Blood and Tumbleweeds: Near Dark (1987)
Women’s History Month Series—four films, four killer directors
Welcome to the second installment of a four-part series featuring horror films directed by women. When we last talked 1980s vampires, we featured the horror/comedy Fright Night (1985). While that film and today’s feature share a decade and some of the rules associated with vampire lore, that’s where the similarities pretty much end. I just can’t envision a scenario where Jerry Dandrige, Fright Night’s villainous yet refined vampire, shares drinks and a conversation with Near Darks’s motley and unkempt creatures of the night.
That said, vampires in cinema have come in many varieties over the last century: regal and aristocratic, feral and animalistic, suave, pretty and pouty, and of course dark and brooding. Then there are the vampires of Kathryn Bigelow’s Near Dark, a small band of nomadic, grimy, hell bent for leather bloodsuckers who roam small towns for sustenance, survival, and some kicks.
Our setting is rural Oklahoma, though much of the film was actually shot on location in southern California and southern Arizona. We are introduced to Caleb Colton (Adrian Pasdar), son of a midwestern farmer who appears bored and a bit restless in his small town life. Caleb, an all-American cornfed boy in his late teens, is instantly smitten when he meets the mysterious and ethereal Mae (Jenny Wright) in a seemingly chance encounter one evening. Mae has a wistful air about her, waxing poetic about time and space throughout her encounter with Caleb. The two clearly have chemistry and stay up into the early morning hours talking and trying to read each other. Eventually, the two embrace and Mae, suddenly revealing herself to be a vampire, sinks her teeth into Caleb’s neck.
Caleb & Mae
Stricken with hunger pangs and chills, and vulnerable to the now-lethal sunrise, Caleb reluctantly joins Mae’s “family” of fellow vampires. The group’s no-nonsense leader is Jesse Hooker (Lance Henriksen), armed with an intense glare and sharply defined scar across one side of his face. His story goes back at least to the 19th century and the American Civil War. When Caleb asks how old he is, Jesse replies, “Let’s put it this way: I fought for the South. We lost.”
Filling out the group are Diamondback (Jenette Goldstein), Jesse’s knife-wielding partner and de facto den mother of the group; Homer (Joshua John Miller), an embittered vampire trapped in a boy’s body and desperate for adult companionship; and Severen (Bill Paxton), a wisecracking hell raiser who celebrates any opportunity to kill and wreak havoc.
There is no denying that these are terrifying and often sadistic killers worthy of our fear and even contempt. Yet, they manage to elicit our sympathy as they struggle to eke out a cursed existence, their nomadic lifestyle necessitating the constant dodging of daylight. There’s something generally pitiful about their gritty and worn-out appearance and day-to-day survival efforts.
Publicity photo. Severen (Bill Paxton), Jesse (Lance Henriksen), Homer (Joshua John Miller), Diamondback (Jenette Goldstein), and Mae (Jenny Wright).
Not yet a fully realized vampire, Caleb has a small window to make his first kill and earn his place in a family that has made no compunctions about disposing of him should he fail. Mae continues to lobby for her love, while Jesse and company begin to lose patience with Caleb’s constant balking at opportunities to feed. What follows are several suspenseful and action-packed sequences as our vampires head into the night to seek out new unsuspecting victims and clash with local law enforcement. Meanwhile Caleb’s loving father Loy Colon (Tim Thomerson) and sweet little sister Sarah (Marcie Leeds) embark on a desperate search to find him, putting themselves in harm’s way.
I won’t give away more, only to say that this film leans into the western aesthetic and themes, so don’t be surprised if we have a classic showdown or two before all is said and done.
My two cents
Near Dark is a horror/neo-western hybrid with a distinctly American flare. In some ways Jesse and his ruthless gang of desperadoes could slide into the plot of any given classic western. There are other nods to this genre’s tropes including a lone hero on horseback, a blaze of glory-style gun fight, and tumbleweeds—yes, there’s a moment when actual tumbleweeds blow into the frame.
I feel like the producers of Near Dark got a lot of bang for their buck. With a modest $5 million budget, they avoided overreaching in the special effects department and instead leaned into their excellent cast of character actors, who by and large make this movie what it is. While minimal time is spent on back stories, we are given just enough through brief and clever bits of dialogue that reveal who “turned” who, how, and when. In several instances, we are treated to quick snippets of character banter through which we learn just how long these vampires have been roaming the earth. One such example? Severen quips, “Hey Jesse, remember that fire we started in Chicago?” (A clear reference to the Chicago fire of 1871).
Jenny Wright, who is allotted a bit more screen time, is wonderful as the contemplative and almost otherworldly Mae. The casting of the three core vampires—Jesse, Diamondback, and Severen—represents a reunion of sorts. Lance Hendrickson, Jeanette Goldstein, and Bill Paxton all gave memorable performances in James Cameron’s Aliens, released just one year earlier (1986). Although I’ve often felt that Adrian Pasdar as Caleb was a bit flat, he has grown on me in more recent viewings. Besides, it’s hard not to appear a bit anemic against the other magnetic performances.
If I had to guess, the performance that most often stays with viewers is that of the late and great Bill Paxton as Severen. In fact, his portrayal of the brash, wise-cracking private Hudson in Aliens is not dissimilar to his work in Near Dark. Here Paxton goes full throttle in virtually every scene—he does not hold back. At any given moment he is equal parts blustering, menacing, deranged, and charismatic.
I mentioned earlier that the special effects and production design are not overly elaborate in this film; however, a distinct visual style does shine through. There are several moments where the vampires are exposed to sunlight, causing their bodies to smolder. This effect was achieved by using a portable smoking device under the actors’ clothes. Whenever any of our vampires catch fire, images of flames appear to be superimposed (I think?) over the actors. Though not necessarily realistic, it works well enough. Props also to the makeup artists who did great work in creating the vampires’ seared, sun-scorched faces and hands, and the wardrobe department for capturing what looks like decades’ worth of dust and grime on our cast’s worn-in attire, which has served them through many years of roaming the earth, scavenging, hunting, busting up bars, and raising holy hell.
Gorgeous backlit shot of Jesse and the rest the family.
The film also features beautiful nighttime photography from cinematographer Adam Greenberg. There’s a visually striking moment when Jesse and company are standing backlit on the crest of a dusty hilltop; it’s a beautiful shot that is often featured in promotional stills for the movie. This moment precedes what is arguably the most memorable scene in the film, as Jesse’s gang enters a divey road-house bar for some . . . shall we say, refreshments? What follows is a dynamite 10-minute sequence that is tense, bloody, and unsettling—a true standout moment in the film.
The original music for Near Dark, composed and performed by Tangerine Dream, is an evocative synth-heavy score complemented by electronic percussion and guitar riffs. Tangerine Dream recorded dozens of film scores that could alternate from super-charged pulsing tracks to more moody, dreamy, and ambient pieces. Their most highly regarded scores were written for late ‘70s and ‘80s films, including Sorcerer (1977), The Keep (1981), Risky Business (1983), Firestarter (1983), Legend (1985), and Near Dark (1987). While these scores hold up on their own, they are inextricably linked to their subjects.
A sample of the score by Tangerine Dream
This stylish and underrated gem should be required viewing for fans of vampire cinema and horror films in general, its cult status well earned. I highly recommend that you check it out—that is, if you can track it down. At the moment, this film is not currently available on any streaming platform, though you may be able to find it on YouTube.
Along those lines, Near Dark is in desperate need of a full Blu-ray and/or UHD restoration from Criterion or one of the boutique labels such as Arrow Video, Kino Lorber, Shout Factory, or Severin (not to be mistaken with Severen). No matter the format, I hope newer generations will have an opportunity to discover this quirky and underseen entry in vampire cinema.
About the director
Kathryn Bigelow is arguably the best known of the four directors featured in this series, having broken through to mainstream success with the The Hurt Locker (2009). She won the Academy Award for Best Director for that film, an especially big deal as she became the first woman to win in that category. In 1996, Bigelow also won a Saturn Award for the science fiction noir thriller Strange Days (1995). Her other directing credits include her debut Loveless (1981), Near Dark (1987), Point Break (1991), Zero Dark Thirty (2012), and Detroit (2017), among others. Bigelow was a painter before she became a filmmaker and has studied at the San Francisco Art Institute and the Whitney Museum of American Art.
I stumbled on an interview she did decades ago where she talks about directing films through a painter’s lens. In the case of Near Dark, she was not trying to present the night as forbidding, horrific or gothic. Rather, she wanted to explore all the deep shades of black that nighttime filming provided and which she accentuated through a variety of lighting techniques to entice the viewer toward the night.
I am not sure what Bigelow is up to these days—I haven’t seen a directing credit from her in recent years—but I would love to see her circle back to horror.
Original film poster
Did you know?
In keeping with our Aliens connections, you can spot that film’s placement on a movie theater marquee in one scene.
The word “vampire” is never uttered in the film.
There is a moment when Severen utters the phrase "Finger-lickin'-good," a longtime catch phrase featured in many an ad campaign for Kentucky Fried Chicken. This was apparently an ad -lib by Bill Paxton.
Lance Henrickson’s career took him back into science fiction and horror on many occasions, including and not limited to Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) Damien: Omen II (1978), The Terminator (1984), Aliens (1986), Pumpkin Head (1988), Alien 3 (1992), Alien vs. Predator (2004), and a starring role in the Chris Carter series Millenium (1996-1999).
The Lost Boys, a more glam vampire film with lighter tone, was released in theaters in the fall of 1987, a few months before Near Dark. It performed decidedly better at the box office than the darker, grimier Near Dark. While the latter did not perform particularly well, failing to make back its budget, it has since developed a pretty strong cult following.
None of the vampires in Near Dark sport the traditional fangs we associate with the undead (at least none we can see).
Aside from his long line of big, mainstream roles, Bill Paxton has some legit genre credentials in horror and science fiction, especially in his early career. These films, which showcase Paxton’s comedic chops, charisma, and frenetic energy include Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker (1981), Mortuary (1982), a cameo in The Terminator (1984), Weird Science (1985), Aliens (1986), Near Dark (1987), and Predator 2 (1990).
Paxton can also be spotted as a German radio officer circa World War II in the 1982 music video for Pat Benatar’s “Shadows of the Night.”
International and U.S. lobby cards for Near Dark
How did I watch?
Streaming on the Criterion Channel
Cast (abridged)
Jenny Wright – Mae
Adrian Pasdar – Caleb Colton
Lance Henriksen – Jesse Hooker
Jenette Goldstein – Diamondback
Bill Paxton – Severen
Tim Thomerson – Loy Colton
Joshua John Miller – Homer
Marcie Leeds – Sarah Colton
Crew (abridged)
Writers – Eric Red and Kathryn Bigelow
Director – Kathryn Bigelow
Special Effects – Gordon J. Smith
Cinematographer – Adam Greenberg
Art Direction: Dian Perryman
Production Company – F/M Entertainment
Running Time: 1h 34m
Recommendations Based on Near Dark-
Fright Night (1985)
The Lost Boys (1987)
John Carpenter’s Vampires (1998)
Supplements
Women in Horror - Kathryn Bigelow’s “Finger Lickin’ GOOD” Near Dark
(Melbourne Horror Film Society)
