13 Nights of Shocktober: Near Dark (1987)

by A.J.

This is my favorite time of year, second only to Christmas. Autumn has arrived, the weather is cooling down, and October becomes the month-long celebration of scary movies called Shocktober. There are a lot of horror movies out there, but as a genre, horror is still looked down upon by some mainstream critics and moviegoers. It doesn’t help that, admittedly, there are so few quality horror movies made but, like comedy, it’s a very difficult and subjective genre. So, in the days leading up Halloween I’ll be posting some recommendations for scary movies to help you celebrate Shocktober.

Night 10: Bill Paxton Memorial Night III/Vampire Night

“Howdy. I'm gonna separate your head from your shoulders. Hope you don't mind none.”
Near Dark (1987)

The DVD rerelease cover art for Near Dark has the male and female leads airbrushed to like characters from Twilight, but don’t be fooled. Though there is a romance, Near Dark is a full bore action-horror vampire western. The original poster for Near Dark shows only Bill Paxton, skin burned black and covered in dirt and blood with shafts of light bursting through his body. It’s a much more accurate promise of what’s in store for the audience.

After a night out at a bar, small town cowboy, Caleb (Adrian Pasdar), meets a mysterious young woman with short hair. She says that the light that just left the stars will take a billion years to get to Earth and when it does, she’ll still be here. As dawn approaches she becomes nervous and when Caleb won’t drive her home right away, she bites him and runs away. When the sun comes up Caleb becomes sick and starts to smolder and burn. An RV speeds by and pulls him inside.

The mysterious young woman is Mae (Jenny Wright). She’s one of a motley crew of Oklahoma vampires. The gang is led by Lance Henriksen as Jesse, who is so old he says he fought for the South (“We lost.”). Jenette Goldstein plays his longtime companion, Diamondback. Joshua Miller plays Homer, an aged vampire trapped in the body of a child. Rounding out the monstrous family is Bill Paxton as Severen, the flamboyant and ultra-violent loose cannon. They reluctantly take in Caleb but pressure him to make a kill. Meanwhile, Caleb’s father and local law enforcement are on their trail.

There is not as much bloodsucking in Near Dark as there is bloodshed. Necks are bitten but most of the violence comes from shootouts and Severen’s creative killing techniques. The gang takes Caleb to a bar to make a kill and we watch and each vampire kill a patron. It’s a prolonged and bloody scene but is incredibly engaging and totally dominated by Bill Paxton. The scene plays out not like a group of vampires preying on victims, but a group of psychos entertaining themselves. This may sound like a torture porn-esque scene, but it is not full of dread and despair. The blood and gore are not the point of the scene; it’s about seeing what these vampires are capable of and the intense danger that surrounds Caleb and Mae.

There’s really not much to the character of Caleb or the romance plot between him and Mae, but the eccentric and violent vampire family are incredibly interesting and entertaining. Paxton swings for the rafters with his performance and lands every time. He’s easily the most memorable part of Near Dark and it’s no wonder he’s the poster for movie. Lance Henriksen’s performance is as subtle and lowkey as Paxton’s is loud and centerstage, Since Hendriksen plays his character as a quiet menace, he and Paxton balance each other.

Near Dark is more influenced by The Wild Bunch than any vampire movie. It has the look of gritty westerns of the 1970’s. Everything looks and feels run down and lived in, even the character’s clothes and hair. The cinematography by Adam Greenberg gives the film an excellent dusty look. For being a movie about vampires, this movie has a very bright, sun-drenched look. In every daylight scene the sunlight feels intense, like you could almost feel the heat and there is dust or smoke in nearly every shot. The score by Tangerine Dream gives this unusual vampire movie a unique, mysterious feel. All of these elements come together most excellently under Katherine Bigelow’s direction. Her sole entry into the horror genre gave us a most noteworthy and entertaining vampire movie.