Review by E.C.McMullen Jr.

NEAR DARK (1985) F/M Entertainment and HBO Ratings: France: Rated 16 / Norway: BANNED / UK: 18 / USA: R

This is another flick from the fine 1980's company F/M Entertainment, who brought you movies like THE KINDRED (1986).

This is a ferociously fun movie with many of the actors having a blast and giving it their all.

NEAR DARK is sharply directed by Kathryn Bigelow (STRANGE DAYS) who also co-wrote the screenplay with sometime collaborator Eric Red (THE HITCHER, BLUE STEEL, Co-wrote and Directed BODY PARTS). This movie is tight, low budget, and over the top great fun. Bigelow shows a steady hand in directing and the writing is as evenly balanced between comedy and horror as you are likely to see.

Adrian Pasdar ( THE KILLING BOX aka Grey Night, [TV Series] HOUSE OF FRANKENSTIEN) plays Caleb Colton, which is as midwest a countryname as you are likely to hyar! It's a small town night and Caleb is bored out of his skull. So bored that he is angry at everyone, even his friends. Then he meets an out of town girl named Mae (Jenny Wright: THE LAWNMOWER MAN). At first, Caleb is so sexually pushy, and Mae seems so fragile and out of place, that we fear for her, not him. But her other-worldliness opens a facet of Caleb to us. He's not a bad guy, he is just looking for something to do. He responds to her and begins dropping his "stud" routine, hoping to impress her in other ways. When he tries to show her his horse*, the animal rears up and runs away.
"Animals don't like me." Mae says.
Then sky grows lighter and Mae gets freaky. "Take me home!" she cries and though Caleb is confused, we are not - we saw the box cover. Caleb does his best to hurry to her family as fast as he can, but stops short to ask for a kiss before they part.
Merry Mishaps Ensue.

Now we are welcomed to the wonderful world of vampirism with your flash tempered host Jesse (Lance Hendrickson: HOUSE OF BLOOD aka MANSION OF THE DOOMED, OMEN II: Damien, THE VISITOR, PIRANAH II: The Spawning, NIGHTMARES, THE TERMINATOR, ALIENS, PUMPKIN HEAD, ALIEN3, ALIENS vs PREDATOR). A white trash vampire who has spent his long violent life just getting by from night to night. Jenette Goldstein (ALIENS, TERMINATOR 2) plays Jesse's lover Diamondback, vicious and quick. Bill Paxton (NIGHT WARNING, MORTUARY, IMPULSE, THE TERMINATOR, ALIENS, BRAIN DEAD, PREDATOR 2, FUTURE SHOCK, FRAILTY) plays Severin, who chews up the scenery and steals his every scene. Bill's lines and delivery are some of my favorite movie tags of all time. Rounding out the gang is Homer (Joshua John: HALLOWEEN III: Season Of The Witch, COMMUNION, CLASS OF 1999) who is a very old man trapped inside the never aging vampire body of a young boy. Against his will, Caleb becomes part of this piecemeal family, but they won't officially adopt him until he makes his first kill.

Caleb's human connection comes in the form of his father Loy Colton (Played by the great Tim Thomerson: METALSTORM: The Destruction Of Jared-Syn, The TRANCERS Series, DOLLMAN vs. THE DEMONIC TOYS, BAD CHANNELS, The NEMESIS series, THE HARVEST, Whew! I could go on but suffice it to say that Tim Thomerson has well over 100 movie and TV credits to his name and hasn't stopped working since 1975!). A rural veternarian horse doctor, and Caleb's sister Sarah (Marcie Leeds: WHEELS OF TERROR).

!!!UNFAIR RACIAL CLICHÉ ALERT!!!
Like so many horror movies made in the U.S., all the non-white actors get killed off in this picture. NEAR DARK has a single black actor (Roger Aaron Brown: ROBOCOP 2, DNA) who you may remember as James Caan's murdered partner in ALIEN NATION (which also earned an UNFAIR RACIAL CLICHÉ ALERT). In this movie he plays a good natured Cajun truck driver who gets his by Mae. While many movies like this have people of every race getting killed, the fact remains that if you are black and in a U.S. made horror movie, you are going to die! It is one of the major cliches of Hollywood movies that only the black actor/actress gets slaughtered. What is especially creepy about NEAR DARK is the fact that Caleb and Mae are set up as "the good vampires". They are really victims of the rest of the group. Mae is seen killing only one person in the whole film and he is black. She shies away from killing any white folk. Only the bad vampires kill white folk and only white folk. It's a questionable message Kathryn Bigelow and Eric Red were sending.

For the ever growing list, check out the UNFAIR RACIAL CLICHÉ ALERT page.

Now back to the review -

The dusty town of Coolidge, Arizona provides the backdrop to NEAR DARK and the intriguing score by the always great Tangerine Dream (SORCERER) is accented with performances by John Paar, The Cramps, Jools Holland and George Strait. Also pay close attention to the amazing fire effects by Fantasy II. Those were very well done (HA! WELL DONE! HA! You'll get the joke when you see the movie. HA!).

This movie is fun and action packed as Caleb is forced to choose between immortality and his family. I give NEAR DARK 4 Shriek Girls.

This review copyright 1999 E.C.McMullen Jr.

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