Romancefest 2015: Near Dark

Let's do two movies directed by women in a row! Next we have NEAR DARK, the 1987 vampire flick by Kathryn Bigelow, who recently enjoyed critical success with ZERO DARK THIRTY and THE HURT LOCKER, but who is also comfortable slumming it in action classics like POINT BREAK.

Here she's in slum mode with this quick and dirty little vampire yarn about a cowboy (Adrian Pasdar) who is seduced by a vampire (Jenny Wright) who is passing through town with her makeshift vampire family. At first left to dry up in the sun as he slowly transforms into a vampire, the vampire clan takes pity on the cowboy and swings by to pick him up in their RV. His father (Tim Thomerson) and sister (Marcia Leeds) witness the abduction and give chase.

The vampire clan is led by the always great Lance Henriksen and includes the also always great Bill Paxton. At first the cowboy is reluctant and wants to get away, but he wavers between the possibility of continuing some kind of existence with the immortal family and the impossibility of returning to a normal life.

This is a no nonsense flick that has a great pace and speeds to a logical conclusion. Even the characters don't have much time for nonsense. For example: after the cowboy is kidnapped, he doesn't just go along for the ride. The first chance he gets, he simply walks to the nearest bus station and hops a bus home. Similarly, his family doesn't just sit around figuring he's gone forever. They get off their asses and hunt the vampires down.

NEAR DARK benefits from having common sense, so it's smarter than most other movies of its kind. It also doesn't aim too high – it shoots straight for the middle, and does that really well. The performances are all high octane, especially Henriksen and Paxton, and Bigelow shows early on that she has the chops to make a mean movie.