| Near Dark [Region 2] |  | Director: Kathryn Bigelow
Actors: Adrian Pasdar, Jenny Wright, Lance Henriksen, Bill Paxton, Jenette Goldstein
Category: DVD
Buy Used: $32.35
Used (2) from $32.35
Rating:  129 reviews
Format: Pal
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Region: 2
Discs: 2
Running Time: 94 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.4 x 5.4 x 0.7
EAN: 5060020621581
ASIN: B0000AISGK
Theatrical Release Date: October 2, 1987
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Amazon.com
The word "vampire" is never mentioned in Near Dark, but that doesn't stop this 1987 cult favorite from being one of the best modern-era vampire films. It put then-unknown director Kathryn Bigelow on Hollywood's radar and gave choice roles to Aliens costars favored by Bigelow's ex-husband James Cameron: Lance Henriksen is the leader of a makeshift family of renegade bloodsuckers, nocturnally seeking victims in rural Oklahoma; his immortal gal pal is Aliens and Terminator 2 alumnus Jenette Goldstein; and Bill Paxton is the group's deadliest leather-clad ass kicker. Fellow traveler Jenny Wright lures Okie farm boy Adrian Pasdar into the group with a love bite, and he's soon turning toward vampirism with a combination of frightened revulsion and relentless desire. With Joshua Miller (River's Edge) as the youngest vampire, Near Dark is Bigelow's masterpiece of low-budget ingenuity--a truck-stop thriller that begins well, gets better and better (aided by a fine Tangerine Dream score), and goes out in a blaze of glory. --Jeff Shannon
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| Customer Reviews: Read 124 more reviews...
 Hugely Overrated. June 10, 2009
N_Joy (North Carolina)
I am at a loss for words regarding all the 4 and 5 star reviews for this movie. I had never heard of this vampire flick from 1987, the same year as the vastly superior "The Lost Boys", until a few years back when I noticed several reviews referring to "Near Dark" and many regarding this a better movie. My question for them is "What were you watching?" This isn't the worst movie I've ever seen but it is a long, long ways from being the best vampire movie ever as some reviewers have stated. It's just not that interesting. I never felt any connection or even liked any of the characters in this movie. And Bill Paxton, one of my least favorite actors by the way, is so annoying in this movie that it was infuriating. There are so many plot holes and dumb mistakes made by the vampires in this movie. The final couple of scenes in this movie are so ridiculous that I was shaking my head. In short this movie just does not have the style and well developed characters of "The Lost Boys" and how anyone can say this movie is better is beyond me.
 Listen to the night May 25, 2009
E. A Solinas (MD USA)
Katherine Bigelow reportedly wanted to create an old-fashioned Western movie... mixed with a vampire romance. The result was something that could have been a disaster.
Instead "Near Dark" is a deeply underappreciated little cult movie, which demonstrates that talent and originality in vampire movies isn't quite gone. Bigelow smoothly intertwines eerie otherworldliness with a grimy, gritty Western flavour, and spreads the resulting atmosphere over a clever, tightly-written script and some solid acting from Adrian Pasdar and Jenny Wright.
Small-town boy Caleb (Pasdar) encounters an ethereal young woman named Mae (Wright) on the street one night. They seem to be shyly hitting it off... until she bites him and leaves.
Before Caleb knows it, the sun literally causes his skin to burn, and he's been yanked into the RV of a gang of vampire drifters -- Mae among them. They're a pretty mean bunch, and even their leader Jessie Hooker (Lance Henriksen) gives him only one week to prove himself. But Caleb refuses to give in to "instinct" by drinking blood and killing his victims, which causes some problems.
Meanwhile, Caleb's father (Tim Thomerson) and the local police are searching for the missing young man -- and when Caleb manages to save the vampires from the cops, they finally accept him. But then one of them develops a crush on Caleb's kid sister Sarah, and Caleb finds himself torn between his strange new life and his family's safety. Even if he can somehow be cured of his vampirism, can he hope to destroy an entire bloodsucker gang out to kill him?
"Near Dark" is one of those cult movies that doesn't have a big enough cult -- it gets overshadowed by other 1980s vampire movies like "Interview with the Vampire" and "The Lost Boys," despite having little in common with them. The vampires in it are dirty, amoral, trashy and casually cruel as only human beings freed from mortality and law can be ("Remember that fire we started in Chicago?") -- which is an all-too-probable result if someone were to become a vampire.
And Bigelow gives the movie a unique atmosphere, setting it in the grimy, dusty small towns of Oklahoma and filling it with blood, guns and nighttime streets -- in fact if it didn't have vampires, you'd think it was a coming-of-age tale about falling in with a bad crowd. But there are also a number of sweet romantic scenes, which are all the more striking because they don't get over-the-top or cheesy.
And there's a quiet, understated visual power to Bigelow's directing style, whether it's Caleb tottering across a field with smoke pouring from his clothes, or an erotic blood-drink against a pumping oil rig on a lightning-filled night. And her script is a pretty solid one as well, with excellent dialogue ranging from the quietly beautiful ("... I'll still be here when the light from that star gets down here to earth...") to macabrely funny ("It's finger-lickin' GOOD!").
Pasdar is intense and gutsy as a nice young country boy who has the misfortune to get turned into a vampire against his will, and Wright is wispily endearing as the only vampire who sympathizes with him. Some of the supporting vampires get kind of 2-D and over-the-top at times, but Henriksen does an outstanding job as their weary, battle-scarred leader, and Joshua John Miller does a good job as a vampire trapped in a little boy's body.
"Near Dark" is a darker, grittier brand of vampire movie, and while it's blessed with solid acting, brilliant direction and snappy script, the unique slant on vampires is one of the best parts.
Listen to the night May 18, 2009
E. A Solinas (MD USA)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Katherine Bigelow reportedly wanted to create an old-fashioned Western movie... mixed with a vampire romance. The result was something that could have been a disaster.
Instead "Near Dark" is a deeply underappreciated little cult movie, which demonstrates that talent and originality in vampire movies isn't quite gone. Bigelow smoothly intertwines eerie otherworldliness with a grimy, gritty Western flavour, and spreads the resulting atmosphere over a clever, tightly-written script and some solid acting from Adrian Pasdar and Jenny Wright.
Small-town boy Caleb (Pasdar) encounters an ethereal young woman named Mae (Wright) on the street one night. They seem to be shyly hitting it off... until she bites him and leaves.
Before Caleb knows it, the sun literally causes his skin to burn, and he's been yanked into the RV of a gang of vampire drifters -- Mae among them. They're a pretty mean bunch, and even their leader Jessie Hooker (Lance Henriksen) gives him only one week to prove himself. But Caleb refuses to give in to "instinct" by drinking blood and killing his victims, which causes some problems.
Meanwhile, Caleb's father (Tim Thomerson) and the local police are searching for the missing young man -- and when Caleb manages to save the vampires from the cops, they finally accept him. But then one of them develops a crush on Caleb's kid sister Sarah, and Caleb finds himself torn between his strange new life and his family's safety. Even if he can somehow be cured of his vampirism, can he hope to destroy an entire bloodsucker gang out to kill him?
For some reason, the DVD edition of "Near Dark" has a cover that makes it look like a cheap knockoff of "Twilight." That's massively unjust, because it's a complete misrepresentation of what this movie is about. And the vampires in it are dirty, amoral, trashy and casually cruel as only human beings freed from mortality and law can be ("Remember that fire we started in Chicago?") -- which is an all-too-probable result if someone were to become a vampire.
And Bigelow gives the movie a unique atmosphere, setting it in the grimy, dusty small towns of Oklahoma and filling it with blood, guns and nighttime streets -- in fact if it didn't have vampires, you'd think it was a coming-of-age tale about falling in with a bad crowd. But there are also a number of sweet romantic scenes, which are all the more striking because they don't get over-the-top or cheesy.
And there's a quiet, understated visual power to Bigelow's directing style, whether it's Caleb tottering across a field with smoke pouring from his clothes, or an erotic blood-drink against a pumping oil rig on a lightning-filled night. And her script is a pretty solid one as well, with excellent dialogue ranging from the quietly beautiful ("... I'll still be here when the light from that star gets down here to earth...") to macabrely funny ("It's finger-lickin' GOOD!").
Pasdar is intense and gutsy as a nice young country boy who has the misfortune to get turned into a vampire against his will, and Wright is wispily endearing as the only vampire who sympathizes with him. Some of the supporting vampires get kind of 2-D and over-the-top at times, but Henriksen does an outstanding job as their weary, battle-scarred leader, and Joshua John Miller does a good job as a vampire trapped in a little boy's body.
"Near Dark" is a darker, grittier brand of vampire movie, and while it's blessed with solid acting, brilliant direction and snappy script, the unique slant on vampires is one of the best parts.
 Beware of Blondes With Ice Cream May 11, 2009
Erin O'Riordan (Midwest USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
In this 1987 film, Caleb picks the wrong girl to crush on. One bite later, he's a vampire draftee. Like Louis in Interview With the Vampire or Michael in The Lost Boys, Caleb is appalled at the idea of killing people. Yet he has to prove himself to the other vampires, or they'll kill him.
Adrian Pasdar as Caleb, naive Kansas farm boy, may come as a bit of shock to fans of the TV show Heroes, used to seeing him as jaded New Yorker Nathan Petrelli. Acting vets Lance Hendrikson and Bill Paxton serve their purpose here as cold-blooded members of the redneck vampire pack. See them, for example, pass around a beer stein full of blood from one very unfortunate cocktail waitress.
Like The Lost Boys, though, the film has a hopeful ending, in which family ties triumph over pack loyalty. Watch either of the above-mentioned titles, but then watch Near Dark. Next, watch Cursed, with Adrian Pasdar's TV brother, Milo Ventimiglia, as a sexually-confused teen jock caught in the middle of a werewolf rivalry.
Good little movie, a sleeper in it's day April 14, 2009
S. H. Wood (Valdosta, GA)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
A good movie, Vamps with a twist, Bills best acting since the terminator, You'll notice much of the Aliens cast in this.
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