Near Dark

Caleb (Adrian Pasdar), a young cowboy, picks up a pretty girl, Mae (Jenny Wright), whom he thinks he can charm into having sex. When she panics as the sun comes up, he promises to take her home, after a kiss. She obliges, and in addition bites his neck. Later as he begins to get sick, he is abducted by Mae's "family," some rogue vampires (Bill Paxton as the wild card Severen, Lance Henrickson as the leader Jesse) who are not too happy to find he is a new member and not just a meal.

Meanwhile, Caleb's father (Tim Thomerson) tries to find him, thinking he's out joyriding. Caleb at first is confused as to his physical state but doesn't want to leave Mae, even if she is not as vulnerable as he first thought she was.  Essentially, Caleb wants to have it all--the girl, to have a life in the daytime, and to be rid of Mae's violent and twisted family.

Directed by Kathryn Bigelow.


Caleb seems to accept his fate quite readily. He doesn't seem to give much more thought to his family, although scenes show he cares about his little sister, until they are reunited by coincidence and the film should have dealt more with this. The manner in which he is saved seemed a little too easy but workable within the script, giving Caleb and Mae what they want. The vampires are much more animalistic than romantic or tragic characters like in other films (at least, they're not tragic til the very end), and are very much an outlaw gang that has probably tried everything in their long existence. Mae and her family don't dress in black, they're not pale and brooding, they look just like regular people. It's a fast moving film that takes place in one or two nights.

It started out with a new spin to the same old vampire plot, but overall it feels like there is so much more they can tell about who these people are and their histories. For instance, Jesse hints that he fought in the Civil War. Did he have a family he was fighting for? How about Severen? Was he always a bad boy? I think this needs a remake or miniseries.