Best Pictures #124: 2025 (98th) Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee: Sinners

by A.J.

Best Pictures #124: 2025 (98th) Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee

Sinners

"A sinner like me, I can't ask for more than that."

I used to say that a genuinely good horror movie only comes along every 5 years or so. Thankfully, the last few years have proven me wrong. 2025 was a good year for horror movies, but the clear stand out was writer-director Ryan Coogler's Sinners. It was a box office and critical hit, a rare combination for a horror movie. It is also rare for the Academy Awards to recognize a movie released in the first half of the year. It is even rarer for the Academy to recognize horror movies. So, it is very remarkable and exciting that Sinners not only received Oscar nominations, but received 16 nominations including Best Picture, the most of any film in Academy history. This is fitting because Sinners is a most remarkable and special film. 

In his 5th collaboration with Ryan Coogler (after Creed and the Black Panther movies to name a few), Michael B. Jordan plays gangster twins Smoke and Stack in 1932 Mississippi. After 7 years in Chicago they return to their hometown loaded with cash, Irish beer, Italian wine, and a secret trunk to set up a juke joint, have a good time, and watch the money flow in. They reconnect with friends and lovers, not all of whom are excited to see Smoke and Stack return. They also take in their teenage cousin, Sammie (Miles Caton), nicknamed Preacherboy, who is supremely gifted at the guitar and playing the blues, which sets him at odds with his stern preacher father. 

There are two halves to Sinners and any film with this kind of structure, especially one where the tone and even genre shift drastically, risks being uneven or a letdown in one way or another. From Dusk Til Dawn is a perfect example of this: the general consensus is that the first half of the movie with the gangster brothers is superior to the vampire action second half. The two halves are so distinct that they seemingly have little to do with each other and many people wished the whole movie was just about the gangster brothers. Sinners does not suffer from this problem. It does not feel uneven or disjointed. All of the character work and relationships of the first half of the movie are not thrown out for the second half. The actions and fates of the characters are informed by everything that has come before. Coogler’s Oscar nominated original screenplay never goes on autopilot. 

The marketing was secretive about just what specific type of horror faced the characters. Yet, it was never meant to be a secret, and certainly isn’t now, that this is a vampire movie. The film itself only speaks of evil and devil in vague terms at first. Aside from some quick imagery at the beginning, nothing supernatural happens for the first 40 minutes, but Sinners is not hiding that it is a horror movie. It takes its time getting to the horror but it does not waste that time. 

A prologue tells us how there can be people so gifted at making music that it conjures spirits of the past and the future and it can also attract evil. Sammie “Preacherboy” is such a person. The film's signature sequence of has Preacherboy’s music fulfilling the promise of the prologue in a dazzling and transcendent scene that should not work, that would be silly and pretentious in a lesser movie, but all of the right notes are hit in just the right way and the result is movie magic. 

Preacherboy is also the lynchpin between the story of the brothers and their nightclub and the assault of vampires who are drawn by his music. The mysterious party crashers are led by Remmick (Jack O'Connell), who also plays and enjoys music and speaks about equality and unity, about relieving pain and saving people. The best villains never see themselves as villains but Remmick only barely conceals his sinister and monstrous nature. More than victims and blood, he seeks to consume an entire person and their gifts and background and culture. The vampires have a collective mind, but it is clear that Remmick’s clan is not a round table.

Michael B. Jordan makes playing twins seem easy. It helps that they are dressed similarly but distinctly (Smoke wears blue; Stack wears red) and after their introduction they spend time apart allowing their personalities to grow. Jordan’s performance is what distinguishes the twins. It is no surprise he has earned a Best Actor Oscar nomination. It is also no surprise that the other standout performance comes from Delroy Lindo as Delta Slim, a drunken blues musician whose drunkenness and weary face show the pain and tribulations he has endured. Lindo has earned a Supporting Actor nomination, surprisingly the first of his long and impressive career. 

Sinners fits nicely under the pretentious term “elevated horror” that gets applied to arthouse horror films that receive awards and are liked by serious, scholarly critics. This is an “elevated horror” movie in the same way that Leonard Maltin describes the Astaire/Rogers musicals of the 1930’s as escapism that elevates the soul. The truth is that Sinners is a great movie whether you want to analyze it for themes and subtext or want to watch a tense, bloody vampire movie. Ryan Coogler made a horror movie that exceeds all expectations, as a horror fan I can’t ask for more than that. 

Sinners is streaming on HBOmax.

Nominees: Zinzi Coogler, Sev Ohanian, Ryan Coogler

Director: Ryan Coogler Screenplay: Ryan Coogler Cast: Michael B. Jordan, Hailee Steinfeld, Miles Caton, Jack O'Connell, Wunmi Mosaku, Delroy Lindo Production Company: Proximity Media Distributor: Warner Bros. Pictures Release Date: April 18th, 2025 Total Nominations: 16, including Best Picture Other Nominations: Actor-Michael B. Jordan; Director-Ryan Coogler; Original Screenplay-Ryan Coogler; Supporting Actor-Delroy Lindo; Supporting Actress-Wunmi Mosaku; Cinematography-Autumn Durald Arkapaw; Production Design-Hannah Beachler (production designer), Monique Champagne (set decorator); Costume Design-Ruth E. Carter; Editing-Michael P. Shawver; Makeup and Hairstyling-Ken Diaz, Michael Fontaine, Shunika Terry; Original Score-Ludwig Göransson; Original Song-"I Lied to You", music and lyrics by-Ludwig Göransson, Raphael Saadiq; Sound-Chris Welcker, Benjamin A. Burtt, Felipe Pacheco, Brandon Proctor, Steve Boeddeker; Visual Effects-Michael Ralla, Espen Nordahl, Guido Wolter, Donnie Dean; Casting-Francine Maisler

13 Nights of Shocktober: Interview With the Vampire

 by A.J.

Night 6: Vampire Night

“I’m going to give you the choice I never had.”

Interview With the Vampire

There are only a handful of vampire movies that are so influential that they change the way people think about the undead creature and how they are portrayed in future movies. Among them are F.W. Murnau’s silent classic Nosferatu, Tod Browning’s Dracula (1931) starring Bela Lugosi, Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992), and the 1994 big screen adaptation of Anne Rice’s novel Interview With the Vampire.

Anne Rice’s novel, first published in 1975, not only had the vampire as the main character, but the vampire wasn’t a villain. These vampires have complex personalities: moody, brooding, and profoundly sad. The novel and movie are best described as drama rather than horror; the characters undergoing an existential crisis just happen to be vampires. 

As the title would suggest, the story is structured as an interview taking place in the present day (early 1990’s) between a radio journalist (Christian Slater) and a mysterious pale man who claims he is a vampire. Perhaps the journalist is putting together the most macabre episode of This American Life. The vampire is Louis (Brad Pitt) and he tells the story of his life as a vampire. This was a major role for Pitt that would help launch him to superstardom, but it is Tom Cruise as the charismatic, dastardly vampire Lestat who gives the standout performance. The casting of Tom Cruise as Lestat caused uproar and controversy at the time, which was quite a feat in the pre-internet era. His movie star persona seemed at odds with the character of Lestat who is more or less a villain in this story and anti-hero in later Rice novels. Rice was very publicly against the casting of Tom Cruise. She went as far as advocating for fans of the book to boycott the movie and saying that casting Cruise as Lestat was like casting Edward G. Robinson as Rhett Butler. However, after seeing the finished film she would publicly retract her protests and even took out a full page ad in the New York Times praising Cruise’s performance. In Cruise’s career, this performance really does stand out. It’s one of the few times he's played a villain and one of the few times he’s really gone broad with a performance, which is just what the movie needs. Lestat shows the appeal of being a vampire: he embraces having no remorse, overindulging in luxury and the superiority he feels as an immortal. Pitt’s Louis bears the weight of conscience and remorse and the disadvantages of immortality. Each character is overbearing in their own way, but since Lestat is the more lively of the pair his impatience with Louis feels surprisingly welcome, and adds some humor.

In a moment of weakness Louis attacks and feeds on a small girl and Lestat turns 12 year-old Claudia into a vampire child. Kirsten Dunst’s performance as Claudia is brilliant, proof of her innate abilities as an actress. They form a vampire family and these scenes are amusing in a dark comedy sort of way. These happy times are short lived and Louis and Claudia leave for Paris in search of other vampires and answers to their questions about their own existence.

There is a strong and blatant streak of homoeroticism throughout the film between Louis and Lestat and later between Louis and the old world vampire Armand (Antonio Banderas). A newer adaptation would explore this more, in fact, the recent TV series, very loosely based on the book, does just that. However, here the subtext is so loud that a more explicit or direct portrayal does not seem necessary. It’s obvious that Louis and Lestat are in a relationship, however toxic. When Lestat turns Claudia into a vampire it comes across like having a child to save a failing marriage; this turns out to be a mistake for both humans and vampires. 

There is a fair amount of violence and horror effects, but because of the overall tone of the movie they hit differently than in a straightforward horror movie. They are usually punctuated by humor or sadness. Only in the climax, which almost feels like an action scene, are the horror effects played for shock. Special effects master Stan Winston (whose other credits Terminator 2, The Monster Squad, Batman Returns, and Jurassic Park) created the vampire effects and makeup. When Claudia attempts to murder Lestat by poisoning him and slitting his throat, Winston and the effects team built an emaciated animatronic Tom Cruise that writhes dying on the ground. This effect remains impressive even today. 

This is a brilliant movie worthy of the lasting influence it has had on vampire stories and horror in general. You can watch it with a horror hesitant viewer since it is more of a drama than outright horror. Thanks to the well-played, deep emotions on display it has a great effect on a wide swath of people. No matter how many other versions or remakes, even if they are good, Interview With the Vampire will stand alone, unchanging and forever captivating.

Interview With the Vampire is available to stream on Max and free on Tubi.

13 Nights of Shocktober: Mark of the Vampire

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. So, for the days leading up Halloween I’ll be posting some horror movie recommendations to help you celebrate Shocktober.

Night 1: Vampire Night 

"The vampire. He is still somewhere within this house."

Mark of the Vampire

If you’ve seen the Universal Studios 1931 classic Dracula enough times, consider the 1935 film Mark of the Vampire for a change of pace. Many things about Mark of the Vampire are similar to Dracula, beginning with the director and vampire: Todd Browning and Bela Lugosi, respectively. Aside from Lugosi playing a vampiric count who lives in a castle, there is also the character of the eccentric occult expert, Professor Zelin, who is similar to Dracula’s Professor Van Helsing. As many similarities as there are to Dracula, this is actually a remake of the silent film London After Midnight, which Browning also directed. MGM was known for star studded prestige movies, not for horror movies and with Mark of the Vampire they were no doubt trying to recreate Universal’s success with the genre. This would explain the copycat elements, which are not as irksome as they might seem. Mark of the Vampire is still very enjoyable and its entertainment value is its own.

After an aristocrat is found murdered with two holes on his neck, both his friend and his doctor believe he has been killed by a vampire but Inspector Neumann (Lionel Atwell) believes something else is at play. When the aristocrat’s daughter, Irena (Elizabeth Allan), seems to be the next victim, the eccentric Professor Zelin (Lionel Barrymore) is called in to help. It takes a while for Zelin to enter the story (just like Van Helsing in Dracula) but once he does it is clear that Lionel Barrymore is the real star and he becomes the movie’s driving force. There is not much “action” in the modern sense but Barrymore’s dialogue delivery conveys an urgency that creates its own kind of excitement. Most people today know Lionel Barrymore as mean, old, corrupt Mr. Potter from Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life, so it’s interesting to see him as a take-charge hero.

Unlike Dracula, the vampires (Lugosi as Count Mora and Carroll Borland as his “daughter” Luna) are more side characters with the story’s focus on the human characters. Lugosi approached the role of Count Mora as a different take on his signature Dracula. Count Mora is nearly completely silent and comes across as more of a monster, lacking the sinister allure of Lugosi’s Dracula.

There is plenty of old-fashioned spooky atmosphere thanks to the frightened villagers, the sets, especially the abandoned castle where Count Mora and Luna reside, and fog, lots and lots of fog. Of course, many of the effects are dated (fake bats have never looked good in any era), but they are just what you want to see in a horror movie from the 1930’s.

There is a plot twist late in the film which might cause some eye rolls or frustration but it works in large part because it still leads to a satisfying conclusion. Also, it is a trick played on one particular character, not the audience, and helps solve the mystery. Like many classic era horror movies, Mark of the Vampire is just over an hour long but packs in so much it feels like a full-length feature.

Mark of the Vampire airs on TCM Tuesday, October 20^th at 7:45AM CT.

13 Nights of Shocktober: Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979)

 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. So, in the days leading up Halloween I’ll be posting some horror movie recommendations to help you celebrate Shocktober.

Night 6: Vampire Night

“Can you imagine enduring centuries, and each day experiencing the same futilities?”

Nosferatu the Vampyre

Nosferatu the Vampyre (or, Nosferatu: Phantom of the Night) is German director Werner Herzog’s not quite remake of F.W. Murnau’s 1922 silent horror masterpiece. Murnau was not able to secure the rights to Bram Stoker’s novel, Dracula, so he changed the character names and locations and some plot points to avoid legal troubles. Herzog does not consider his film a remake, but he follows the structure of Murnau’s film more than Stoker’s novel. Werner Herzog is the kind of filmmaker incapable of making a simple genre picture. His version of Nosferatu is not straightforward horror, but it is haunting and transfixing.

The plot is familiar enough. Jonathan Harker (Bruno Ganz), a young real estate attorney, is sent to Transylvania to oversee the purchase of an estate, close to his own home in Wismar, Germany, by the mysterious Count Dracula.  The Count falls in love with a picture of Jonathan’s wife, Lucy (Isabelle Adjani), imprisons Jonathan, and sets off to claim the young bride as his own.

Klaus Kinski plays Count Dracula as a forlorn creature of menace and despair. His look is the same as Count Orlok, played by Max Schreck, in Murnau’s Nosferatu, one of the most iconic images in film history, instantly recognizable whether you've seen the film or not. His skin is bone white, with a head like an animated skull, fingers like slender claws, and two pronounced fangs are front and center in his mouth. The vampire in Murnau’s film was only a monster, but here he is presented as a pitiful, melancholy creature. This Dracula has no brides or servants. He tells Harker that there are worse things than death, like enduring centuries repeating the same futile nights. In Wismar, he tells Lucy that he wishes to partake of what she and Jonathan share.

Count Dracula is a supernatural creature but still seems to be tied into Herzog’s fascination with the unrelenting and overwhelming force that nature has over humankind (see Aguirre, the Wrath of God, Fitzcarraldo, and Grizzly Man for more intense and unrelenting nature). Harker’s journey through ageless mountains and canyons to Dracula’s castle is an extended sequence set to Richard Wagner’s prelude to Das Rheingold, a choice that enhances the natural landscape’s sense of beauty and awe and foreboding. Hidden deep in that intimidating landscape is Dracula.

Bram Stoker’s novel has Harker’s wife, Mena, as a perfect Victorian era woman that needs to be preserved and protected. Here, Harker’s wife, Lucy, mostly absent from the first half of the film, becomes the main character in the second half and is the only person willing to take action to stop Dracula and the plague spreading rats he has unleashed on the city. This version of Lucy is an agent not only for her own destiny but the whole city.

Herzog and cinematographer Jörg Schmidt-Reitwein use a handheld camera for many scenes, adding a degree of uncomfortable authenticity and realism to the supernatural story. Unlike the Universal Studios and Hammer productions of Dracula, these locations and sets look and feel real and lived in. Everything from the chairs and silverware to Dracula’s macabre clock feel like real, functional things and imply that he can exist outside of fantasy.

Watching this film in 2021, it is especially horrifying that Dracula’s arrival in Wismar doesn’t just mean the arrival of a vampire. Dracula also brings a huge swarm of bubonic plague spreading rats. A scene of Lucy wandering through plague-ridden Wismar has her encountering a group of people in their finest clothes having their last supper; one tells her that all of the guests are infected with the plague so they are enjoying what they have while they can. The procession of coffins through the town square is like an endless macabre parade.

Herzog was tasked with producing two versions of this film: one in German and one in English, for international markets. After a scene was done in German it would be shot again with the same actors speaking English. Herzog has said that he views the German language version as more authentic since it was his attempt to link classic and modern German filmmaking. There is obviously some dubbing for the minor characters but, overall, I got the same effect from both versions. I recommend this film in general, but I highly recommend it for an atmospheric but not-so-scary night.

13 Nights of Shocktober: Byzantium

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. So, in the days leading up Halloween I’ll be posting some horror movie recommendations to help you celebrate Shocktober.


Night 11: Vampire Night
“When I was born there were only seven planets.”
Byzantium

Director Neil Jordan’s approach to horror avoids sensationalism and lurid indulgence even in moments of violence and terror. His surreal dark fantasy film, The Company of Wolves, a retelling of Little Red Riding Hood based on the works of author Angela Carter, is one of my absolute favorite horror films, and, in my opinion, the best werewolf movie. His adaptation of Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire is melancholy and overwrought at times, but memorable for its portrayal of vampires as sympathetic and pitiful creatures. Jordan’s best horror films have two things in common: they examine well known movie monsters from a different perspective while still being effective horror movies, and they are based on the work of female authors. Byzantium, written by Moira Buffini based on her play, A Vampire Story, gives us, once again, a different kind of vampire movie about a different kind of vampire, and, again, one of my absolute favorite horror movies.

“Humans need to tell stories. It’s a fundamental and uniting thing,” says the teacher of Eleanor Webb, a teenager whose aloof demeanor suggests a much older soul. Eleanor is in fact over two hundred years old. She is a vampire, of sorts. She doesn’t sleep in a coffin and can be out in daylight. She has no fangs but an unnaturally sharp fingernail to puncture the wrist or neck of a victim to drink their blood. Eleanor, played wonderfully by Saorise Ronan, may not be human but she longs to tell her story. She writes her life story down then tears up the pages and scatters them in the wind. Eleanor’s mother, Clara (Gemma Atherton), also a vampire, hides a dark secret about their origin and why they live like nomads, fleeing at a moment’s notice. Eleanor is tired of telling made up stories about herself and her mother to the people they encounter. She wants to tell someone the truth. So, she tells us.

Saorise Ronan has always possessed a preternatural acting talent and it is on full display here. She does a great job of playing a weary old soul; someone who despite her young face conveys a profound wistfulness. Still, Eleanor, not knowing all of the facts, makes foolish mistakes that teenagers often make. She hides truths in plain sight, saying things like “She got bitten by a vampire” or that she has been playing piano for 200 years, so plainly that you wonder how people could think she is joking.

Gemma Atherton as Eleanor’s mother, Clara, is very protective of their secrecy, which their lives depend on. She preys on lascivious predatory men that would take advantage of her, taking their cash and blood instead. Atherton plays the different layers of Clara with great believability. She is a determined survivor, vengeful, protective, cold, and also kind. Atherton runs after the men that have kidnapped her daughter with an unquestionable urgency and fierceness that only a mother could possess.

Clara has the opposite approach to immortality from her daughter. She possesses all of the lively youthfulness that her daughter lacks. Clara’s big mistake is one that only a parent could make: she thinks that not telling Eleanor the whole story will protect her, but instead it leads Eleanor into danger. We see in flashbacks to the late 18th and early 19th centuries that as a young girl Clara met two British navy officers: Darvell (Sam Riley), a young officer that shows her kindness and Ruthven (Johnny Lee Miller), an older officer that forces her into prostitution. We also learn that, unbeknownst to Eleanor, she and her mother are being pursued by a vampire brotherhood determined to kill them for violating the brotherhood's code (i.e. not being men).

Moira Buffini’s story is greatly influenced by the gothic atmosphere and language of the stories written by Lord Byron and Dr. John Polidori during the “haunted summer” of 1816 as part of a contest with Mary Shelley. The vibe of Byzantium is indeed best described as modern gothic. Lines of dialogue like “Does the light offend you?,” “Knowledge is a fatal thing,” and “She was morbidly sexy” could be ridiculous but are delivered with intrigue and casual confidence by major and minor cast members alike. 

Byzantium was released in 2012 in the wake of the angsty teen vampire-romance Twilight movies and suffered unfairly from comparisons at the time. There is a romantic subplot as Eleanor is drawn to a meek but persistent young man recovering from leukemia played by Caleb Landry Jones. Eleanor certainly qualifies as an angsty teen longing for a connection and disillusioned with the way she lives, but having lived in such a way for so long, conveyed convincingly by Ronan’s performance, gives serious weight to her emotions.

This is a brilliantly made film with poetry in its words, imagery, and music. There are a few bloody and graphic scenes but overall Byzantium has an exquisite visual aesthetic. You could pause this movie at any given moment and have a beautiful still image. The locations feel lived in but not gritty. The look of every scene is muted but not dour. This is a great horror film to watch with people that don’t like graphic or intense horror. The violent scenes are few and far between and, so, more powerful when they do occur. At certain moments the flowing blood even accentuates the poetic tone of a scene. Like The Company of Wolves, Byzantium has an ethereal, dreamlike tone. It is a dark fairytale that leaves you lying awake, haunted but deeply satisfied. I am fascinated by the “haunted summer” of 1816 that inspired Mary Shelley to write Frankenstein, changing the course of science-fiction and horror forever, and John Polidori to write The Vampyre: A Tale, allegedly the first story to portray a vampire as a sophisticated seducer. Byzantium also feels like a story that also would have been inspired by that dreary haunted summer.

13 Nights of Shocktober: Rabid

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. So, in the days leading up Halloween I’ll be posting some scary movie recommendations to help you celebrate Shocktober.

Night 9: Cronenberg Night

“So, don’t let anybody bite you.”

Rabid (1977)

David Cronenberg’s second feature film, Rabid, along with his controversial debut feature, Shivers (aka They Came From Within), established him as a distinct and creative voice in horror cinema and helped make his name synonymous with the body horror subgenre. Rabid shares a lot of common ground with Shivers. Both involve a manmade infection or plague that spreads through bodily contact and causes the veneer of civilization to crumble. Both involve a “mad,” or at least overconfident, scientist experimenting on a woman’s body, causing it to become monstrous. In Rabid, however, the woman that has been experimented on is the main character, and she comes across as more of a victim than a monster.

After a bad motorcycle accident, Rose is rushed to the nearest medical facility where an experimental skin graft is performed, even though the doctor is aware of the potentially dangerous side effects. One side effect the doctor did not foresee is Rose growing a bloodsucking needlelike appendage that shoots out of a slit in her armpit so she can feed an uncontrollable bloodlust. Rose becomes a sort of vampire, but the people she feeds on become like ravenous zombies attacking anyone they encounter.

Rose is played by Marilyn Chambers, the adult film star most famous for the cult classic porn film Behind the Green Door. Chambers was looking to transition to mainstream movies, and the producers decided to cash in on her notorious fame. As a legitimate actress, Chambers gives a sympathetic and believable performance as the tragic Rose. Rose oscillates between embracing being a bloodthirsty predator and fighting her monstrous desires, and Chambers does a good job portraying both sides of the character. There is a complexity to her role that is not typically given to female characters in horror movies. If there is a stiff, underwritten character, it is Rose’s boyfriend, Hart (Frank Moore), who spends most of the movie being confused or receiving exposition. In any other horror movie, Hart would be the hero and Rose would just be the monster.

Rabid does not oversexualize Marilyn Chambers. There are nude scenes of Chambers, but there are more scenes where Rabid uses the Marilyn Chambers persona to subvert lurid audience expectations. When Rose is on the prowl, she exudes a seductive aura. Her encounters with her prey (mostly lascivious, predatory men) appear as though they will lead to sex, but they end abruptly and very un-erotically.

Rabid makes such good use of its resources that it does not feel like a low budget movie. There are impressive car crashes, chaotic crowd scenes, shoot outs, and even soldiers and tanks in the streets of Montreal. The special makeup effects have a dated look (the blood is that certain shade of bright orange-red that was popular in 1970’s horror films), but they are still effective. Rabid is not as gory or effects heavy as Cronenberg’s later movies, but a more squeamish viewer would still probably have to avert their eyes more than a few times.

There is more to Rabid than some would be willing to give it credit for. Cronenberg packs in themes of science run amok, how society responds to a crisis, and women losing body autonomy. In the world of Cronenberg, supernatural occurrences stem from radical scientific discoveries and are accepted by the characters. The challenge characters in a Cronenberg movie face isn’t convincing skeptics, but in how they will deal with an extraordinary problem. Whether you dive into the subtext and themes or just want to enjoy a hybrid vampire-zombie movie, Rabid will make for a thrilling and interesting Shocktober viewing.

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.