A young man, on a night on the town, finds himself getting a little too friendly with a vampire cowgirl who brings him into a life that he didn’t ask for. Caught in the lifestyle of a vampire by night the young man strives to get his old life back, the life where he’s alive.
Near Dark is a classic redneck vampire film directed by the sexy Kathryn Bigelow, who later went on to direct the classic action flick Point Break and the excellent sci-fi flick Strange Days.
Now as the story starts out we are introduced to our main character Caleb on his way into town to get a beer with his buds, which takes damn near forever, enough to run the credits during his drive which tells you how backwoods he is. Anyways when he gets to the bar he’s fucked with a little by two guys outside the bar then one of them turns him around just in glancing distance of the sexy little redneck Mae, played by Jenny Wright. She’s standing there looking over at Caleb eating an ice cream and just like most teenage boys do Caleb gets some nuts and walks over to see if he can lick her cone. So after a little flirting Mae asks Caleb for a ride home which, of course, he’s all about.
On the road a couple miles from where Mae is staying Caleb decides it’s now or never so he stops his pickup, turns it off and shoves the keys down his shirt pocket and refuses to move until Mae gives him a kiss, though the whole time before that she’s getting upset and telling him to hurry because the sun is coming up, which SHOULD have made him stop dead in his tracks right there, but you know kids and their hormones, so Mae jumps him and they start making out and then it happens. She gets a little nibble of him and freaks out, runs off leaving Caleb in the dust. Blue balled and upset Caleb tries to start his truck but what do you know, it won't start. So he gets out of his truck and starts walking home when suddenly the sun comes up and he is faced with a bigger problem. Seems he’s starting to sizzle a little, yeah, cooking in the sun. He’s a good 100 feet from his house, in fact his sister even sees him and calls his name out, and he’s SO damn close when out of the blue a RV comes rushing down the dirt road and pulls him in, and then we meet the group of misfit vampires that end up being Caleb’s biggest conflict in the movie. At first they threaten to kill him but after Mae jumps to his defense claming he’s “fangly” they decide to give him one chance to prove he’s worth keeping around.
 
Anyways from there they do a lot of driving, a lot of killing and a lot of arguing but in all the rest of the story primarily focuses on Caleb’s desire NOT to be a creature of the night and Mae’s obsession with feeding him from the wrist being that he’s too scared to dine on the real cuisine, humans.
Now considering I’m not a huge fan of rednecks, being that I’m from Texas and most people think we're all rednecks, which is bullshit, and that very few vampire movies really impress me, I’d have to say I really liked this movie. I think that some things about the movie didn’t make sense like the fact that a transfusion won’t change your fate and that it takes very little time for a vamp to fry, I still loved the story and the cast was excellent! Look for horror veteran Lance Henriksen in one of his best roles he did before going on to star in the Pumpkinhead movies.
Near Dark, if not a top shelf horror movie, deserves to be right on the next shelf, seeming to be the inspiration for many vampire movies in the future, though you might find it hard to tell. This movie is definitely worth owning.
It’s about what I’d expect from redneck vampires but I loved the story and the kill scenes were pretty damn cool, especially in the bar. I recommend this flick!
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ALTERNATIVE TITLE:
MOVIE YEAR: 1987
DIRECTOR: Kathryn Bigelow
WRITING CREDITS: Kathryn Bigelow, Eric Red
GENRE: Horror, Western
CAST: Jenny Wright, Lance Henriksen, Bill Paxton
COUNTRY: USA
RUNTIME: 94 min
RATING: 8/10
Near Dark Website/IMDB Click here
Near Dark Trailer Click here
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