Vampire Flicks: Near Dark (1987)

Looking back on Bravo's 100 Scariest Movie Moments, there weren't a lot of vampire movies on it; they had the original Bela Lugosi Dracula and Nosferatu, but little else. Granted, they didn't have that many werewolf movies, either, but they still had the major classics of The Wolf Man, The Howling, and An American Werewolf in London, while on the vampire side of things, they didn't have any of the Hammer movies (not a single one, vampire or otherwise, I might add), Fright Night, The Lost Boys, Interview With The Vampire, and so on. In fact, looking at the list, they only had three altogether, with Near Dark being the third. That also happened to be where I first learned of this film, when it was featured at #64, and its segment started up with Lance Henriksen talking about how Bill Paxton told him that he knew about a great script he described as "a vampire western." Like just about anyone, Henriksen's reaction was rather derisive, as he told Paxton, "Oh, come on, Bill. For God's sake," since, "It sounded like the worst movie I ever heard of." But, as he continued, "And then, I got the script and read it, and I... I couldn't believe it." The talking heads went on to describe how Henriksen played the leader of this group of vampires who ride around in a van with the windows blacked out, while Henriksen himself said, "We felt like we didn't attack anybody that didn't have it coming." The actual scene they showed, of course, was the bar scene, specifically when Bill Paxton's character, Severen, stomps along atop the bar and slices the bartender's neck open with his spurs. And the segment ended with Henriksen talking about how Paxton freaked people out by going up to them while wearing the really gory makeup he sports after getting hit by the tanker trunk during the climax, telling them that he was in a really bad accident and that the others were way worse off. And with that, like just about every other movie featured in that special that I'd never seen or heard of, Near Dark went onto the list I was making of stuff I needed to check out.

I looked up info on it, as I did for all the movies on that list that I was interested in, and I learned it was a very unconventional vampire movie. Not only was that because of its setting, which mixed the horror genre with westerns, but also because it dispensed with nearly all of the typical tropes and cliches, with the very word "vampire" never even being said once. In addition, I learned it was something of a mini-Aliens reunion, as not only did it have Lance Henriksen and Bill Paxton, but also Jenette Goldstein as part of the vampire group. And finally, I found out it was another movie that went unnoticed when it was originally released, but had since gained a cult following on home video. Speaking of which, I picked up the Anchor Bay Special Edition DVD in the summer of 2009. By that point, the film's director, Kathryn Bigelow, had won the Oscar for The Hurt Locker, so I had a feeling I was in really good hands with it. And I was. Now, I'll say right off the bat that I get much more enjoyment out of both Fright Night and The Lost Boys, and I do have some issues with Near Dark itself, such as mixed feelings about the two leads, feeling that more could've been done with the story, the ending involving a major cop-out, and the editing and direction of some sequences being a bit quick and hard to follow. But, what it does right, it does really right. It's very well shot, has some memorable images and sequences, especially during the latter half, I like the setting, the vampire gang is very well-portrayed and interesting, and I enjoy the music score.

Caleb Colton is a young man who lives on a farm, along with his father, Loy, and young sister, Sarah, right outside of a small town in Oklahoma. One evening, he drives into town to hang out with some friends, when he spots a very lovely young woman on the sidewalk. Talking with her, he learns that her name is Mae and that she's from Sweetwater, Texas. She says she's visiting the area with a group of friends, and asks him to take her back to where they're staying at a nearby trailer park. Along the way, she proves to be rather strange, as she talks about the night and its "brightness." And when Caleb takes her to a corral housing a horse that he's familiar with, the animal is terrified at the sight of Mae. She then insists that Caleb take her back to the trailer park before sunrise and begins to panic the closer it gets. When Caleb stops his truck and teases her about kissing him, she does kiss him, but also bites his neck, before running off down the road. Confused, Caleb then finds his truck won't start, forcing him to walk back home. Along the way, as the sun rises into the sky, his flesh begins to smoke and burn from exposure to it, and he winces and moans from the obvious pain. He almost reaches his house, when an RV with blacked-out windows appears. It rushes up alongside him and he's pulled inside, something his father and sister witness out in the yard. The RV drives off, as Caleb finds himself among Mae and her group of friends. The group turns out to be made up of nomadic vampires, and while the others are ready to kill Caleb right then and there, Mae reveals that she's already turned him by biting him. The group's leader, Jesse Hooker, opts to bring him along, giving him a week to learn how to hunt and feed on human blood. Though Caleb is reluctant to do so on moral principle, he finds he's no longer able to eat normal food, and Mae allows him to feed on some of her own blood for the time being. But, while Loy and Sarah search all across Oklahoma and the neighboring states for him, Caleb learns that if he doesn't make an actual kill soon, he'll become the vampires' next victim.

Kathryn Bigelow started out as an artist, specifically a painter, but, as she once put it, "stumbled on film" while she was living in New York in the mid-70's. She shot a short film, The Set-Up, in 1978, and in 1981, made her feature directorial debut with The Loveless, which she co-directed with Monty Montgomery, a classmate of hers at Columbia University. She then began working with Eric Red, as they'd seen samples of each other's writing through a mutual friend, and they decided to co-write a pair of scripts they would each take turns directing. After first collaborating on the script that Red would direct, Undertow (which wouldn't get produced until 1996, and as a TV movie), they wrote Near Dark, and according to Bigelow, each script was a hybrid of a western and a horror movie aesthetic. Some sources say that they added the vampire elements to the script for Near Dark because a regular western wasn't easy to sell but, either way, Bigelow felt there was a synergy between the two genres, as they both have a sort of romantic element. At the same time, she and Red decided to streamline the idea of vampires by removing all of the classic Gothic elements and keeping it as close to reality as possible. And as soon as they finished the screenplay and were shopping it around, it caught the attention of Ed Feldman, one of the co-founders of FM Entertainment. He liked it so much that he agreed to finance it and allow Bigelow to direct, but with the caveat that, if she didn't impress him during pre-production and the first few days of shooting, he would give her the boot. Obviously, that didn't happen.

While Near Dark was technically Bigelow's second feature film, it was the first time she was the sole director, so she did have a lot to prove. And while the film did nothing at the box-office (it wasn't released or marketed the way it should've been), Bigelow's career continued on. She directed Blue Steel with Jamie Lee Curtis in 1990, which didn't do too well either, but then, in 1991, she had a bona fide hit with Point Break. That said, her career was nearly destroyed by her next movie, Strange Days, and the two after that, The Weight of Water and K-19: The Widowmaker, were also massive bombs. But then, she did The Hurt Locker, which did fairly well commercially, but also got absolute rave reviews, earned her the Oscars for both Best Director and Best Picture, making her the first woman director to ever win either award, and is considered one of the greatest war movies ever to this day. She followed that up with a similar movie, Zero Dark Thirty, which was also quite successful both critically and commercially, although it proved a bit controversial in some regards (mainly because it seemed to be pro-torture). The films she's made since then (a three-minute, animated short called Last Days, 2017's Detroit, and 2025's A House of Dynamite, which was made for Netflix) have had varying degrees of commercial and critical success, but there's no denying that she is a talent. It's just a shame that she hasn't returned to the horror genre since Near Dark. (At the end of the making of on the Anchor Bay DVD, she teases the possibility of a sequel, but I doubt that will ever be made, especially now that Bill Paxton is no longer with us.)

Not only did both Near Dark and The Lost Boys come out within months of each other, with the latter's popularity often being blamed for why this film failed, but it's also amazing how similar their basic stories are. They're both about a normal young man who falls for a mysterious young woman, only for her to turn out to be part of a group of vampires, and the guy then finds himself pulled into their world. The difference is that I don't find Caleb Colton (Adrian Pasdar) to be as memorable a protagonist as Michael Emerson. That said, there's nothing wrong with Caleb as a character: he's just a typical young cowboy who lives out in the middle of nowhere in Oklahoma, a life he's not entirely happy with, given something he says early on. The moment he spots and talks to Mae, he's smitten and pursues her, despite how strange and slightly evasive she proves to be. When she begins to freak out and demand that he get her home before sunrise, he doesn't really take her seriously, and even stops the truck and teases her by saying she'll have to kiss him first. That's something Caleb comes to regret, as she bites him on the neck, then runs off, and when he has to walk home after his truck breaks down, he feels the rising sun burning him. Then, he's abducted by the group of vampires, who are initially hellbent on killing him, only for Mae to tell them that he's already one of them. This prompts them to take him with them and keep him alive long enough to see if he can truly become part of the group, but it takes Caleb himself a little while to realize what exactly is happening to him. When Mae allows him to "escape" and he tries to catch a bus back to his home, he realizes he won't make it, especially when he tries to eat a candy bar and it makes him sick. He looks so bad that a police officer in civilian clothes takes him for a drug addict going through withdrawals, but the man gives Caleb the bus fare he needs to get home. But, during the bus ride, Caleb finds he can't take it anymore and gets off, then heads back to Mae. She allows him to drink some of her blood, which he instinctively knows to do, and once he does, he feels completely rejuvenated, as well as amorous towards her. He's also able to see and hear the night the way she was talking about before.

By the next night, however, Caleb is feeling ill again, as well as scared of what his life has become, a feeling that's compounded when he calls home but doesn't get an answer. Unaware that his father and sister are searching for him, he feels isolated and abandoned, though Mae assures him that he'll learn to accept it. One thing he's definitely unable to do is kill. Mae tries to get him to prey on this truck driver they hitch a ride with, but Caleb can't bring himself to do it and she allows him to drink her blood again. Even

when he's threatened with death if he doesn't kill anybody at the bar they break into, and also realizes during the ensuing scuffle that he has the power to do so, Caleb ends up letting his would-be victim go. As if the vampires weren't already enraged with him, that decision nearly gets all of them killed when that guy brings the police on them while they're hiding out in a small motel. However, Caleb puts himself in danger in order to get them out of there, which strengthens his camaraderie with the group. By this point, it seems as though he's also accepted what he is now. 

Even when his father and sister find him, as they're taken hostage by the vampires, Caleb is willing to stay with the group in exchange for their letting his family go. But they make it clear they're not going to, as Jesse feels it's too risky since they've seen their faces, and because the young vampire named Homer has his eye on Caleb's sister, Sarah. Caleb's relationship with the group then falls apart and he manages to escape with his family, setting up the final confrontation. Again, nothing really wrong with Caleb as a character, but I just find him to be rather unremarkable and not all that engaging, nor do I care about his and Mae's relationship.

Speaking of Mae (Jenny Wright), she's the character I really have mixed feelings about. Some may see it as a case of bad judgement and desire for companionship on her part, but, for me, she comes off as manipulative in how she decides to force Caleb into the life of a vampire without him even realizing it at first. I also find Mae's affection for him hard to buy, since she only spent a few hours with him the previous night, and I think it would've worked better if she did it after having met up with him several nights in a row. (In fact, because their relationship moves along so fast, it doesn't feel genuine to me and thus, I don't really care about.) And it's downright cruel how she allows Caleb to go off, thinking he's going to make it back home, and then waits for him to eventually come crawling back to her, looking and probably feeling like he's on the brink of death. She lets him drink some of her own blood to keep him alive for the time being, and when he feels abandoned after he calls home and gets no answer, she tells him that he'll come to accept this new life... which he, again, didn't ask for or want. Then, she breaks it to him that he's going to have to kill people and feed on their blood, and tells him to not think about the morality issue but, instead, to consider it as a survival instinct. When he's unable to go through with it, she, after coldly killing his intended victim, tries to buy him more time by letting him feed on her blood again, as well as convince the group to give him another chance to kill and feed by himself. It's especially unsettling when she dances with the poor, terrified guy who's the last one left alive at the bar, then tries to encourage Caleb to kill him. She likely does all this to him because she had to go through the same thing when she was first turned (by Homer, who tricked her into letting her guard down), and has gotten to the point where she doesn't think about it anymore, but I still find it hard to really like Mae, or care about her and Caleb's relationship. 

It doesn't help that, after Caleb has gone back with his family and been cured, Mae shows up at the house and, despite claiming that she misses him, asking him the idiotic question of why he ran away, seems to be there to distract him so the others can abduct Sarah. (When she and Caleb are hugging, you can see a small figure, likely Homer, run by in the background.) And during the climax, she tries to get Jesse to let Caleb rejoin the group, proving to me that she still doesn't get it. Granted, she does keep Jesse from

shooting Caleb and Sarah when they escape, and after Sarah has been recaptured, Mae rescues her and escapes out of the car with her, returning her to Caleb. And the movie ends with her not only being alive but also cured of her vampirism, but I still don't like her enough to where it means anything.

One part of the movie that almost never gets talked about, even in the featurette, is Caleb's family, who spend much of the story searching for him. Their side of things may not be the most interesting, and the way they finally find both Caleb and the vampires is awfully convenient, but they're far from awful characters. Despite his wishing that he could get out of the small podunk town he lives in, Caleb seems to be pretty close with both his father, Loy (Tim Thomerson), and little sister, Sarah (Marcie Leeds).

The two of them see Caleb get snatched up and pulled into the vampires' RV, and it affects them to where they both have nightmares about it that night. And when Loy becomes frustrated with the local police not doing much of anything to find Caleb, he and Sarah take off and start searching for him. While at a diner in Waco, Texas, Loy calls the sheriff back home and learns about the plain clothes officer who came upon Caleb at the bus stop in Hope, Kansas. Realizing he and Sarah have been going the wrong way, they head on that way as well, and by sheer coincidence, end up staying at the same motel where Caleb and the vampires hide out following their shootout with the police. While at the vending machine outside, Sarah meets the young vampire named Homer, and she immediately catches his eye, as he's desperate for a companion around the same age that he's forever stuck at. I like how Sarah is mature enough to where the first thing she says to Homer is, "It's impolite to stare!" And when he asks why she's out by herself, she says, "I do what I wanna do when I wanna do it." She's about to walk off, but he talks her into coming back to the room with him to watch some TV (she asks if it's a color television, which apparently was the only selling point she needed). Shortly afterward, she's reunited with her brother, while Loy is brought into the room by Severen to tie up any loose ends with Sarah. And when Caleb tries to talk the gang into letting them go, the camaraderie he'd established with them falls apart, as they're not too keen on letting someone else get away so they can bring the law down on them.

After Caleb manages to escape with his family (thanks to Sarah, who opens the door and lets the rising sun in), Loy is initially intent on getting his son to a hospital. He also tries to grapple with what happened, as he shot Jesse at point-blank range, and he just coughed the bullet up and gave it back to him. It's not until Caleb shows Loy what exposure to the sun does to him now that he realizes what his son means when he says he can't go to a hospital. Caleb, desperate for blood, instead talks Loy, who's a 

livestock veterinarian, into performing a transfusion when they return to the house. During this scene, which takes place across many hours, Loy is so taken aback by his son's condition, the pain he's in, and the understanding of what he's become that he breaks down crying and briefly cradles his son in his arms. Unfortunately, this leads to the revelation that a blood transfusion is a cure for vampirism, which I really don't like, and which I'll talk more about later. In any case, when Caleb awakens the next day and finds that he's cured, life turns back to normal for a bit and he 

spends the day with his family. But that night, the vampires abduct Sarah, as Homer is unwilling to let her go, which leads into Caleb's final confrontation with them. What sucks, though, is that Loy takes no part in the climax and, in fact, doesn't even know that Sarah has been abducted, as he's last seen sleeping on the living room couch.

The vampires themselves are the most interesting characters by far, both as individuals and as a whole unit. They look and feel more like a group of really rough outlaws/drifters or, as Lance Henriksen said in 100 Scariest Movie Moments, "nocturnal nomads." They move about the desert landscape under the cover of darkness, going from place-to-place, preying on whoever they need to in order to survive, and find a temporary sleeping spot for when the sun comes up. Because they know they have nothing to fear from

their intended victims, or humans in general, they just do whatever they want and kill whoever they want, and intend on doing so until the end of time. And they've been doing this for so long that they've worked out an effective system to ensure their survival. They never leave any loose ends, i.e. survivors; they often change vehicles, disposing of or destroying the one they were just using; they black out any place they bed down to protect them from the sunlight; and when they absolutely have to move

around in the daytime, they prep their vehicle in the same manner, sometimes on the spot, using black spray-paint and tin foil. But, despite what Henriksen said about feeling that all of the people they preyed on had it coming, they actually do kill a number of innocents, like when Homer acts like he's been seriously hurt in order to attack this guy who stops by to help him, or when Severen, offscreen, kills these women who pick him up, thinking he's going to treat them to a drink. And that iconic bar scene is full of people who were just minding their own business, 

when the gang storm in, initially act like assholes, and then starts terrorizing and killing everyone. But, despite the horrible things they do, they're such charismatic and interesting characters, and come off like a real family unit, that you can't help but like them. Plus, once they learn he's been bitten, they do give Caleb a chance to become one of their own rather than just killing him outright.

While you don't get very much in the way of backstory for each of these characters, Lance Henriksen's character of Jesse Hooker is hinted to be at least 150 years old, as when Caleb asks him his age, he says, "Let's put it this way: I fought for the South... We lost." His old-time clothes are another hint that he's from the 1800's, and in the making of on the DVD, Henriksen even says he came up with his own backstory about how Jesse became a vampire. He was in the Confederate Navy (Henriksen sewed a piece of a Confederate flag on the inside of his coat to make this more concrete), his ship was badly damaged during a battle in Chesapeake Bay, and as the ship was drifting, with everyone onboard dying, they were attacked by these demonic, harpy-like creatures. One of them took pity on Jesse and turned him into a vampire. Of course, none of this is hinted at in the movie itself, but having that in the back of your mind makes Jesse all the more interesting. As he always does, Henriksen plays the character to the hilt, making Jesse come off as tough but also the most fair member of the group when it comes to Caleb. Though he's more than willing to let the others kill Caleb when they first abduct him, when he learns he's been turned, he reluctantly decides to spare him for now. He gives Caleb a week to figure out how to kill and feed, warning him that they will kill him otherwise. And later on, as unhappy as they are when they learn Caleb has been feeding on Mae's blood, especially Severen, Jesse opts to give Caleb one more chance, telling him, "It ain't right for Mae to be carryin' you, Caleb." Jesse is absolutely pissed when Caleb fails to make a kill at the bar, telling him that he's "fucked up for the last time). This leads to them getting caught up in a police shootout that nearly kills them, but when Caleb manages to get them out of there, risking his own life to do it, everybody, including Jesse, is really proud of him. He, in particular, lets Caleb know that he bought himself a little more time, though the way he phrases it implies that he still better start fending for himself. And shortly afterward, when he betrays the group and escapes with his family, Jesse and the others are hellbent on revenge.

As he also always does, Henriksen really went in on creating a memorable look for Jesse, losing a lot of weight to make himself look emaciated (he went down to around 140 pounds, which he quickly learned was not a good idea for his health when it caused his back to go out easily), coming up with this long, thin ponytail, and getting these thick, nasty-looking fingernails (acrylic nails that he then broke off with pliers) which, combined with his naturaly gnarly hands, are really striking-looking. He also just has a 

great charisma about him, with memorable lines such as, when he and Diamondback get held up by some carjackers: "You're not gonna look so good... with your face ripped off,"; when the bartender asks what they want, "Just a couple more minutes of your time, about the same duration as the rest of your life,"; when the one motel manager recognizes him from years ago, "Yes, I get through here about once every fifty years. Make me a reservation,"; and, during the standoff with Caleb, "The last sound that you hear on

your way to hell is gonna be your guts snappin' like a bullwhip!" And when Loy threatens to shoot him in the motel room, Jesse not only doesn't take his threat seriously, but after he's been shot, he, like a badass, coughs the bullet up, puts it in Loy's breast pocket, and says, "For you."

From a conversation they have while driving around, Jenette Goldstein's character of Diamondback seems to have met Jesse one night when he was on the side of the road with a flat tire. As she puts it, "And there you stood by the side of that road... and I just knew you were trouble," to which he adds, "And you were right." That's all we get in regards to how he turned her, but one thing's for sure: if Diamondback had any misgivings about it, she's long since done away with them. While she's not quite as wild as the guys in the group, she proves to be quite deadly when the situation calls for it. She slits the throat of a waitress whom Jesse somewhat hits on, and when one guy attempts to escape the madness, she gets in front of him, distracts him by saying, "There's a fly on the ceilin'," and when he looks up, Homer shoots him to death from behind. Also, we can guess that, when she and Jesse got pulled over by those two carjackers, the one who was acting like a pervert towards her bought it in a really bad way. And when Caleb is warned that if he doesn't make a kill that night, he's done, Diamondback, while grabbing his lower jaw, clarifies, "And 'done' means dead without guile. It means you'll be real uncomfortable for a long, long time." 

Despite her toughness, Diamondback still comes across as sort of a den mother to the group in some moments, and often acts and talks to Homer as if she actually is his mother, even though, for all we know, he may actually be older than her. Like everybody but Mae, she's pretty hostile towards Caleb when he continually proves to be incapable of killing. She starts to come around towards him when he gets them out of that police firefight, telling him, "Back there. You did good," but that quickly goes out the window

when Caleb later threatens Homer over Sarah. Intensely loyal to her "family," especially Jesse, she's furious when Caleb betrays them, and later aids Jesse in attempting to get revenge on him. She attempts to kill Caleb when he's facing off with Jesse, and when that doesn't work, she lets him run off with Sarah, knowing Jesse is planning on gunning them down. That doesn't work either, thanks to Mae's intervention, but when Jesse acts as though he's about to kill Mae right then and there, Diamondback is more intent on keeping Caleb and Mae from escaping. Things very

quickly fall apart for them, with Mae betraying them to save Sarah, while Homer dies a horrible death from sunlight exposure. With only the two of them left, Diamondback's loyalty to Jesse lasts right to the very end, when the two of them die while trying to kill Caleb, Sarah, and Mae.

Bill Paxton definitely has the most memorable role as the absolutely wild character of Severen. In fact, this has to be the most insane role Paxton ever had, as the best way to describe his performance is if you took that manic energy he brought to Hudson in Aliens and added a big helping of psychosis to it. Out of the whole group, Severen is the one who absolutely relishes his immortality and preying on humans, the latter of which he does with sadistic glee and without mercy. It's terrifying to contemplate what he did to those poor women who picked him up, and that's before you see just how utterly crazy and bloodthirsty he is in the bar scene. In fact, Severen serves as your introduction to the crazed, dark world that the soft and feminine Mae actually comes from, as right after Caleb has been yanked into the RV, he hovers right above him, holding one of his spurs to his throat, and says, "Howdy. I'm gonna separate your head from your shoulders. Hope you don't mind none." Then, when Jesse initially gives him permission to kill Caleb, Severen lets out a loud "whoop," as he often does, and when Caleb asks what's going on, he answers, "It ain't what's goin' on, son. It's what's comin' off. Your face. Clean off." But because he's unable to do it when Mae reveals that she bit Caleb, Severen spends much of the movie just itching to get at him, especially when he finds out Mae has been letting him drink her blood and when he fails to kill his intended victim at the bar. Like the others, he does start to warm up to Caleb after he rescues them from the police shootout, and even gives him one of his spurs. But after he betrays them, Severen is the first one he has to contend with when he goes to rescue Sarah. 

Within the group's family unit feel, Severen is like the out of control teenage son, one who has an affectionate but occasionally antagonistic relationship with his "younger brother," Homer, whom he tends to tease for being stuck in a young kid's body. It's also clear that he has a real camaraderie with Jesse, with the two of them coming off very much like brothers. Not only do they trade barbs and jokes, as well as play cards, but they work together in battle, as seen during the police shootout, when they have this 

exchange: "How you doin', Jess?!" "Like shit! How you doin'?" " I'm down to my last inch of skin!" Jesse also says that he taught Severen everything he knows, and is clearly further enraged when Caleb kills him. When they're burning the RV they were driving when they made their entrance, Severen comments, "Hey, Jesse, remember that fire we started in Chicago?", which suggests that the two of them were behind the Great Chicago Fire in 1871, and that they possibly first met anywhere around the time of the Civil War. Lance Henriksen suggested in the documentary that

Severen may have been like the brother that Jesse always wanted, so he turned him. One thing's for sure: Jesse seems like the only person who can really keep Severen in check, and even then, it's just barely, considering how he has to literally hold him back from getting his hands on Caleb in one scene. 

Severen is definitely the most iconic character, with his black leather jacket, cowboy boots and spurs, and the dark sunglasses he wears during much of the bar scene. What's more, the gruesome sight of his smashed open face during his last scene, after Caleb has plowed into him with a tanker truck, is the image that everyone remembers, and was even used in marketing. When coupled with Paxton's off-the-wall performance (which is so wild in the bar scene because he was hocked up on B12 to help him with a

migraine), it's small wonder why he's arguably the most popular aspect of Near Dark. Of course, he also has some of the best lines: "I'm your worst fuckin' nightmare." "Well, I'll be goddamned. Shit-kicker heaven." "Hey, I ever tell you the one about Buffalo Bill?" "I hate 'em when they ain't been shaved." "It's finger-lickin' good!" (As overused as that line is in some horror movies, he delivers that so much better, and in a more satisfying context, than Mitch Pileggi did in Shocker.) "Oh, yoo-hoo! I gotta new name for

you... Mr. Pig-Knuckle! You havin' a little trouble with your hog-leg, there?" "We keep odd hours." "'Round and 'round and 'round she goes. Where she stops, nobody knows." "I'm gonna knock your tonsils out your asshole." "Fasten your fuckin' seatbelt!"

The saying "old soul trapped in a young body" is very literal with the character of Homer (Joshua John Miller), who may have been turned into a vampire when he was a kid but has long since become an adult as far as emotions go. Again, it's unclear how long he's been a vampire, but the others sometimes refer to him as "Old Man," which suggests it's been a long time. However old he really is, Homer is definitely a man in a child's body, and a violent and angry one at that. He's about as hostile towards Caleb as Severen, introducing himself to him by grabbing his crotch, spelling his name, and telling him, "Mispronounce it, and I wouldn't wanna be you." He also tends not to like how Diamondback treats him like he's her kid, let alone as a kid at all. That said, he does have moments where he acts like a juvenile, such as when he whines about his situation, much to Severen's annoyance, panics and nearly cries about possibly having to go out into daylight, and whenever he does allow Diamondback to coddle him. Regardless,  he proves to be just as dangerous and sadistic as the others, as he's not only adept with a gun, but uses his appearance as a kid to ambush his prey. He turns out to be the one who turned Mae into a vampire, as he pretended to be a fifth grader who needed help with his homework, and then ended up being her mentor about it, the same way Mae tries to teach Caleb. 

The main core of Homer's character is that he's very sexually frustrated due to his situation, and he longs for a companion around his own physical age. Thus, he becomes obsessed with Sarah as soon as he meets her at the Godspeed Motel, and refuses to let her escape with Loy when Caleb tries to let them go. He restrains her from behind, saying, "She's mine," and threatens to bite her right then and there, telling Caleb, "I turned Mae, and she went off and turned you. Now, I'm turnin' your little sister. That makes us

Even Steven." When Sarah is abducted by the vampires during the third act, Homer, who more than likely did it himself, is determined not to let her get away again. He tries to restrain her in the car, while Caleb confronts the others outside, and rather creepily tells her that everything will be okay and she doesn't have to be afraid. However, Sarah manages to knock him over the head with the butt of a handgun and get out of the car, but she's recaptured shortly afterward. Mae then turns on the others and tries to save Sarah by jumping out of the car with her, but Homer is so

utterly obsessed and desperate that he runs after them while unprotected in the broad daylight. Even when he sees that he's smoking and burning, he still tries to run after Sarah, despite how he starts to catch fire by that point. He quickly becomes too weak to continue the chase and is destroyed as a result. Before he dies, he actually begs for Sarah to come back to him, yelling, "Wait, Sarah!", showing how utterly deluded he is.

Again, a major point of Kathryn Bigelow's approach here was to boil down the idea of vampirism to its absolute basics. Instead of being undead, demonic creatures, these vampires come off more like people afflicted with a disease that keeps them from aging or dying, but also makes them unable to tolerate sunlight and forces them to feed on human blood to live. In fact, those elements, as well as their superhuman strength, agility, hardiness, and the ability to turn another person by biting them, are the only classic

tropes at play here. The word "vampire" is never said at all and, furthermore, they don't turn into bats or even fly, they don't have hypnotic powers, and while they do bite people on the neck and leave teeth-marks, you never once see any fangs in their mouths. And as Bigelow also intended, all the Gothic elements, like crosses, coffins, garlic, holy water, stakes through the heart, and lack of a reflection in a mirror, are eliminated. While that doesn't mean they wouldn't be affected by any of those methods, I have a sneaking suspicion that if you tried to repel one of

these guys with a crucifix or garlic, or stake them through the heart, they'd shove it down your throat before you realized what happened. Finally, exposure to sunlight means a very slow, painful, burning death for them, as their flesh becomes hideously charred and, if they're exposed long enough, they catch fire and literally explode. They can also be killed by plain old fire, as happens to Severen, and according to Mae, refusing to feed on blood will cause you to die as well. Given how sick Caleb becomes, to the point where he looks like a drug addict in withdrawals, it does seem like that's truth.

However, one of the major problems I have with the screenplay is the notion that a blood transfusion turns out to be a complete and total cure for vampirism. Transfusions have been used in classic vampire stories, including the original novel of Dracula, as a way of helping someone who's being fed upon and to stave off the transformation, but not as a cure for somebody who's already been turned. What's more, here it comes out of nowhere, after Caleb asks his dad to give him one because he's desperate for blood, and 

there's not even a theorized explanation as to how it works. Then, at the end of the movie, it's used to cure Mae so she and Caleb can be together, making it feel like a total cop-out and a way to ensure that it had a happy ending. I dislike it even more than The Lost Boys' idea of half-vampires being curable, as that was just an idea that had unrealized potential. This, however, feels as though Bigelow and Eric Red couldn't figure out how to end the movie, so they just pulled it out of thin air.

Besides the presence of three main cast members from Aliens (a marquee for which is in the background of one scene), as well as that Kathryn Bigelow would later marry him, another connection between Near Dark and James Cameron is that the guy at the bar whom Severen harasses and is ultimately killed by Homer is the same guy whose outfit and motorcycle the Terminator takes at the beginning of Terminator 2: Judgement Day. I've also heard that Cameron himself has a cameo, as he visited

the set one day, but it must've been in a deleted scene. And one last person I have to mention is Troy Evans as the officer who suspects Caleb is strung out on drugs at the bus station. He's an actor you've likely seen in numerous movies and TV shows, but I bring him up just because I always think of when he was in Halloween 5 as this state trooper who attempts to defend Jamie Lloyd from Michael Myers.

Another link to James Cameron is that the cinematographer here was Adam Greenberg, who'd previously worked on The Terminator. And just like he did there, he makes Near Dark look much more sophisticated than you would expect from a low budget movie by a newby director, while, at the same time, keeping a definite feeling of grit about it. In particular, I feel that the nighttime scenes set in the towns are very similar to many of those on the streets of Los Angeles in The Terminator, with the bluish-green lighting from the streetlights, as well as that 

sense of rawness and grime about them. I especially like the way the town looks during the start of the climax, when Caleb rides his horse into the foggy streets and is then faced with Severen. The scenes that take place close to dawn often have a nice, light-blue look to them, and not only are the daytime scenes bright and lovely, but they show off the beauty of the landscape and how it stretches off into the distance for miles. And Kathryn Bigelow and Greenberg also use the lighting to get across how deadly the sunlight is to the vampires, with a nice shot in the motel 

manager's office where Jesse has to carefully pull his hand away from the sunlight as it inches across the desk, and how the shafts of sunlight that pierce through their darkened motel rooms and vehicle interiors might as well be flamethrowers with the damage they inflict upon them. And there are plenty of memorable shots and images, like the first one of Mae as she stands on the street corner; one through the windshield of Caleb's pickup truck, as the horizon can be seen getting lighter and lighter; the first shot 

through the vampires' nearly blacked out window, as they hone in on Caleb; that first close-up of Severen's face hovering over Caleb, which is done through the latter's POV; the vampires silhouetted in front of the burning RV; Caleb leaning against Mae and feeding on her blood, the most memorable example of which is the one where the oil pumpjacks are in the background, illuminated by nearby lightning flashes; a shot of the sheriff in his office, but with his face obscured because of the sunlight coming through the

window behind him; that amazing visual of the whole group standing on the hill, with mist flowing by and beams of light behind them, before they burst into the bar; many of the shots of Severen during that scene, mainly when he has the sunglasses on and with blood around his mouth, as well as when Jesse stands by the door, with the shadows of the ceiling fan running over his face; and numerous images from the climax, like Caleb on horseback in the fog, Severen's bloody face, and Jesse wearing a makeshift hood, as the sunlight begins taking its toll on him.

Kathryn Bigelow's direction isn't too showy or arty, but there are moments where you can tell there's a confident and talented filmmakers at work. The film's opening image, of a mosquito feeding on Caleb's blood, may be a bit on the nose (they had to take six months to raise that thing themselves to ensure it didn't have any pathogens), as is the montage of the sun setting during the opening as Caleb drives into town, but they're both well done and nicely conceived, with the second coming off very beautifully. In a similar vein, I think the inter-cutting 

between the sun rising and Caleb beginning to feel the effects of his newfound vampirism is well-constructed and suspenseful, since you likely know what's happening if you're at all familiar with vampires. In fact, the sun is often portrayed as this constantly looming threat to the group, with it getting lighter and lighter as they try to find shelter after the scene at the bar; that moment at the Hide-A-Way Motel's office, where Jesse tries to avoid direct contact with the sunlight, as it literally creeps across 

the desk towards him (he has to wrap his hand in a scarf when he reaches to take the key from the manager); and the shots of it rising during the climax. Bigelow does also use a few editing tricks, like side-swipes during some sequences in the first act, and some instances of slow-motion, such as in some dramatic parts during the action scenes, but, again, she never gets too fancy with it. If I have a criticism about her direction, though, it's that the action scenes

are sometimes so frantic and dimly lit that it can be hard to tell what's going on. An example is the shootout the vampires have with the police at the Hide-A-Way Motel, due to both the editing and how dark it is in that blacked out room, and when they get exposed to the light at the other motel, during which Caleb escapes.

Still, you have to give Bigelow credit in how, on her first solo directing job, working with a very low budget, she decided to go for a handful of action scenes and some instances of spectacle. Besides the shootout, which extends to some vehicle action when Caleb goes and gets their van, there are some car chases (granted, it's cars chasing people who are running on foot, but still chase scenes, regardless), the setpiece with the tanker truck that ends with it exploding (another similarity with The Terminator), and the final confrontation, which involves a lot of smoke and fire, and another vehicle blowing up.

Its being shot almost entirely on location adds to Near Dark's gritty, down-to-Earth tone, as well as gives it a real blue collar vibe. Caleb and his family live in a small farmhouse on a ranch out in the middle of nowhere, near an equally small town, which seems to have very few people on the streets, even when it's early evening. That feeling of remoteness, as well as of it all being very working class and blue collar, persists throughout the movie, such as in the town in Kansas the vampires head to after picking Caleb up, the little bus station that Caleb goes to in his first

attempt to get home, the redneck bar they attack, and the cheap, low-rent motels they stay in. For that matter, their sleeping in storage buildings in train-yards and onboard train cars gives off that feeling of their being drifters who have nothing but the clothes on their back (not that it matters to them). In short, this really is a shitkicker type of movie, but that's not to say that the locations that don't leave an impression. Among those that come to mind is the Colton family ranch and farmhouse, which is actually quite Norman Rockwell/Andrew Wyatt when you see

it in the wide-shots where it's juxtaposed in the middle of the landscape, with the little swing-set off to one side, the corral where they keep their cattle and sheep, a chicken coop, a separate building where Loy performs the transfusion on Caleb, a wind-vane in the background, and the modest but comfortable interiors of the house itself. Another is that bar, both for the place itself, which is about as blue collar as you can get, and the scene that takes place there, where the violence and destruction is juxtaposed with the 

country music playing on the jukebox. I also like the train-yard the vampires stay at the first night after they've grabbed Caleb, that spot with the pumpjacks, and those two little cheap motels for how innocuous and everyday they are, and yet they become the temporary lairs for these creatures, who make them their own by drawing the drapes and blacking out the windows, as they also do with their vehicles. You also can't forget the overall setting of the beautiful, flat,

far-reaching fields and plains of Oklahoma and Kansas (they did originally intend to shoot in Oklahoma, but massive flooding there forced them to go to Arizona instead), which give the movie its cool, western feel. And finally, while you see it at the beginning, the town that the Coltons leave near is especially memorable and kind of spooky during the climax, when it's late at night and the streets are practically deserted.

Near Dark is most definitely a western and, as an example of one that combines the genre with vampires, with others being 1959's Curse of the Undead (which is actually pretty decent) and Billy the Kid Versus Dracula, it's most definitely the best. Not only does the overall setting scream it, but so do the outfits, the cowboy boots, the hats, the accents, Severen's spurs, the horses, and other elements, like Jesse's connection to the Civil War and the vampires most definitely counting as outlaws. There are even some scenes and images that wouldn't feel out of

place in a normal western, like the shootout at the Hide-A-Way Motel (you could easily trade-out the modern weapons and the motel, and make it into a scene of a gang of criminals being fired upon while they're holed up in their hideout), the image of Caleb riding his horse into the middle of town, with the streets totally deserted, and the standoff between him and Jesse near the end, with how Caleb slowly walks down the middle of the street towards him.

While it doesn't absolutely soak in it the way stuff like The Lost Boys, Vamp, or Fright Night do, there are some definite 80's elements in Near Dark, mainly in the stuff that's either outdated or you just don't see anymore. The obvious one is that old-fashioned TV set in the motel room that goes off the air, with the image of the American flag and the Star Spangled Banner playing, just when Homer gets Sarah to watch it with him. I also think of the look of that soda vending machine where he first sees her, with that massive, red button that says "Coke" on it, which just

screams 80's and early 90's to me (not to mention that it costs just sixty cents), as do all the neon lights that decorate the motel. Also, speaking of vending machines, that one at the bus station that Caleb gets a candy bar out of looks more like an old-fashioned cigarette vendor. And while I can't tell what it is, the candy bar that he chooses looks like a brand you wouldn't see anymore, at least in how the wrapping looks.

Getting back to the writing, I think the movie could've been vastly improve if, instead of Caleb, the vampires themselves had been the protagonists. Not that they're ancillary, as they certainly aren't, but it's Caleb and Mae who get the most focus, with Caleb, in particular, intended to be the audience surrogate who gets drawn into the dark world of the vampires, again much like Michael in The Lost Boys. However, Caleb is such a bland character, and his love story with Mae so hard to care about, that I find the focus on them to be one of the movie's biggest weaknesses. The vampires, on

the other hand, are so much more memorable and fascinating, thanks to the actors' performances, their camaraderie, and the little nuggets we get of their backstory, that I would prefer if it just focused on them instead. In fact, you could've easily eliminated Caleb altogether and just had the story be about the group in their eternal wandering, doing what they need to do to survive night by night, and focus more on how, despite the horrible things they do and the people they kill, they are a family unit who are fiercely loyal to each other, as well as suggest a little

more of their history. Or, if Caleb absolutely has to be here, the movie could've been twenty or thirty minutes longer and shown him beginning to fit more in with the group and accept his new life. We get a little bit of that following the police shootout, when they make it to the Godspeed Motel, and the others start to accept him and Caleb himself seems to enjoy living in the night more and more. But then, Loy and Sarah show up, and he ultimately escapes with them. Had his newfound bond with the vampires lasted a lot

longer, it could've deepened his relationship with Mae to where it would've actually held some emotional weight, had him feel far more conflicted about which family he's now part of when Loy and Sarah do find him, and made the vampires' feeling of betrayal during the third act come off as more palpable than it already is.

Like the other vampire movies of the 80's that we've looked at, Near Dark isn't a complete gorefest, but it does have a much more visceral edge to it than some of its peers. Like I described earlier, the burns that sunlight inflicts upon the vampires are these really nasty and painful-looking patches of increasingly black, charred skin. There's also not a lot of excessive blood and guts, with the biggest concentration of gory violence being in the bar scene, where Diamondback slits the waitress' throat and Jesse collects it in a mug,

Caleb gets a big bloody hole blown in his midsection by the bartender, Severen kills the one guy and bites into his neck, then slices the bartender's throat open with his spurs, and another patron gets shot repeatedly in the back by Homer. There are also plenty of bloody squibs and smoking flesh during the shootout with the police at the Hide-A-Way Motel; Jesse gets shot in the midsection by Loy and then coughs up the bullet; and the nastiest image from the whole movie is Severen's smashed open head during the climax. 

Also during the climax, a trucker gets shot right in the forehead and Jesse gets a knife through his mouth and into the back of his throat, and he pulls it out like it's nothing, but still, overall, it's not as gory as you might expect. The physical effects of the vampires smoking and burning from the sunlight were also done almost entirely practically and they look effective, save for near the end of the climax, when you see close-ups of Homer as he starts to catch fire. You can tell those were done through opticals, as when they shot on location, the wind made it impossible to do them for real, but they're only onscreen for a few seconds.

Near Dark is a deliberately-paced film, starting off leisurely, with Caleb hanging out in the back of his pickup truck, before driving into town to hang out with his friends, when he sees Mae on the sidewalk. After talking with her, he opts to give her a ride back to the trailer park by the highway where she says she's staying with some friends. Along the way, she makes him stop so she can "show" him the night, and he, in turn, takes her to the horse corral, only for the horse to become frightened at the sight of her, to the point 

where Caleb has to let him go. Then, she becomes preoccupied with what time it is, insisting that he get her back to the trailer park before dawn. Perplexed by her behavior, he still agrees to do it, though he doesn't take her worries seriously. As sunlight can be seen slowly peeking over the horizon, and it becomes lighter, she becomes more frantic, imploring Caleb to get her back. He then decides to tease her by stopping the truck, putting the keys in his pocket, and saying she's going to have to kiss him first. She obliges and 

the two of them kiss very slowly and sensually, until she suddenly bites him on the neck, leaving two bloody teeth marks on him. Just as he's processing what happened, she gets out of the truck and runs off down the road. He initially tries to chase after her, but then decides to let her go. He walks back to his truck, only to find it won't start, giving him no choice but to walk back home. The sun quickly rises overhead, and Caleb begins to feel the effects of Mae's bite, as smoke wafts off of his body and he stumbles, clearly in pain. As he approaches his home, Loy and Sarah 

spot him, the latter mentioning that he doesn't look good. She's right, as by this point, the skin on his face is beginning to blacken. Then, in the distance, an RV appears and heads right for him. The side door opens and, when it gets alongside Caleb, Severen leans out, grabs him, and yanks him inside. Loy and Sarah see this and futilely run after the vehicle, while inside, Caleb meets the group, particularly Severen, who's itching to kill him. But when Mae reveals that she bit him and he's already become a vampire, Jesse says they'll take him with them instead.

After they hide their RV in an old warehouse, they wait until the sun goes down, then drive off into the night. Severen swipes a car from a dealership yard, and they later burn the RV. They drive on until they reach a train yard, where they hide the car and stay for the night. Caleb and Mae go off together down the tracks, as he says he needs to make his way back home. She lets him go, warning him that he won't get far, and she's right. He heads to the bus station in the nearby town, but proves to be a few dollars short of 

the necessary fare. Then, when he tries to eat a candy bar, only to get sick from it, he catches the eye of the plain clothes policeman. The officer interrogates and examines Caleb, demanding to know what he's on. Caleb, in turn, asks him for the three extra dollars he needs to afford a bus ticket home and the officer obliges, telling him, "Get home. Be a good boy." But, on the bus ride, Caleb becomes so ill that he asks the driver to stop the bus and he gets off. He then stumbles his way all the way back to the train yard, where he finds Mae waiting for him. He basically 

collapses at her feet, and she, in turn, bites into her own wrist and allows him to feed on her blood. This rejuvenates him and then some, and the two of them run off down the train tracks, with Mae, again, showing Caleb the night. And it's clear that this time, he can see what she's talking about.

The following night, as Mae tells Caleb that he's going to have to learn to kill and feed on people's blood, we see the other vampires ambushing unsuspecting victims. Homer acts like he was injured after crashing his bicycle, and when a good Samaritan stops by to help, he grabs the man when he least expects it. Severen, dressed all nice and looking quite attractive, acts like he's hitchhiking. Two young women pull over and he invites them to join him for a drink. They enthusiastically let him in and they drive

off with him, never to be seen again. Elsewhere, Jesse and Diamondback are driving around, when they come upon another person who appears to be hitchhiking. Stopping beside him, he asks them for a lift, and when they let him in, he climbs into the backseat and pulls a gun on Jesse. Another carjacker appears right outside the driver's side and points a rifle at Jesse, ordering him to turn off the car. The other carjacker starts hitting on Diamondback, putting the barrel of his gun down into her cleavage, while 

Jesse makes a threat that they don't take seriously. He cranks the radio, and it cuts away to somewhere else on the highway, where Caleb and Mae have been picked up by a very peppy, happy-go-lucky Cajun (this character is literally just billed as "Cajun Truck Driver,"). He acts all friendly with them, sharing a beer with Caleb and making small-talk. When Caleb asks, the driver shows him how to work the large cargo truck while Mae keeps silently pressing Caleb to make his move and attack. Caleb, who, again isn't looking too good, does attempt to do so at one point. 

But, feeling both sick and unwilling to kill an innocent person, he jumps out of the passenger side and collapses to the ground. The driver pulls over, gets out, and sees to him, joking about his seeming case of carsickness. Mae gets out of the truck behind him and, after a silent exchange with Caleb, she does the man in and, like before, lets Caleb sustain himself with her blood.

The next night, while they've stowed away aboard a train, the vampires warn Caleb that he's got one more chance to make an actual kill, or he's done for. Getting off the train, they spot the bar and then burst their way through the door. While the others take a table, Severen takes Caleb up to the bar, where they sit down beside one guy, whose glass Severen intentionally knocks over. After a short standoff, which Severen manages to defuse by acting like a cutup, he tells the bartender to pour the guy another 

glass... then tells the guy to pay the bartender. When Severen then asks for some of the "very best, watered down shit," the bartender decides he's had enough and basically tells him that he can leave the easy way or the hard way. Severen opts to drink the patron's refilled glass, then spits it in his face and yells, "How can you drink that shit?!" The guy reels back for a punch, and Severen grabs Caleb and puts him in the line of fire, causing him to catch one right in the face. Severen encourages the man to slug Caleb some 

more, as he's trying to teach him something, and he's happy to oblige. After he's been punched in the midsection and then the face, Severen encourages Caleb to hit the man back. He does, first delivering a gut punch that has the guy reeling, followed by an uppercut so powerful that he goes flying and lands on a pool table on the other side of the room. Caleb is so shocked by his newfound strength that he innocently asks, "Did I do that?" amusing the others. A waitress then brings the rest of the group some beer over at their table, but Jesse surprises her when he says they 

just want the glass rather than the beer itself. He then hits on her in a menacing way, telling her that her skin is "as soft as a preacher's belly," while behind her, Diamondback whips out a razor. When the waitress least expects it, she yanks her head back and slices her throat open. Jesse proceeds to collect her blood in the glass and put it on the table. He then gets up and closes the door, letting the bartender know that none of them have that much longer to live.

While Severen dances around in the middle of the floor like the loon he is, harassing one guy in a leather vest and sunglasses, the bartender pulls out his own gun and starts to load it. The other patron pulls a knife on Severen, but he easily knocks it to the floor. As he creepily puts his arms across the guy's shoulders, he makes a crack about banging his mother in the back of his father's truck, adding that the latter was watching. The guy tries to fight back, as he grabs Severen's throat and chokes him, only for Severen to

fake being choked out, then glance at Caleb and laugh. He easily takes the guy's sunglasses, puts them on himself, then grabs his head and forces him back. Bragging that he told the guy's mother, "Shh! This ain't gonna hurt," he breaks his neck, then bites into the side of it. The sight of this disgusts Caleb, while Severen walks away and tells Jesse that the guy, "Smells like a dead polecat." Caleb gets up from the bar, when the bartender cocks his gun and, when he turns around, shoots him right through his midsection.

After jumping back from the recoil, he looks down at the massive, bleeding hole in his stomach, initially panicking before realizing he's alive, while Severen just stands there and smiles. He tells him to sit down, while he deals with the bartender. He runs to the bar, jumps atop it, and walks along it, smashing glasses beneath his cowboy boots, as the bartender backs away, desperately trying to reload his gun. After teasing him a little bit, Severen screams and slices the man's throat open with his spurs. He repeatedly swipes him with them until he collapses to the floor.

By this point, the first patron, who's been unconscious this whole time, comes to on the pool table. Getting off of it, he's faced with Severen, who now has the bartender's gun. He tries to run out the front door, but is cut off Jesse and the others. While Diamondback distracts him, Homer gets behind him and shoots him several times in the back with a small handgun. 

By this point, everybody is looking at Caleb, waiting for him to claim the last person in there, this young guy in the back with a pool stick, as his own victim. Mae walks over to the extremely terrified guy and gets him to dance with her to a slow country song on the jukebox. The others watch, until Caleb, getting the idea, stands up and walks over to them. Mae tells him that the guy is for him and he moves in towards him. Scared out of his wits, he runs and jumps out the window. With Mae's encouragement, Caleb gives chase, while the others begin setting fire to the bar

with Molotov cocktails. Outside, Caleb manages to chase his intended victim down, as the others find a suitable vehicle for them to make their getaway. However, just when he has him in his clutches, Caleb lets the guy go. Driving their newfound vehicle, they yank him into it, with Jesse, in the driver's seat, telling him that he's run out of chances. However, for the time being, they have more important things to worry about, as dawn is quickly approaching. They do what they can to black out the windows, while 

Jesse growls that they don't have a place to stay, and that guy whom Caleb let go is likely going to tell the police what happened. As they race down the road, with dawn just minutes away, they come upon the small Hide-A-Way Motel. Jesse quickly goes into the main office and gets them a bungalow.

Later, the whole group is inside the blacked out bungalow, sleeping, when Severen is awakened by someone knocking at the door. As he comes to, the knocking intensifies, with a voice outside saying it's the police. Everyone begins waking up, as the officer outside tells them to surrender. Sure enough, he and his large squad of cops were informed by the young guy whom Caleb allowed to escape, as he's sitting in the back of one of the squad cars. Looking out past the window curtain, Severen is immediately burned by the sun, letting the others realize the dire situation 

they're in. They all arm themselves, with Severen being ordered to give Caleb a gun, though Jesse then orders Caleb into the back of the room. They also put on goggles and nose pieces to protect themselves from the sun, while outside, the heavily armed officers aim at the bungalow, as the first cop tells them they're surrounded. After he gives them one last warning, Severen shots straight through the door, blowing him away. However, he also lets in a shaft of sunlight that immediately a burns a fiery hole into his midsection. A full-on gunfight breaks out, with the 

police shooting various holes through the bungalow's walls and windows, letting in more and more shafts of light, while the vampires return fire enough to seriously damage the one police car, sending the bar patron running for the hills. However, the increasing amount of sunlight makes it more and more hazardous for them, and the police continue their onslaught, with one getting atop another bungalow's roof and shooting down at them. As they realize they're quickly running out of bullets, as well as skin 

that hasn't been burned yet, Caleb decides to make a run for their van outside. Though it's not the greatest idea, he makes them realize they have no alternative, and they decide to go along with it, figuring if nothing else, it'll be a way to get him out of their hair. 

Getting the keys from Jesse, and quickly kissing Mae for luck, Caleb, wrapping himself in a blanket, jumps through a window and rushes towards the vehicle. One of the cops shoots him in the leg, causing him to fall and drop the blanket, and he then shoots him twice in the back. Despite badly burning from the unprotected exposure to the sun, to the point where the blanket catches on fire when he puts it back on, Caleb continues running for the van, shrugging off the bullets. Reaching it, he opens the driver's side door, while in the bungalow, things really look dire for the 

others. Throwing the burning blanket aside, he climbs into the front seat, starts the van up, and drives towards the bungalow, while still shielding himself from the sun as best as he can. He blows his horn, sending one of the cops running out of the way, and aims for the bungalow. He plows through the back wall and stops in the middle of the room. The others quickly pile into the van, and once they're all inside, Caleb hits the gas and bursts through the front, knocking one of the police cars out of the way. They 

drive off onto the highway, returning fire on the officers as they continue shooting at them. As they go, they begin whooping and hollering about their escape, and their newfound admiration and respect for Caleb becomes clear when he and Jesse smack each other's hands together. They continue on into the night, changing vehicles at one point, and then arrive at the Godspeed Motel.

Things slow down for a bit until, after Homer has met Sarah and brought her back to their room, Caleb and Mae walk in. Just after he's reunited with his sister, Severen brings in Loy, and Caleb reveals that he's his dad. The others are amused at this, and Caleb tries to get Loy and Sarah to go, but before they can, Homer grabs Sarah, intent on making her his vampire companion. Caleb tries to make him listen to reason, but when he won't, he threatens Homer, only for Diamondback to threaten Caleb in turn, while Severen grabs him from behind. Jesse says that, now

that Loy and Sarah know their faces, they can't let them go. Loy pulls a gun on Severen and tells him to let go of Caleb, then points the gun at Homer and tells him to let Sarah go as well. Caleb, who was briefly let go by Severen, only to be immediately restrained all over again, tells Loy that the gun won't do any good. Jesse moves in on Loy, ignoring his warning that he'll shoot, and gets a shot right in the midsection. Looking more annoyed than hurt, he grabs Loy's hand, coughs up the bullet, and puts it in his shirt pocket. He then proceeds to bend back his hand to

make him drop the gun, as Loy yells in pain. Before Jesse can kill him, Sarah elbows Homer in the gut, making him release her, then runs to the front door and yanks it open. Daylight pours in (just a few minutes ago, it was pitch dark outside, but now, it's like it's the middle of the day) and the vampires recoil from it. In the chaos, Caleb grabs a blanket from the bed and runs for the door. Severen tries to stop him, but Caleb is able to break away and get outside, while Severen can only close the door to keep the sunlight

from killing them all. Caleb climbs into the back of his father's truck, which holds all of his veterinary equipment, as Loy guns it. During their ensuing argument about taking Caleb to the hospital, he shows Loy what's happened to him when stretches his arm out into the sunlight, and it smokes and burns.

Following the blood transfusion that cures Caleb of his vampirism, things, again, slow down for a bit, until that night, when Sarah heads up to bed. Caleb and Loy stay at the dinner table, and are about to talk, when they hear the swing-set outside squeaking. Caleb goes out there to see what's going on, ostensibly to give the swing some oil, and finds Mae there, waiting for him. Despite initially being wary of her, he can't help but embrace and kiss her. But then, she pulls away, saying he's no longer cold to the touch, while he says that, while he misses her, he

belongs with his family. Ultimately, she runs off into the dark, and he heads back inside the house. While Loy sleeps on the living room couch, Caleb heads upstairs to read Sarah a bedtime story, as he promised, only to find her bed empty and the window open. He runs downstairs and out into the yard, and find that both vehicles' tires have been slashed. He instead saddles up a horse and rides off towards town, with lightning flashing from a nearby storm. Reaching the town, he slowly and carefully walks down the misty

streets. His horse stops at one point, but Caleb presses him to go farther, as they walk down the center of the completely empty streets. But they don't get much farther before the horse neighs in terror, then rears up and shakes Caleb off him. He falls to the ground, as the horse runs off, and he then sees Severen standing over him.

Caleb demands to know where Sarah is, while Severen acts like he's going to help him up, only to then throw him far down the street. Caleb lays there, no longer able to just shake off the pain, as Severen walks down the street towards him, telling him how he's going to make him pay for his betrayal. Seeing a big tanker truck approaching, Caleb flags it down and tries to warn the driver, but the man isn't in the mood to listen. He yells at Caleb to get off his truck and starts counting to five, only for Severen to shoot right through the windshield and hit him in the forehead.

He slumps over in his seat and Caleb, remorseful for getting the man killed, climbs up into the cab and gets behind the wheel. He then engages the engine and guns it at Severen, who confidently walks down the street, daring him to do it. Caleb hits him straight on, running over him with a loud bump, and he initially whoops triumphantly. But then, Severen pulls himself up onto the truck's hood and rips down into the engine. He pulls out a series of long, sparking cables, then climbs along the hood and threatens to smash 

through the window. However, Caleb, remembering what that Cajun trucker taught him about how to operate this kind of vehicle, does what he has to do, then dives out of the cab and shields himself. The truck explodes into a massive fireball, incinerating Severen, whose other spur flies out and lands on the road near Caleb. Getting up and looking at the burning wreckage, Caleb seems to briefly take his hat off in respect, then sees and picks up the other spur. 

Caleb turns around and now finds himself faced with Jesse, who's standing in front of their car with Mae. Walking towards him, he demands that they let Sarah go, while Mae tries to convince Jesse to let Caleb rejoin the group. Jesse tells her there's no way that will happen, while Diamondback comes up behind Caleb, pulling out a knife. Inside the car, Sarah struggles with Homer, finally managing to grab a handgun that was left on the dashboard and knock him over the back of the head with it. Getting out, Sarah, seeing Diamondback about to ambush him, 

yells a warning to Caleb. He quickly dodges when she throws her knife, which instead goes right into Jesse's mouth and stabs into the back of his throat. Sarah runs to Caleb, but Diamondback pulls another knife on them when they try to escape. Jesse pulls the knife out of his mouth and casually spits out the blood, while Diamondback, knowing they can't get far, lets Caleb run off with Sarah on foot. She smiles evilly at Jesse, who pulls out his gun and prepares to pick Caleb off. But then, Mae, seeing this, knocks Jesse's 

arm away, causing him to misfire. Jesse is enraged at this, and fires a shot at the street as he glares at Mae, but Diamondback is more concerned with not letting Caleb and Sarah escape and tells Jesse and Mae to get in the car. Mae is reluctant to join the others, but acquiesces when Jesse honks the horn at her. They speed across the landscape, while elsewhere, Caleb runs as fast as he can while carrying Sarah. Stumbling and falling, he encourages her to run for it, but she doesn't get far before the vampires' car pulls up behind her and she's recaptured. Seeing this and hearing her scream, Caleb desperately rushes after the car.

By this point, the sun is quickly rising, and the vampires scramble to make their vehicle sun-proof. In the midst of the chaos, Mae, looking out the back window and seeing Caleb running after the car, and then seeing Homer restraining Sarah, decides to take action. Taking Sarah from Homer's clutches, she launches herself out the back window while holding onto the girl. The two of them then get up and run down the street to meet up with Caleb, while Homer, desperate not to lose his potential companion, tumbles out of the backseat and onto the road. Despite already 

becoming charred and smoking from exposure to the sun, he fanatically runs after Mae and Sarah. He almost manages to reach Mae, as fire starts sparking on various parts of his body, but he just misses her, as his strength starts to give out. At the other end of the road, Jesse and Diamondback turn the car around. Although they know they're done for, Jesse opts to run Caleb and Sarah down, regardless. He and Diamondback hold each other's hands before Jesse drives back down the road, as Homer becomes fully 

engulfed in flames and then explodes. The station wagon heads towards Caleb and Sarah, as well as Mae, who's shielding herself from the sunlight. Even as the sun pours in through the windshield, charring Jesse's hand until it catches fire, he and Diamondback just keep going. With smoke and flames billowing out of the cars' windows, Caleb quietly says, "Roast," and the car slowly goes off into the ditch, with its right back door falling off. Finally, it explodes, putting an end to the vampires once and for all. And the movie itself then promptly ends after Mae finds that, like Caleb, she's been cured of her vampirism.

The music for Near Dark was the work of German band Tangerine Dream, who'd previously scored movies such as William Friedkin's Sorcerer, Ridley Scott's Legend, and, most notably, Risky Business, among others. Fortunately, like its peers, the movie's music is one of its highlights, and in this case, it's a purely electronic score that, besides giving me such great 80's vibes, manages to effectively run the gambit from being dark and moody, and even melancholic, to more light-hearted and romantic, and even exciting. The themes that resonate the most with me include this low-key, kind of sad one that you hear when Caleb tries to get a bus ride home, as well as during the ending credits; this darkly erotic one in scenes like when Mae lets Caleb drink her blood; a really tragic, emotional piece that plays during the blood transfusion scene and a bit of the aftermath; another emotional, but more awe-inspiring and hopeful-sounding, one for when Caleb runs for the van and manages to get everybody out of the motel during the police shootout; this really rocking one when they make their getaway from the bar; and a thrilling one that plays during Caleb's final showdown with Severen. Unlike the other major 80's vampire movies we've looked at, the only songs on the soundtrack play in the background on the jukebox in the bar scene, as well as sometimes on a car radio. Most of them only serve to act as an unsettling counterbalance to the nature of that scene, but the song Naughty, Naughty, by John Parr, stands out because the scene literally opens on its first few hard, electronic notes, as the vampires enter the room.

Near Dark may not be a flawless, underrated masterpiece, but it is a very well done movie, sporting some great actors playing some really memorable and interesting roles, a uniquely subtle and down-to-Earth portrayal of vampires, lovely cinematography, great locations and settings, some memorable sequences and setpieces that are impressive for the budget, sparse but effective instances of makeup effects, a good electronic score, and an effective blending of the horror and western genres. However, it suffers from a pair of leads who aren't the most engaging or interesting characters, especially in their relationship, an ending that features a major cop-out of a cure for vampirism, sequences that are shot and edited in a manner to where they can be confusing to follow, and some unfulfilled potential in the story. While I recognize its merits, there are other vampire movies from this era that I personally like a lot more.