''Near Dark'' is a 1987 American neo-Western

horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit physical or psychological fear in its viewers. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with Transgressive art, transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements of the genre include Mo ...

co-written and directed by

Kathryn Bigelow Kathryn Ann Bigelow (; born November 27, 1951) is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. Her accolades include two Academy Awards, two BAFTA Awards, and a Primetime Emmy Award. ''Time'' magazine named her one of the 100 most i ...

(in her solo directorial debut), and starring

Adrian Pasdar Adrian Kayvan Pasdar (; April 30, 1965) is an American film, television, and voice actor. He is known for his roles in ''Profit'', '' Near Dark'', '' Carlito's Way'', '' Mysterious Ways'', ''Desperate Housewives'', '' Burn Notice'', '' Heroes'' a ...

, Jenny Wright,

Bill Paxton William Paxton (May 17, 1955 – February 25, 2017) was an American actor, filmmaker and musician. A versatile character actor known for his distinctive Texan drawl and everyman screen persona, he was a four-time Golden Globe Award and a Prime ...

Lance Henriksen Lance Henriksen (born May 5, 1940) is an American actor. He is known for his roles in various science fiction, action and horror genre productions, including Bishop in the ''Alien'' film franchise and Frank Black in the Fox television series ...

and

Jenette Goldstein Jenette Elise Goldstein (born February 4, 1960) is an American actress. Known for her collaborations with director James Cameron, she won a Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress, Saturn Award for her portrayal of List of Alien (franchise) char ...

. The plot follows a young man in a small

Oklahoma Oklahoma ( ; Choctaw language, Choctaw: , ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Texas to the south and west, Kansas to the north, Missouri to the northea ...

town who becomes involved with a family of

nomad Nomads are communities without fixed habitation who regularly move to and from areas. Such groups include hunter-gatherers, pastoral nomads (owning livestock), tinkers and trader nomads. In the twentieth century, the population of nomadic pa ...

ic American vampires. Despite performing poorly at the box office, critic reviews were generally positive. Over the years, the film has gained a

cult following A cult following is a group of fans who are highly dedicated to a person, idea, object, movement, or work, often an artist, in particular a performing artist, or an artwork in some medium. The latter is often called a cult classic. A film, boo ...

Plot

One night, Caleb Colton, a young man in a small town, meets an attractive young drifter named Mae. Just before sunrise, she bites him on the neck and runs off. The rising sun causes Caleb's flesh to smoke and burn. Mae arrives with a group of roaming vampires in an RV and takes him away. The most psychotic of the vampires, Severen, wants to kill Caleb but Mae reveals that she has already turned him. Their

charisma () is a personal quality of magnetic charm, persuasion, or appeal. In the fields of sociology and political science, psychology, and management, the term ''charismatic'' describes a type of leadership. In Christian theology, the term ''chari ...

tic leader, Jesse Hooker, reluctantly agrees to allow Caleb to remain with them for a week to see if he can learn to hunt and gain the group's trust. Caleb is unwilling to kill to feed, which alienates him from the others. To protect him, Mae kills for him and then has him drink from her wrist. Jesse's group enters a bar and kills the occupants. They set the bar on fire and flee the scene. All except Mae want to kill Caleb after he endangers them by letting the only living occupant escape, but after Caleb endangers himself to help them escape their motel room during a daylight police raid, Jesse and the others are grateful and temporarily mollified. A camaraderie commences, with Caleb asking Jesse how old he is and Jesse responding that he " fought for the South" (during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

), making him about 150 years old (Severen had earlier suggested he and Jesse started the

Great Chicago Fire The Great Chicago Fire was a conflagration that burned in the American city of Chicago, Illinois during October 8–10, 1871. The fire killed approximately 300 people, destroyed roughly of the city including over 17,000 structures, and left mor ...

of 1871). Meanwhile, Caleb's father has been searching for Jesse's group. A child vampire in the group, Homer, meets Caleb's sister, Sarah, and wants to turn her into his companion, but Caleb objects. While the group argues, Caleb's father arrives and holds them at gunpoint, demanding that Sarah be released. Jesse taunts him into shooting him, then regurgitates the bullet before wrestling the gun away. In the confusion, Sarah opens a door, letting in the sunlight and forcing the vampires back. Burning, Caleb escapes with his family. Caleb suggests they try giving him a

blood transfusion Blood transfusion is the process of transferring blood products into a person's Circulatory system, circulation intravenously. Transfusions are used for various medical conditions to replace lost components of the blood. Early transfusions used ...

. The transfusion unexpectedly reverses Caleb's transformation. That night, the vampires search for Caleb and Sarah. Mae distracts Caleb by trying to persuade him to return to her while the others kidnap his sister. Caleb discovers the kidnapping and his tires slashed but gives chase on horseback. When the horse shies and throws him, he is confronted by Severen. Caleb commandeers a

tractor-trailer A semi-trailer truck (also known by a wide variety of other terms – see #Other terms, below) is the combination of a tractor unit and one or more semi-trailers to carry freight. A semi-trailer attaches to the tractor with a type of Tow ...

and runs Severen over. The injured vampire suddenly appears on the hood of the truck and manages to rip apart the wiring in the engine. Caleb jackknifes the vehicle and jumps out as the truck explodes, killing Severen. Seeking revenge, Jesse and his girlfriend, Diamondback, pursue him but are forced to escape in their car as dawn breaks. Attempting to save Sarah, Mae breaks out of the back of the car with her. Mae's flesh begins to smoke as she is burned by the sun but she carries Sarah into Caleb's arms, taking refuge under his jacket. Homer attempts to follow, but as he runs he dies from exposure to the sun. Their sunproofing ruined, Jesse and Diamondback also begin to burn. They attempt to run Caleb and Sarah over but fail, dying as the car blows up. Mae awakens later, her burns now healed. She too has been given a transfusion and is cured. Mae says she's afraid, and Caleb pulls her into a hug to comfort her as the film ends.

Cast

as Caleb Colton * Jenny Wright as Mae *

as Jesse Hooker *

as Severen *

as Diamondback *

Joshua John Miller Joshua John Miller (born December 26, 1974) is an American actor, screenwriter, author, and director. Miller co-writes with his life partner M. A. Fortin; the two wrote the screenplay for the 2015 horror comedy '' The Final Girls'', and the US ...

as Homer * Marcie Leeds as Sarah Colton *

Tim Thomerson Joseph Timothy Thomerson (born April 8, 1946) is an American actor and comedian. He is best known for his role as Jack Deth in the '' Trancers'' film series, his work in numerous low-budget features, and his comedic television roles. He appear ...

as Loy Colton * Troy Evans as Plainclothes Police Officer *

Roger Aaron Brown Roger Aaron Brown (born June 12, 1949) is an American character actor known for his role as Deputy Chief Joe Noland on the hit CBS drama television series ''The District'' from 2000 to 2004, and for his minor role in the 1988 science fiction fil ...

as Cajun Truck Driver *

James LeGros James Le Gros () (born April 27, 1962) is an American actor. He was nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male for his role in '' Living in Oblivion''. Career Le Gros starred in Gus Van Sant's film '' Drugstore Cowboy ...

as Teenage Cowboy *

Billy Beck Billy Beck (born Frank Billerbeck; May 26, 1920 – June 29, 2011) was an American clown and character actor. Life Born Frank Billerbeck on May 26, 1920 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Billy did drawings of clowns as a kid. Beck fought in Wo ...

as Motel Manager * S.A. Griffin as Police Officer at Motel *

Neith Hunter Neith Andrina Hunter is an American former model and actress. She began her modeling career in the 1980s in her home town of San Francisco, California, where she was discovered as a teen by John Casablancas; she was the first graduate of his exc ...

as Lady in Truck *

Theresa Randle Theresa Randle is an American former actress. She has appeared in films such as ''Malcolm X (1992 film), Malcolm X'' (1992), ''Beverly Hills Cop III'' (1994), ''Space Jam'' (1996), ''Spawn (1997 film), Spawn'' (1997) and the Bad Boys (franchise), ...

as Lady in Truck

Production

''Near Dark'' was part of a resurgence of American vampire films in the 1980s, along with the likes of ''

Fright Night ''Fright Night'' is a 1985 American supernatural horror film written and directed by Tom Holland, in his directorial debut. The film follows teenager Charley Brewster (played by William Ragsdale), who discovers that his next-door neighbor Je ...

'', ''

Once Bitten Once Bitten may refer to: Music * ''Once Bitten'' (Annabel Lamb album) (1983) * ''Once Bitten'' (The Snakes album) (1998) * ''Once Bitten'' (Great White album) * "Once Bitten, Twice Shy", an Ian Hunter song from the 1975 album ''Ian Hunter'', ...

'' (both 1985), '' Vamp'' (1986), ''

The Lost Boys ''The Lost Boys'' is a 1987 American comedy horror film directed by Joel Schumacher, produced by Harvey Bernhard, and with the screenplay written by Jeffrey Boam, Janice Fischer, and James Jeremias, from a story by Fischer and Jeremias. The ...

'' and ''

The Monster Squad ''The Monster Squad'' is a 1987 American horror comedy film directed by Fred Dekker, and written by Dekker and Shane Black. Peter Hyams and Rob Cohen served as executive producers. It was released by Tri-Star Pictures on August 14, 1987. T ...

'' (both 1987). Director and co-writer Kathryn Bigelow wanted to film a Western movie; when she and fellow co-writer Eric Red found financial backing for a Western difficult to obtain, they decided to mix the Western genre with the then more popular vampire genre. The combination of the genres, which Bigelow and Red felt were ripe for revisionist interpretation, had been visited at least twice before on the big screen, with '' Curse of the Undead'' (1959) and '' Billy the Kid Versus Dracula'' (1966). Bigelow knew (and later married) director

James Cameron James Francis Cameron (born August 16, 1954) is a Canadian filmmaker, who resides in New Zealand. He is a major figure in the post-New Hollywood era and often uses novel technologies with a Classical Hollywood cinema, classical filmmaking styl ...

, who directed ''

Aliens Alien primarily refers to: * Alien (law), a person in a country who is not a national of that country ** Enemy alien, the above in times of war * Extraterrestrial life, life which does not originate from Earth ** Specifically, a lifeform with ext ...

'' (1986), a film that shares three cast members (Paxton, Goldstein and Henriksen) with ''Near Dark''. Actor

Michael Biehn Michael Biehn ( or ; born July 31, 1956) is an American actor, primarily known for his roles in science fiction films directed by James Cameron; as Sgt. Kyle Reese in ''The Terminator'' (1984), Cpl. Dwayne Hicks in ''Aliens (film), Aliens'' (1 ...

was offered the role of Jesse Hooker, but he rejected the role, because he found the script confusing. Lance Henriksen took over the role. A cinema seen in the background early in the film has ''Aliens'' on its marquee and Cameron played the man who " flips off" Severen.

Soundtrack

''Near Dark'' is the thirty-second major release and tenth soundtrack album by

Tangerine Dream Tangerine Dream is a German electronic music band founded in 1967 by Edgar Froese. The group has seen many personnel changes over the years, with Froese the only constant member until his death in January 2015. The best-known lineup of the grou ...

. It was released in 1988.

Release

''Near Dark'' premiered at the

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the most prestigious and largest publicly attended film festivals in the world. Founded in 1976, the festival takes place every year in early September. The organi ...

(TIFF) on September 12, 1987.

Box office

''Near Dark'' was released on October 2, 1987, in 262 theaters, grossing US$635,789 on its opening weekend. In its second week, the film's release widened to 429 screens. ''Near Dark'' went on to make $3.4 million, below its $5 million budget. Bigelow has since attributed the film's lack of box office success to its close proximity to ''The Lost Boys''—which was released two months prior to ''Near Dark'', opening on a comparatively wider 1,542 screens—as well as it being an

independent film An independent film, independent movie, indie film, or indie movie is a feature film or short film that is film production, produced outside the Major film studios, major film studio system in addition to being produced and distributed by independ ...

. She has stated that ''The Lost Boys'' was a "vampire movie made by

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...

that had a tremendous amount of muscle behind it, distribution and marketing muscle behind it. And so we were just this little ..whisper out there."

Critical response

Part of a late 1980s revival of serious vampire depictions on the big screen, it received mostly positive reviews for its mix of the

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

, biker and vampire movie genres. On the

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where user ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, ''Near Dark'' holds an 83% approval rating based on 75 critic reviews with an average rating of 7.4/10. The consensus reads: "''Near Dark'' is at once a creepy vampire film, a thrilling western, and a poignant family tale, with humor and scares in abundance." In her review for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'',

Caryn James Caryn James is an American film critic, journalist, university lecturer, and writer. Biography She grew up in Providence, Rhode Island, and obtained her doctorate in English literature at Brown University. She began working as a freelance jour ...

wrote, "Ms. Bigelow's too-studied compositions – Caleb in silhouette riding a horse toward the camera – clash with her unstudied approach to the characters' looks".

Jonathan Rosenbaum Jonathan Rosenbaum (born February 27, 1943) is an American film critic and author. Rosenbaum was the head film critic for '' The Chicago Reader'' from 1987 to 2008. He has published and edited numerous books about cinema and has contributed to ...

of the ''

Chicago Reader The ''Chicago Reader'', or ''Reader'' (stylized as ЯEADER), is an American alternative newspaper in Chicago, Illinois, noted for its literary style of journalism and coverage of the arts, particularly film and theater. The ''Reader'' has been ...

'' was impressed by Bigelow's first foray into big budget films with the "hillbilly vampire" movie, describing it as "beautifully shot".

Hal Hinson Hal Hinson is an American film critic who wrote for ''The Washington Post'' from 1987 to 1997. As of July 2015 he has 887 reviews collected on the website Rotten Tomatoes. Hinson has been cited as a critic who is unpopular with his fellow criti ...

of ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

'' said the intermixing of vampire legends, westerns and biker movies has a result that is "both outrageous and poetic; it has extravagant, bloody thrills plus something else – something that comes close to genuine emotion". In his review for ''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Newspapers in Canada, Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in Western Canada, western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of more than 6 million in 2024, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on week ...

'',

Jay Scott Jeffrey Scott Beaven (October 4, 1949 – July 30, 1993), known professionally by his pen name Jay Scott, was a Canadian film critic."Critic Jay Scott, 43 among world's best". ''Toronto Star'', July 31, 1993. Early life Scott was born in Lincol ...

wrote, "Bill Paxton as the undead sex symbol – is exceptional, but not exceptional enough to put across the cop-out that concludes the film".

Richard Corliss Richard Nelson Corliss (March 6, 1944 – April 23, 2015) was an American film critic and magazine editor for ''Time''. He focused on movies, with occasional articles on other subjects. He was the former editor-in-chief of ''Film Comment ...

of ''

Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

'' magazine called ''Near Dark'' "weird (and) beautiful" and "the all-time teenage vampire love story".

Richard Schickel Richard Warren Schickel (February 10, 1933 – February 18, 2017) was an American film historian, journalist, author, documentarian, and film and literary critic. He was a film critic for ''Time'' from 1965–2010, and also wrote for '' ...

(also of ''Time'') considered the film a clever variant of the vampire film genre.

Peter Travers Peter Joseph Travers (born June 27, 1943) is an American film critic, journalist, and television presenter. He reviews films for ABC News and previously served as a movie critic for ''People'' and ''Rolling Stone''. Travers also hosts the film i ...

of ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

'' concurred, calling it "gory and gorgeous". Alan Jones of ''

Radio Times ''Radio Times'' is a British weekly listings magazine devoted to television and radio programme schedules, with other features such as interviews, film reviews and lifestyle items. Founded in September 1923 by John Reith, then general manage ...

'' awarded it four stars out of five, calling it a "1980s horror landmark" and "one of the best vampire movies ever made." Jones described it as a "visually stunning and frightening package, spinning a genuinely scary tale" and highlighted the "stand-out degenerate performances" of Henriksen and Paxton. It has also been analysed for its

queer coding ''Queer'' is an umbrella term for people who are non-heterosexual or non-cisgender. Originally meaning or , ''queer'' came to be used pejoratively against LGBTQ people in the late 19th century. From the late 1980s, queer activists began to r ...

of the vampire characters - specifically Severen.

Home media

''Near Dark'' was released on

VHS VHS (Video Home System) is a discontinued standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes, introduced in 1976 by JVC. It was the dominant home video format throughout the tape media period of the 1980s and 1990s. Ma ...

in 1988. By 1989, the film was released on

LaserDisc LaserDisc (LD) is a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium. It was developed by Philips, Pioneer Corporation, Pioneer, and the movie studio MCA Inc., MCA. The format was initially marketed in the United State ...

HBO Video Home Box Office, Inc. (HBO) is an American multinational corporation, multinational mass media, media and entertainment company operating as a unit of Warner Bros. Discovery. Founded by Charles Dolan and based out of WarnerMedia, WarnerMedia's ...

. In 2002,

Anchor Bay Entertainment The revived Anchor Bay Entertainment is an American independent film production and distribution company owned by Umbrelic Entertainment co-founders Thomas Zambeck and Brian Katz. Anchor Bay Entertainment markets and releases "new release genre ...

released the film on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

. In November 2009, the film was released on

Blu-ray Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...

Lionsgate Home Entertainment Lionsgate Studios Corp. (simply known as Lionsgate Studios) is a Canadian-American film and television production and distribution conglomerate, domiciled in Vancouver, British Columbia, and primarily based in Santa Monica, California. It was f ...

Cancelled remake

A remake of the film was announced in October 2006 as a co-production between film companies

Rogue Pictures Rogue (originally Rogue Pictures) is an American independent production company founded in 1998 by Matt Wall and Patrick Gunn, originally started off as a genre film label of the Universal-affiliated independent film studio October Films and was ...

and

Platinum Dunes Platinum Dunes is an American film and television production company founded in 2001 by Michael Bay, Brad Fuller and Andrew Form. It is mainly known for producing horror films, such as ''The Texas Chainsaw Massacre'', '' Friday the 13th'', '' ...

, with

Samuel Bayer Samuel David Bayer (born February 17, 1962) is an American visual artist, cinematographer, and commercial, music video and film director. Bayer was born in Syracuse, New York. He graduated from New York City's School of Visual Arts in 1987 with ...

attached to direct. In December 2008,

producer

Bradley Fuller Bradley Fuller (born November 5, 1965) is an American film and television producer. He co-owns Platinum Dunes, partnering with both Michael Bay and Andrew Form. Early life and education Bradley Fuller was born in 1965 into a family of theatre ...

stated that the project had been put on hold due to similarities in conception with ''

Twilight Twilight is daylight illumination produced by diffuse sky radiation when the Sun is below the horizon as sunlight from the upper atmosphere is scattered in a way that illuminates both the Earth's lower atmosphere and also the Earth's surf ...

'' (2008), a film which also contained a romance between human and vampire characters.

References

Bibliography

External links

* * * * *
''Bright Lights Film Journal'' essay
{{Authority control 1987 films 1987 horror films 1987 Western (genre) films 1980s Western (genre) horror films 1980s chase films 1980s supernatural horror films American Western (genre) horror films American chase films American supernatural horror films De Laurentiis Entertainment Group films 1980s English-language films Films directed by Kathryn Bigelow Films produced by Steven-Charles Jaffe Films scored by Tangerine Dream Films set in Kansas Films set in Oklahoma Films shot in California Films shot in Oklahoma Contemporary Western films American vampire films 1980s American films 1987 independent films English-language Western (genre) horror films English-language independent films English-language action thriller films

Plot

Cast

Production

Soundtrack

Release

Box office

Critical response

Home media

Cancelled remake

See also

References

Bibliography

Further reading

External links