Modern Vampires In Small-town America
Sun Herald
Saturday June 18, 1988
NEAR Dark is a slick, high-class horror film tailormade for the dedicated buff.
Those cynical about vampire fables - or with a faint heart - should skip this eyecatching and often mind-boggling display of special effects.
For the more single minded and steely stomached horror fan, Near Dark provides further proof that horror can quit the B-grade closet but still deliver the chills and thrills to satisfy.
The film benefits enormously from a taut script and terrific casting. It's also boosted by the presence of an imaginative director who knows how to make the best of what she's got - average budget, great acting potential.
With these building blocks, and a fast pace, quibbles about the implausibility of the vampire theme are quickly overcome. Audiences will be too busily boggling to mind this adults-only fairytale.
Open faced Pasdar is nicely cast as likable country boy Caleb. One night Caleb takes a fast truck into town, looking for some fun. He finds it when he meets a beautiful blonde out-of-towner.
However he gets more than he's bargained for when he meets her friends.
They're a lot less clean-looking than everyone else but twice as deadly.
They are modern vampires - mean minded, unstoppable and permanently hungry
They've decided that they want Caleb to join their little, not-so-merry band.
Refusals aren't allowed.
Near Dark may have minuses, but only by comparison.
If co-writer Eric Red's pared-to the-minimum script lacks the showy brilliance of his standout portrait-of-a-psychopath The Hitcher, it is still a worthy successor.
Fans of The Hitcher will recognise many of the same concerns here. Most notably Red's continuing fascination with the idea of "the horror in sunlight"- the beautiful but lonely countryside, the seemingly average but still menacing small towns.
Red has few masters when it comes to building the tension before the showdown.
The highlight here is a bar room brawl between vamps and humans which is destined to become a horror classic with its blend of humour, suspense and hair-raising special effects.
He and director Bigelow make the perfect team.
The fact that Bigelow manages to maintain atmosphere and avoid the concentrated splatter movie approach establishes her as a (horror) director to watch out for.
As well as a director with a flair for inspired casting.
These baddies are a memorable bunch and the actors perfectly realise the sardonic humour in Red's script.
Bigelow has started with a major advantage by casting what seems to be half the Aliens acting team.
(Yes, they're just as good).
Cowboy hero Paxton raises laughs and more hell here, still high-spirited but more murderously inclined. Space Rambette Goldstein continues getting physical but with the goodies this time,while charismatic Henriksen keeps the stony face of his Aliens android but drops finer feelings to present a really chilling vampire leader.
Beside this rollicking joke-cracking team of killers, the good guys do suffer from occasional blandness.
(Worse, from sickly cuteness with the emphasis on Caleb's little sister.)
Still, Pasdar's looks make him an appealing hero and he does full justice to the pathos of Caleb's repeated attempts to return home to his family.
It's certainly not one for the uninitiated.
Go and see Near Dark but go fully prepared and - even better - with a horror fan's enthusiasm.
© 1988 Sun Herald