Movie Reviews for Near Dark

Near Dark

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Movie Reviews of Near Dark

Movie Review: Near legendary
Summary: 4 Stars

Imagine my surprise to find that no one has posted a review on what has to be one of the best Vampire movies ever made! Gasp choke HACK! Argh all better! Near Dark. First of all, its got a great cast, which ranges from "Wild" Bill Paxton and Lance Henrickson to the very creepy Joshua Miller. Some of the other actors are not as lively, but all give a good run. There is a prize for spotting the police officer who has a bit of a walk on (Warning: Prize may not actually exist.)

Overall, this movie delivers. At times its so dark that you can feel your skin moving, and in others its funny enough to make you spray popcorn into your drink. Some really good one-liners add zest to some excellent quality dialogue. For all the Interview with the vampires fans out there, check out the close similiarity between the "old man" and Claudia. One is much creepier than the other!

The only down side of the movie is the ending. I will not spoil it for those who might be persuaded to enjoy this movie, but it is a little silly. Overall, it does not ruin the movie, just stopped it from getting more stars. Certain things to look out for are, the fire scene, nightclub fun with spurs and the vampire method of car improvement.

There is very little I can say that is bad about this movie. Its got great violent scenes, with heaps of blood and bits, and the characters never head into that whole "immortality is so draining, I feel the urge to get all pale and interesting and hang out in art galleries." Not all vampires are new age homo erotic types with a goth fixation. Some just travel around killing to survive and having lots of fun! This is the sort of gun toting vampires who would make Dracula give up Mina to go on the road in America!

Movie Review: Near Dark
Summary: 4 Stars

Whatever happened to Katherine Bigelow? This is one of the best of her few films. Sometimes a bit over the top and it skims over some details (transfusions without the benefit of blood types?) but, it is a vampire movie, after all. Very stylish, gruesome at a times in it's violence and a fine score by Tangerine Dream!

Movie Review: Near Dark
Summary: 4 Stars

Really a pretty scary and well-done movie with good actors. Unfortunately it came out at the same time as "Lost Boys"' which overshadowed "Near Dark" despite not being nearly as good a horror movie. Lance Henrikson and Bill Paxton are hard to beat.

Movie Review: 2.5 Stars, Near Dumb.
Summary: 3 Stars

About the same time the highly enjoyable Lost Boys hit the theaters, this contender with a similar premise made its appearance. Near Dark is a much darker and sinister toned take on a then-modern vampire movie than the light hearted Lost Boys, and it's about a fraction as fun. This too is about a youth who inadvertently becomes initiated into a band of vampires and now must try to adapt to their way of life.

While out drinking one night, country boy Caleb meets his dream girl Mae. Mae is unquestionably a bit off-color, but she and Caleb hit it off anyway. As dawn approaches Mae insists that she must hurry home, but instead of a goodbye kiss she bites Caleb's neck. Now that he's "one of them", the hodgepodge family of vampires take him in, but only under the condition that he learns to kill in order to feed himself. Basically Caleb ends up being a total flake and has to rely on Mae for sustinence, much to the disapproval of the rest of the family. They decide to give Caleb a few days to turn himself around, otherwise they will kill him. Meanwhile Caleb's father and sister embark on a state-wide journey to find him.

Truthfully there's a lot going on in this movie, and it's difficult to summarize without spoiling anything. Yet remarkably, there's no real point to be spoken of regarding the events of Near Dark. The only real conflict is "The vampires came into my life. Now I want them out of my life". The story is a plethora of plot holes, not to mention the glaring breach of vampire lore that occurrs when Caleb is cleansed from vampirism by some hokey blood transfusion procedure. This type of thing would be perfectly acceptable if we were dealing with a campy vampire B-movie, but considering how deadly seriously Near Dark takes itself, these flaws prove to be detrimental to its credibility.

I really didn't like the characters in Near Dark at all, particularly the vampires with the lone exception of Lance Henriksen as Jesse. Adrian Pasdar as Caleb is just not a convincing hero. As a vampire he's just a complete wuss, and any feelings of sympathy for him are outweighed by his bumbling cowboy schmuck persona. Josh Miller as Homer is just an annoying, pudgy little brat who I actually mistook for a very ugly woman for the first half of the movie. It seems as though everyone loves Bill Paxton as Severen, the young, brash, cool vampire. I thought the character was just plain obnoxious with his tough guy attitude and sense of self righteousness. Jenette Goldstein is more or less just along for the ride.

Overall I'd say the most notable thing about Near Dark is the dark atmosphere it maintains, and when coupled with the western feel of the movie it's even more unique. Apart from that it's not really scary, gory, or thought provoking. If vampires are your thing you could do much worse than Near Dark, but much better as well.