Near Dark: Movie Review

[philosoraptor42]

This movie has dated badly, but nevertheless it appears to have pushed some interesting ideas forward in the scheme of urban fantasy movies. I wouldn't really recommend it to anyone unless they are really big into urban fantasy vampire movies since asides from a few key scenes you are likely to find it disappointing.

Warning: After the review there's a clearly marked 'spoilers' section where I consider some of the ideas in the movie which I feel it would be unfair to reveal. Just don't scroll down too fast and you'll be fine. :)

I should make pretty clear first of all that this is not a scary movie. The vampires come off more as super-powered convicts on the run (or cowboys I guess) than as monsters you personally need to be afraid of. It's actually part of the appeal of the movie that it puts you on the side of vampires so instead of feeling frightened about what the vampires are going to do, you instead find yourself feeling rather uncomfortable as they wreak their havoc.

Oddly enough much of the cast seem to have been taken straight from the movie Aliens. Bill Paxton is playing the same character he always plays, but it seems to work quite well in this new scenario. Jenette Goldstein gets a bit more of a chance to shine than she had in Aliens, but is still left in the background more than really seems fair, but undoubtedly the best acting in the movie comes from the inclusion of Lance Henriksen.

The star of the movie is Adrian Pasdar who fans of Heroes will recognise as Nathan Petrelli. The introduction to this movie is him meeting a random woman after some friends of his start perving over her. He decides to drive around with her and entirely fail to be charming while she tells him (much to his disinterest) how wonderful the night is. By this early point it should be no surprise that she is a vampire and is falling in love with this man. Unfortunately, this is utterly confusing because Pasdar is coming across as extremely drippy.

The biggest problems with the movie are:
- The soundtrack has dated considerably. Oh dear me, the synth. The synth!
- The main romantic interest doesn't have the chemistry it's supposed to have. I get the impression we are supposed to be getting a lot more in subtext than we actually are. I would say that the two main protagonists could do with some more lines except that some of the ones they actually come out with are pretty uninspiring.
- In many parts of the movie dawn or dusk seem to finish far too abruptly. The rising of the sun in particular often seems to catch characters entirely by surprise, with broad daylight appearing as if from nowhere.
- Non-sensical crowbar plot move (explained in the spoilers section below).
- Distinct lack of character development and a plodding plot.
- Too much narm.

On the plus side, this has definitely inspired some later urban fantasy about vampires. I'd say that the Buffy tv series owes a lot to this and I also saw an element of two was used in Tarantino's "From Dusk Til Dawn". One thing this vampire movie does very well is to ensure that we get a real impression of just how dangerous vampires are. In one fantastic scene in a bar we get to see just how helpless people are when faced by a group of vampires. As if to contrast this, there's another brilliant scene in a motel room which reminds us of the limitations of the vampires. There's one more scene in a motel room which is done pretty well and that's pretty much your lot. That's the best recommendation I can give for this movie - three good quality scenes - no plot - unconvincing central romance. I guess it's time to let you make your own mind up... 

Um.... 2.5/5? I'm afraid I can't really pretend that it wasn't on the lower side of average.

*SPOILER SECTION HERE!* DON'T READ FURTHER THAN THIS IF YOU DON'T WANT SPOILERS! PREPARE TO BE SPOILED. THAT'S IT. I WARNED YOU. SPOILERS AHEAD!*
Okay, above I mentioned a crowbar plot move and I think I probably ought to start with that. Towards the end of the movie, the male lead is 'cured' of being a vampire by being given a transfusion. Problems with this are manifold. Firstly vampires need to take in live human blood in order to survive, so having human blood pumped into one doesn't seem likely to cause them much trouble. Secondly, if we are supposed to believe that all of Caleb's blood is replaced by that of his dad, the dad really ought not to look anything like so healthy afterwards. Thirdly, why is no one surprised that this hare-brained scheme actually works?

The whole point of this seems to be so that the female vampire can get cured too and the male lead can introduce her to being human again. However, since she, like him, is changed entirely against her will it doesn't feel good at all. She was going to live forever and now she's going to grow old and die. Hey, thanks a lot dickhead!

The way the vampires survive bullets is great (especially when one actually spits out the bullet that went into his chest). The discovery of the character that they have super-strength is also great. The deadly beams of sunlight entering the hotel room after gunshots through the wall was definitely used by Tarantino in "From Dusk Til Dawn". The use of a blanket to shield from sunlight reminds me of Spike's method of getting around in daylight in certain seasons of Buffy. Last but not least, Bill Paxton's arsehole character donning sunglasses in a bar seems likely to have inspired Garth Ennis' character of Cassidy in his "Preacher" comic:


An idea I haven't seen made use of in other vampire stories (and unfortunately not used much here either) was that if one vampire drinks too much blood from another vampire they can kill them. Has this been used anywhere else?

So yeah, definitely some good ideas. Pity about the movie as a whole. *shrugs*

*SPOILERS ARE OVER. I'D TRY NOT TO LOOK AT THE BIT ABOVE TOO MUCH. FULL OF SPOILERS. YES, SPOILERS ABOVE. SPOILERS HAVE JUST FINISHED. SPOILERS IN THE SPACE ABOVE. WATCH OUT FOR THE SPOILERS WHICH HAVE JUST FINISHED. END OF SPOILERS HERE. OKAY? SPOILERS ABOVE.*