Near Dark

Near Dark is a 1987 American neo-Western horror film co-written and directed by Kathryn Bigelow (in her solo directorial debut), and starring Adrian Pasdar, Jenny Wright, Bill Paxton, Lance Henriksen and Jenette Goldstein. The plot follows a young man in a small midwestern town who becomes involved with a family of nomadic American vampires.

Near Dark
Theatrical release poster
Directed byKathryn Bigelow
Produced bySteven-Charles Jaffe
Written by
Starring
Music byTangerine Dream
CinematographyAdam Greenberg
Edited byHoward E. Smith
Production
company
F/M Entertainment
Distributed byDe Laurentiis Entertainment Group
Release date
  • October 2, 1987 (1987-10-02)
Running time
95 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$5 million[1]
Box office$3.4 million[1]

Despite performing poorly at the box office, critic reviews were very positive. Over the years, the film has gained a cult following.[2][3]

Plot

One night, Caleb Colton (Adrian Pasdar), a young man in a small town, meets an attractive young drifter named Mae (Jenny Wright). Just before sunrise, she bites him on the neck and runs off. The rising sun causes Caleb's flesh to smoke and burn. Mae arrives with a group of roaming vampires in an RV and takes him away. The most psychotic of the vampires, Severen (Bill Paxton), wants to kill Caleb but Mae reveals that she has already turned him. Their charismatic leader Jesse Hooker (Lance Henriksen) reluctantly agrees to allow Caleb to remain with them for a week, to see if he can learn to hunt and gain the group's trust. Caleb is unwilling to kill to feed, which alienates him from the others. To protect him, Mae kills for him and then has him drink from her wrist.

Jesse's group enters a bar and kills the occupants. They set the bar on fire and flee the scene. After Caleb endangers himself to help them escape their motel room during a daylight police raid, Jesse and the others are temporarily mollified, with Caleb asking Jesse how old he was and told he "fought for the South", making him about 150 years old (Severen later suggests he and Jesse started the Great Chicago Fire of 1871). Caleb's father (Tim Thomerson) searches for Jesse's group. A child vampire in the group, Homer (Joshua John Miller) meets Caleb's sister Sarah (Marcie Leeds) and wants to turn her into his companion, but Caleb objects. While the group argues, Caleb's father arrives and holds them at gunpoint, demanding that Sarah be released. Jesse taunts him into shooting but regurgitates the bullet before wrestling the gun away. In the confusion, Sarah opens a door, letting in the sunlight and forcing the vampires back. Burning, Caleb escapes with his family.

Caleb suggests they try giving him a blood transfusion to attempt to cure him. The transfusion successfully reverses Caleb's transformation. That night, the vampires search for Caleb and Sarah. Mae distracts Caleb by trying to persuade him to return to her while the others kidnap his sister. Caleb discovers the kidnapping and his tires slashed but gives chase on horseback. When the horse shies and throws him, he is confronted by Severen. Caleb commandeers a tractor-trailer and runs Severen over. The injured vampire suddenly appears on the hood of the truck and manages to rip apart the wiring in the engine. Caleb jackknifes the vehicle and jumps out as the truck explodes, killing Severen. Seeking revenge, Jesse and his girlfriend Diamondback (Jenette Goldstein) pursue him but are forced to escape in their car as dawn breaks.

Not wanting Sarah to become another childlike monster, Mae breaks out of the back of the car with Sarah. Mae's flesh begins to smoke as she is burned by the sun but she carries Sarah into Caleb's arms, taking refuge under his jacket. Homer attempts to follow, but as he runs he dies from exposure to the sun. Their sunproofing ruined, Jesse and Diamondback also begin to burn. They attempt to run Caleb and Sarah over but fail, dying as the car blows up. Mae awakens later, her burns now healed. She too has been given a transfusion and is cured. She and Caleb comfort each other in a reassuring hug as the film ends.

Cast

Production

Vampire films had become "trendy" by the time of Near Dark's production, with the success of Fright Night (1985) and The Lost Boys (1987), the latter released two months before Near Dark and grossing $32 million.[4] Kathryn Bigelow wanted to film a Western movie that departed from cinematic convention. When she and co-writer Eric Red found financial backing for a Western difficult to obtain, it was suggested to them that they try mixing a Western with another, more popular genre. Her interest in revisionist interpretation of cinematic tradition led her and Red to combine two genres that they regarded as ripe for reinterpretation: the Western movie and the vampire movie. The combination of the genres had been visited at least twice before on the big screen, with Curse of the Undead (1959) and Billy the Kid Versus Dracula (1966).

Bigelow knew (and later married) director James Cameron, who directed Aliens (1986), a film that shares three cast members (Paxton, Goldstein and Henriksen) with Near Dark. Actor Michael Biehn was offered the role of Jesse Hooker, but he rejected the role because he found the script confusing. Lance Henriksen took over the role.[5] A cinema seen in the background early in the film has Aliens on its marquee and Cameron played the man who "flips off" Severen.

Soundtrack

Near Dark is the thirty-second major release and tenth soundtrack album by Tangerine Dream. It was released in 1988.[6]

Near Dark (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) track listing
No.TitleLength
1."Caleb's Blues"3:20
2."Pick Up at High Noon"4:59
3."Rain in the Third House"2:59
4."Bus Station"8:42
5."Good Times"2:37
6."She's My Sister (Resurrection I)"7:22
7."Mae Comes Back"2:02
8."Father and Son (Resurrection II)"2:58
9."Severin Dies"2:50
10."Fight at Dawn"4:40
11."Mae's Transformation"4:21

Release

Near Dark was released on October 2, 1987 in 262 theaters, grossing US$635,789 on its opening weekend. It went on to make $3.4 million, below its $5 million budget.[1]

Critical response

Part of a late 1980s revival of serious vampire depictions on the big screen, it received mostly positive reviews for its mix of the Western, biker and vampire movie genres.[7] On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, Near Dark holds a 88% approval rating based on 49 critic reviews, with an average rating of 7.54/10. The consensus reads: "Near Dark is at once a creepy vampire film, a thrilling western, and a poignant family tale, with humor and scares in abundance.”[8]

In her review for The New York Times, Caryn James wrote, "Ms. Bigelow's too-studied compositions – Caleb in silhouette riding a horse toward the camera – clash with her unstudied approach to the characters' looks".[9] Jonathan Rosenbaum of the Chicago Reader was impressed by Bigelow's first foray into big budget films with the "hillbilly vampire" movie, describing it as "beautifully shot".[10] Hal Hinson of The Washington Post said the intermixing of vampire legends, westerns and biker movies has an end result that is "both outrageous and poetic; it has extravagant, bloody thrills plus something else – something that comes close to genuine emotion".[11] Jay Scott in his review for The Globe and Mail wrote, "Bill Paxton as the undead sex symbol – is exceptional, but not exceptional enough to put across the cop-out that concludes the film".[12]

Richard Corliss of Time magazine called Near Dark "weird (and) beautiful" and "the all-time teenage vampire love story".[13][14] Richard Schickel (also of Time) considers the film a clever variant of the vampire film genre.[15] Peter Travers of Rolling Stone concurred, calling it "gory and gorgeous".[16]

Cancelled remake

A remake of the film was announced in October 2006 as a co-production between film companies Rogue Pictures and Platinum Dunes.[17][18] In December 2008, Platinum Dunes producer Bradley Fuller stated that the project had been put on hold due to similarities in conception with Twilight (2008), a film which also contained a romance between human and vampire characters.[19]

References
  1. "Near Dark". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2014-01-15.
  2. Tobias, Scott (November 5, 2008). "The New Cult Canon: Near Dark". A.V. Club. Retrieved 2014-01-15.
  3. Mathijs, Ernest; Mendik, Xavier (14 October 2011). 100 Cult Films. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 147–. ISBN 978-1-84457-571-8. Shatteringly romantic and tough as nails, Near Dark is the cult film that embodies brilliantly the ambivalence and hybridity that was a trademark of the 1980s.
  4. Kaufman, Gil (March 10, 2010). "Corey Haim's 'The Lost Boys' Was The Original Teen Vampire Flick". MTV.com. Archived from the original on March 13, 2010. Retrieved 2010-05-09.
  5. What the Hell Happened to Michael Biehn? - Article on the website Lebeau's Le Blog
  6. "Near Dark [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack]". AllMusic. Archived from the original on April 13, 2019. Retrieved May 16, 2019.
  7. Newman, Kim (1988). Nightmare Movies: a Critical History of the Horror Film 1968–1988. London: Bloomsbury. p. 36. ISBN 0-7475-0295-1.
  8. "Near Dark (1987)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2008-09-30.
  9. James, Caryn (October 4, 1987). "Near Dark, a Tale of Vampires on the Road". The New York Times. Retrieved 2008-09-30.
  10. Rosenbaum, Jonathan. "Near Dark". Chicago Reader. Retrieved 2009-02-04.
  11. Hinson, Hal (May 5, 1988). "'Near Dark' (R)". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2009-02-04.
  12. Scott, Jay (October 2, 1987). "Vampire myth spawns new terrors in seductive demons of Near Dark". The Globe and Mail.
  13. Corliss, Richard (July 22, 1991). "Cinema: Board Stiff". Time. Retrieved 2009-02-04.
  14. "The Hurt Locker: A Near-Perfect War Film". Time. September 4, 2008.
  15. Schickel, Richard; Elizabeth L. Bland; Mayo Mohs (October 14, 1991). "Hollywood's New Directions". Time. Retrieved 2009-02-04.
  16. Travers, Peter (October 17, 2002). "Near Dark". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2009-02-04.
  17. Fleming, Michael (5 October 2006). "Dunes digs up rich Rogue deal". variety.com. Retrieved 4 April 2016.
  18. Weinberg, Scott (April 7, 2006). "Near Dark Remake ... Nears". Cinematical. Retrieved 2009-02-13.
  19. Hewitt, Chris (December 12, 2008). "Near Dark Remake Is Off". Empire. Retrieved 2014-01-15.

Further reading
  • Auerbach, Nina. Our Vampires, Ourselves. University of Chicago Press, 1995. p. 137. ISBN 0-226-03201-9
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