And the Halloween viewing continues......
Near Dark is regarded as a classic of the genre, a vampire film that creates its own mythology. It's also a noir-western with special effects that are better than the era's low budget films, and a good cast. The first film from Hurt Locker and Point Break director Kathryn Bigelow, it's still a confident movie.
Aside from veteran Adrian Pasdar (the era's Top Gun, Solarbabies, Vital Signs, and in the future, the heralded series Profit), the principal cast is made up of a chunk of the crew from Aliens (Bill Paxton, Lance Henriksen, Jenete Goldstein) which shouldn't surprise, as Bigelow ended up married to the director of that film, James Cameron. As a matter of fact, when our merry vampire band is crossing in front of a theater marquee, Aliens happens to be the feature. Near Dark also features genre veteran and still a hero of mine because of his ridiculous banter with Sylvester Stallone in the even more ridiculous Rhinestone, and his performances as Jack Deth in the Full Moon Trancers series, Master Tim Thomerson.
Near Dark was released in 1987 (which coincides nicely with Aliens (1986) on the marquee), but still holds up due to its dark and sad romance between Pasdar and Jenny Wright (of I, Madman fame), who is responsible for turning the naive and over-eager kid. Also, our cult of vampire renegades who somehow manage to be hideous and hold your attention at the same time. They all have weird quirks, which make them unique among movie vampires.
There's no Lugosi, no Lee, no Langella, and certainly no Barlow here; these are street thugs that happen to drink blood.
I recommend seeking out Anchor Bay's 2-Disc edition which is long out of print, but available all over eBay. It's worth it.
Hey! There's James LeGros!!!!
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