A Film Review by Forrest Humphrey
'Tis the season to get spooky! My fellows informed me that for the special month that is October, it would be really cool to do a theme together, and that theme ended up being Vampires. Which is good news for me, because I absolutely love Vampires, and now I get to talk about one of my favorite films: 1987's “Near Dark.”
“Near Dark” was the second film directed by Kathryn Bigelow, and was born from her own desire to film a Western and the studio's desire to chase the growing vampire sensation at the time. One might think these two genres couldn't work together, but the film's setting of Kansas and Oklahoma provides ample opportunity for both urban grit and country sprawl, as well as some absolutely gorgeous cinematography.
A young man named Caleb, played by Adrian Pasdar (whom some may know from his role in 'Heroes') is our central protagonist. One night, Caleb is hanging around with a couple friends when a pretty young girl named Mae (Jenny Wright) enters his life. After some flirting, the pair seem to hit it off before Mae suddenly realizes the time and begs to be taken home before sunrise. At first he agrees, but his hormones get the better of him and he demands a kiss. Caleb gets more than he bargained for as Mae bites his neck and flees, and while trying to return home in the morning sun, Caleb's skin begins to smoke and burn. Before he can make it, a mobile home streaks in and Caleb is kidnapped.
What follows is Caleb's introduction and journey with Mae's twisted Vampire family. Led by Jesse (Lance Henriksen), his lover Diamondback (Jenette Goldstein), Jesse's protege Severen (Bill Paxton) and the couple's 'son' Homer (Joshua John Miller). Enraged at Mae's reckless turning of Caleb endangering their lives, they reluctently give Caleb a week to “see if he's one of us” before they kill him and save themselves a headache, with Mae promising to teach him. And what does Caleb need to learn? To kill, feed on blood every night. Its the price of getting to live forever, indulge in increased strength and a miraculous healing factor. The rest of the group have adapted well to this notion, with various schemes showing how they dupe their victims, from Severan hitch-hiking and killing the friendly drivers to Homer using his young appearance to trick people by “playing possum” and draining passerby's that try to help him.
But Caleb just can't bring himself to kill, relying on Mae to kill for him and let him drink from her wrist to keep him alive. And while Mae's affections for Caleb make this easy for her, the rest of the group are not happy. While he does pull off a heroic rescue and earns some trust when the “family” are ambushed by the police, this point remains a sore one, and what's more, Caleb's father and little sister are tracking him relentlessly to get him back. It isnt until a chance run in with them where they threaten to murder Caleb's family that he decides to flee with them.
While Caleb's father manages to cure him with a blood transfusion, the family aren't just going to let him go, and they kidnap Caleb's little sister to bait him out and kill him. Mae finally comes around on her feelings for Caleb and rescues the sister in the finale where the rest of the Vampires are finally killed.
Caleb starts the story hotheaded and sleazy, not exactly a great guy, but his experiences change him for the better, as he comes to realize the real value in his family an draws strength from the morals he refuses to abandon, as much as he does want to stay with Mae, while Mae's feelings for him push her away from the vampires that turned her years prior and back to her humanity.
The cast are all stellar if the names didn't tip you off, with the biggest highlight being the late Bill Paxton's Severan, a spur-booted badass who's been terrorizing the night since at least 1871, as he references starting the great chicago fire with Jesse, a fantastically subtle way to tell the audience how old he must be. Henreksen's Jesse has “fought for the south” as he puts it, and Homer is particularly unhappy being at least fifty but stuck in a preteen body. They all have stories implied through dialogue and mannerisms and the actors clearly had a blast playing these vicious bloodsuckers. Most of the attire and backstory for each was input from the cast, as Bigelow was very open to their input and thanks to this partnership the actors indulged heavily in method acting and ad lib, making them all the more memorable.
The score is also wonderful 80's synth courtesy of Tangerine Dream, giving the entire film a firm grounding in when it's set and mixing both high tempo tracks for action scenes and ethereal notes for quiet and tense moods. “Mae's Theme” in particular is an absolutely gorgeous synth piece that perfectly captures the personality of the quiet, lonely girl.
Beyond the cast, the beautiful cinematography and the score, this film rienvented Vampires. Gone were the high gothic Dracula and Carmilla or even the hip and trendy Lost Boys. These Vampires live a filthy, unglamorous existence on the fringes of society, constantly on the run from the law for the lives they take to survive, racing the sunrise to keep from burning alive, always on the move with few possessions to their name. It garners some sympathy for them as they take strength from their strange, familial bond to make their eternal struggle bearable. Being a vampire looks fun when you're ripping car doors off and shrugging off shotgun shells, not so much when you frantically try and find a place to sleep without getting found.
As much as I adore this film its not perfect, few things are. Caleb and Mae being restored to humanity via blood transfusion is pretty far fetched and well, I can't really buy Mae's redemption arc. She states she was turned four years prior to the film and if she's killed and drank someone dry every night to stay alive she's got a body count close to fifteen hundred people. She hardly asked to be turned, but that's still quite the mountain of vicious murder to overcome.
That aside, the interesting blend of genres, a cast of excellent actors and a director who freely let go of the reigns and let them ad lib scenes when they had ideas, perfect musical score and its explorations of its characters and how far people go to survive cement this as my favorite vampire film with very little competition (John Carpenter's Vampires comes close, I admit). While it flopped at release, destroyed by its competitor “The Lost Boys” which released two months prior (Also a great Vampire film worthy of checking out) the film has found cult acclaim over the years and ranks highly among many of us bloodsucker fans. In particular, fans of the “Vampire: The Masquerade” tabletop game would do well to seek this film out for its bleak, dirty take on Vampires and similar themes of fighting, or giving in, to the monster within.
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