Near Dark (1987)
1987 would see two vampire movies released, Near Dark and The Lost Boys, and while the latter would earn the money and the fan base, it is the former that won the respect of the critics and film buffs in the end. Released by a dying distribution company in DEG, (De Laurentiis Entertainment Group) whose financial woes forced an accelerated shooting schedule that hampered the production, Near Dark just didn’t have the benefit of good marketing or release strategy when it was available to the public, causing it to be removed from theaters shortly after it opened. Thanks to home video, it gained a cult following among many, and today, it is considered a small-scale cult favorite among lovers of the vampire genre films. It’s an altogether different kind of vampire film (indeed, there is no mention of “vampires” within the film itself, seeming to exist in a world that has no notion of them), fusing western styles with modern action pieces, forming a hybrid form of feminist (yet still quite muscular, as nearly all of Bigelow’s films tend to be) horror/thriller/action/romance/western that had never been seen before.
In a film that toys with upending gender and sexuality roles, Adrian Pasdar stars as Caleb Colton, a young and somewhat passive small-town guy in Oklahoma who has his eye set on a visiting mysterious boyish beauty named Mae (Wright). Caleb and Mae spend the night talking and flirting, but Mae has to make it home before the sun comes up, for reasons that aren’t too clear for Caleb. Before the end of the evening, Mae bites Caleb on the neck, although she doesn’t really drink his blood, setting forth a reaction in his body that makes him very strong and agile, fry up in direct sunlight, and crave human blood himself. Before Caleb can get home, he is “adopted” by his new family, a clan of immortals with the same condition he is in, although they aren’t taking too kindly to Mae’s decision to “turn” Caleb into one of them, especially since she must feed him from her own blood. Caleb doesn’t want to kill other humans like the others, but to be part of them, he finds he must, because he can’t survive on his own. Tensions flare in the group, as well as within Caleb himself, as to what the proper thing to do is.
The origin of Near Dark started with an idea between up-and-coming director Kathryn Bigelow (her first solo effort, after co-directing 1981’s The Loveless), who came into the world of filmmaking by way of art and painting, and up-and-coming screenwriter Eric Red, who penned The Hitcher just the year before, to make a Western. However, that genre was out of vogue at the time, with financing difficult to obtain without the clout of Clint Eastwood on board. Under the suggestion of James Cameron, they decided to mash their ideas up by combining it with another genre more in line with what audiences wanted to see at the time, namely, a horror film, though one still retaining its western roots at its core. It also encroaches into other territories, including gothic melodrama, part innocent and part erotic love story, intense action, and slick thrills. In preparation, Bigelow read Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” as well as Anne Rice’s “Interview with a Vampire” for inspiration. The choice to leave out the word “vampire” was deliberate, as they felt they were doing a reinvention of the genre, and didn’t want to get tied down to preconceived notions and the mythology of other properties where it might be expected that they have sharp fangs and turn into bats.
Despite her ideas and prior experience as a co-director, one of the producers was interested in purchasing her script, but he wasn’t as keen on attaching her as director. Bigelow stood her ground and said the script was off the table if she was not going to direct. After stewing on it for a full day, the producer agreed to the deal but said he reserved the right to replace her if he felt she didn’t know what she was doing. She was never replaced.
Near Dark is no masterpiece by any means, but it is ingenious within its genre, and definitely offers a new spin on a type of film that had long been cycled repetitively to the point of farce. What immediately sets Near Dark apart from other vampire films is that of solid character development. We see and recognize the need for the vampires to practice self-preservation, and yet, we also know that they are bad, not because they kill, but because they relish it, inventing new ways to entertain themselves with every slaughter. Meanwhile, the people that they kill aren’t just nameless fodder. Each scene is set up to show that there are great fear and tragedy involved in the killings, making such scenes as a bar scene where each patron and employee is slaughtered in turn frightening because we see the real terror in every victim’s eyes.
Near Dark marked the second film for writer-director Kathryn Bigelow, a friend (and future wife, briefly) of director James Cameron. The Cameron influence can be seen not only in the action pieces, but also in the cast, as three of the vampires (Henriksen, Paxton, and Goldstein) are actors featured in Cameron’s film from the year before, Aliens, as well as all being in a Terminator film. Michael Biehn was also offered a role (Jesse), but declined because he didn’t understand the script (he claims he was probably drunk at the time); Biehn would go on to say that he regretted turning the role down). Despite the screenwriting credits, Bigelow encouraged her cast to come up with their own backstories for their characters and to improvise their dialogue as they saw fit to accommodate those narratives.
Bigelow would also direct a James Cameron script in 1995 with Strange Days. Trivia: an homage is paid to Aliens by being the movie that is featured on the billboard of a movie theater in town, though this may cause one to wonder how they aren’t recognized as the actors in the popular film among the people they meet.
It’s a stylish film, with a synth soundtrack by Tangerine Dream that keeps the tone modern, even if the tempo goes for a slightly older vibe. Near Dark benefits from a strong, motley set of actors, who each seem to be different than the other, but that aspect works well for the movie, considering that everyone comes from different generations, despite their age on the outside (the character of Homer, played by Joshua Miller, is quite old, but looks like a ten-year-old boy). The types range from benign and kind, such as main love interest Mae, and downright scary, especially Bill Paxton in his psychotically crazed performance as the toxically obnoxious Severen, who relishes his time to commit gory kills. It refreshingly shows that, even among a vampire clan, the personalities are every bit as varied as a random collection of people would be, even though they can select their own humans to turn and become part of their family.
As much as I enjoy Near Dark in many aspects, not all of it seems to work for me. It is a bit stiff at times in terms of the character interactions and staging, with the main stars, Pasdar and Wright, not the most interesting characters to follow. The notion that vampirism might also have a cure is also presented in a fashion that is too convenient, and one that surely would have been attempted by this clan long before. It’s also a film with big ideas that don’t quite make sense to ponder with any sort of scrutiny, including the notion that they could continue a killing spree night after night across America without being caught for decades, if not centuries, seems a stretch, especially when you see how careless and open they can be in the hunt for fresh blood. There is also a scene set in the dead of night, followed by the brightness of daylight a few minutes later, unable to properly give the passage of time necessary to avoid taking viewers out of the movie to contemplate the contrivances in its story.
Near Dark was shot with a budget of about $5-6 million dollars, but would fail to catch fire at the box office, barely earning over half of that back in return theatrically. Part of the reason is the lack of theaters showing the film, as DEG couldn’t roll it out to many theaters, especially with its depictions of sadistic violence perpetrated by its family of serial killers we’re meant to sympathize with to a certain extent. It also came too late to the party, as there was already a popular vampire film released earlier in 1987, The Lost Boys, which played in over twice as many theaters as close as a month before the release date of Near Dark.
The violence within the film also rankled censors in world markets, especially in Canada, where ts brutal violence almost didn’t allow it to be released, and in Sweden, where they wanted to chop out lengthy sequences of violence, totaling about nine minutes (including the entire centerpiece of the film, involving a bar full of rednecks whose necks definitely get redder) that would have seen the film make little sense. At the time of its release, it was stated that this was the most violent film ever directed by a woman up to that point, which furthered the shock value tag.
What was most objectionable, however, wasn’t just that it was violent, but that it made the lifestyle of the killers alluring, living free of morality and governed by fulfilling their own lusts, which, when sated prolongs their lives indefinitely. However, as Bigelow explores, there is also loneliness to life that makes it a wretched existence, and a great deal of sadness. It’s not a judgmental film, but in the end, the clan has to deal with allowing a member into their fold that possesses something they lost long ago: a sense of right and wrong. It is that exploration of the vampire as a native, in this Western that allows a cowboy (complete with horse riding and cowboy hat) into the tribe of Indians driven by their primal instincts and celebration of the savageness order found within nature, who live beyond the code brought in by the Christian ‘settlers’ who tamed the wild lands to live in their communal belief in only one traditional way of life, full of the expectation of subconscious repression and moral obligation.
While the story takes place in a short amount of time and isn’t particularly complicated, one gets the sense of Bigelow’s artistic background, applying narrative textures beyond the dense fog, dangerous plays of light, and the cloaking shadow of night to her moving mosaic set to Tangerine Dream’s hypnotic, synthesized score the same way she might a picture on the canvas, allowing different viewers to see, hear, and perceive different things from the exact same vantage point. it is for this reason that the film has achieved strong cult status among those who appreciate films beyond its intended genre. The popularity of the film among the cinema-literate would see an interest in producing a remake around 2006, but plans for that were canceled in 2008 due to the similarities with the rabidly popular vampire franchise Twilight, which was released in film form that year.
Although vampire flick lovers will most likely enjoy Near Dark, I can attest that this is also a film for viewers that usually aren’t into these kinds of films. The themes underneath are universal, about a boy who must choose between family and love, and a girl who must do the same in turn, both opting for different conclusions, and yet, both doing what’s right in their own way. Horror junkies are probably already familiar, but for those who typically ignore that section of cinema, Near Dark proves worth going out of your comfort zone to experience.
Qwipster’s rating: A
MPAA Rated: R for disturbing images, violence, some gore, sensuality, and language
Running Time: 95 min.
Cast: Adrian Pasdar, Jenny Wright, Lance Henriksen, Bill Paxton, Jenette Goldstein, Tim Thomerson, Joshua John Miller, Marcie Leeds, James LeGros, Theresa Randle (cameo)
Director: Kathryn Bigelow
Screenplay: Kathryn Bigelow, Eric Red