Director Kathryn Bigelow (Point Break, Strange Days) was married to James Cameron around the time she made Near Dark, which is probably why three of his preferred actors appear here: Bill Paxton, Lance Henriksen, and Jenette Goldstein. At one point the main character walks past a theater which is playing Aliens. Semi-trucks, another Cameron staple, features prominently in the plot. Though that filmmaker’s fingerprints are all over this alternatively grimy and sexy vampire picture, it’s undeniably a Kathryn Bigelow film.
Caleb (Adrian Pasdar) is a southern boy who gives an attractive hitchhiker a ride. Her name is Mae (Jenny Wright) and the chemistry between her and Caleb is immediately apparent. Their necking quickly turns into an accidental bite on Caleb’s neck, which changes him into a vampire. This thrusts him into Mae’s world, which involves drifting from one town to another in order to procure fresh blood. Caleb’s worried father, played by Tim Thomerson (Trancers), scours the countryside for his missing son.
It turns out Mae belongs to an odd band of outlaw vampires who have some pretty clever (and pretty gruesome) methods of acquiring blood. Homer looks like a young boy, but Jesse (Henriksen) calls him “old man,” suggesting the eternal child is in fact the elder of the group. Then there’s Goldstein’s Diamondback, who’s kind of the irresponsible mother of the group, and Paxton’s Severen is the weirdest of the bunch. At one point Caleb asks Jesse how old he is. The response: “I fought for the south.” Following a perfectly calculated beat, he adds with a smile, “We lost.”
Due to Caleb’s reluctance to kill humans, he tries hard to win the acceptance of his vampire comrades. They keep giving him opportunities to prove himself. He keeps letting them down. Cowboys, it seems, just aren’t cut out to be vampires.
Near Dark is no more a horror movie than it is a western, providing the themes and violence we expect from both. The title doesn’t just describe the tone, but the cinematography as well. (You’re going to have a very bad time if you’re trying to watch this one in a bright room.) My favorite thing about Near Dark is how cool it is. There’s a punk rock energy about it and a downright contempt for convention. It’s one of my very favorite vampire flicks.
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