband". In fact, with Henriksen, Paxton and Goldstein in the cast this movie is practically an Aliens cast reunion - all that's missing is Sigourney Weaver playing a vampire hunter and we'd be pretty much there.

SFX - Lots of practical gore effects (most of them centered around Bill Paxton) and some decent pyrotechnics.

SEX & VIOLENCE - A lot of the mutual blood sucking between Caleb and Mae is given a sexual subtext, Indeed many of the scenes between these two characters are VERY sexually charged, but we never actually see anything - it's all implied.

As far as violence is concerned there's LOTS of blood sucking (as to be expected in a vampire movie). The most violent scene is probably the part that takes place in a roadhouse bar, where the clan slaughters the bunch of rednecks who are partying there.

RATING - A very well made movie with great acting, great ideas and a good script, plus it's absolutely beautiful to look at with it's evocative scenes of the rural highways and deserts of America giving it a real summertime feel.

BUT... the ending of the film leaves something to be desired. Basically Caleb (and later Mae's) vampirism is COMPLETELY CURED by...wait for it...a BLOOD TRANSFUSION !!!!! Surely a blood transfusion wouldn't do anything other than being a quick snack for the vampires which they didn't have to hunt - it's like the vampire equivalent of popping down the shop to buy a frozen burger instead of slaughtering and skinning a cow.

Also, I can maybe buy that Caleb would possibly turn back into being a human as he's only just been turned, but Mae ? Surely she's been a vampire for a while and would just be too far along the road into being undead to ever be able able to go back ? It basically makes being undead the equivalent of having a cold - take the right medicine and you'll be right as rain in a couple of days. It's silly, badly thought out and let's down an otherwise excellent movie.

4 bloodsucking badguys out of 5 - an iconic but flawed brush with the undead.

ART -