NearDark

Near Dark (1987)

Caleb Colton meets a beautiful and mysterious young woman, Mae, who then bites him and turns him into a vampire. Soon he finds himself stumbling through a field with the bright daylight slowly burning him to a crisp. Just in the knick of time a RV comes driving through the field and motley crew of vampires, of which his mysterious woman is a part, nab him and zoom off with him. Caleb soon finds that Jesse Hooker (the vampire groups leader), Diamondback (Jesse's girl), Severen (Cocky vampire badass) and Homer (kid turned old vampire) are not too happy with their new edition. Jesse gives Caleb a week to prove himself by making his first kill or else they will kill him. In the meantime, Caleb’s father and little sister begin to search for him to bring him home.

This is a good old gritty vampire movie. There's nothing glittery or poncey about it. The vampires in it are dirty, savage predators who live on the underside of society. They are more interested in surviving and killing than in artsy pursuits and seem to be trying to stay off the radar as much as possible. Another thing that I think is worth mentioning are some of the scenes where it shows the vampires doing practical survival stuff, like sun proofing a van with tin foil, duct tape and spray paint. The acting is good and it has several well-known actors in it. It's well written and has several good lines throughout it such as...

Homer: Do you have any idea what it's like to be a big man on the inside and have a small body on the outside?

Severen: Do you have any idea what it's like to hear about it every night?

And...

Bartender: What do you people want?

Jesse: Just a couple moments of your time, about the same duration as the rest of your life.

My favorite scene in the movie is the one in which that last exchange took place. The vampire group goes into a bar, starts some shit and then proceeds to just kill everyone. It's nice and brutal. There are some ok practical special gore effects, but not as many as most movies of this type go for. I like it because it puts more of an emphasis on the acting and the vibes given off by the characters than on the effects.

This is one of the better old vampire movies out there. If you haven't seen it before it's definitely worth watching, especially if you’re a fan of bloodsuckers.

3 out of 4

Reviewed by Scott Schwarzwalder