Kathryn Bigelow's "Near Dark" (1987): A REAL Vampire Movie

Near Dark is Kathryn Bigelow's 1987 film, starring Adrian Pasdar, Jenny Wright, Lance Henriksen, Bill Paxton, Joshua Miller and Jenette Goldstein.

I watched this movie randomly on IFC one night and was pleasantly surprised- both at the unique storyline and the fact that I hadn't heard of this vampire movie before.

In short, the story surrounds a teenage boy who meets a girl his age that happens to be a vampire. She bites him, and he is forced to surrender to her family of traveling vampires.

POSSIBLE SPOILERS!

For one, what's cool about Near Dark is that not once is the word 'vampire' used. When people are bitten, nothing is explained, nor are the 'rules' of vampirism clearly stated (except a subtle mention that when someone is bitten but not bled, they become a vampire). We also don't see any fangs on the vamps in question, leaving it up to our imaginations to picture normal teeth gnashing through skin.

Second, the 'family' of vamps come off more as misfit criminals than your stereotypical, gothic/romantic vampires. They steal cars, vandalize and set fire to businesses, take blood whenever they want, dress like working-class/trailer trash Americans, play poker, travel like a band of gypsies, etc. Essentially, there is nothing sexual or sparkling about these vamps- they more closely resemble Rob Zombie's 'Firefly family' than anything else.

Third, the imagery was pretty fantastic. In the beginning, we see the main character swat a mosquito away, minutes before he meets the vamp-girl. During the killing of the truck driver, we see machinery in the background that's making a drilling motion- again, reflecting the perforation of vampire bites. I felt the shootout scene, where the sun shines through the bullet holes, was pretty clever, as well as the surreal scene in the beginning when Mae talks about how she'll still be around in a billion years when light from a star reaches earth. Bigelow also threw in subtly some of her own vamp mythology, such as that horses don't like vampires, and I loved how the traveling band of vamps kept out the sun with tin-foil.

The ending may've seemed a bit ridiculous, but this film is still worth seeing. Bill Paxton was memorable as Severen, while Tangerine Dream did the wonderfully eerie score. Yes, the cult film The Lost Boys came out in the same year, and very much overshadowed Near Dark. But unlike Lost Boys, this film had no comedy, and the gore was less campy in my opinion.

Overall, this film made vampirism seem more like a virus than something mythical or supernatural. The vampires here don't necessarily view themselves as superior, they just take what they want when they want it.