10/19/15 – day nineteen of thirty-one days of horror!
The greatest 80’s gang of vampires movie that isn’t Lost Boys
is Kathryn “Hurt Locker” Bigelow’s grungy classic Near Dark. Set in a
bleak stretch of the American midwest, the film concerns a roving,
nocturnal gang of outlaw vampires and a young man who finds himself
seduced into their recklessly violent lifestyle. Featuring a cavalcade
of stellar character actors like Lance Henriksen, Bill Paxton, Jenny Wright, Adrian Pasdar, Jenette Goldstein and the always creepy Joshua John
Miller, the film, written by Bigelow and Eric Red, is lean, violent
and scary, capturing a side to vampire mythology never seen before on
film. There’s a bar scene in the middle that will stay with you forever,
and if you somehow haven’t caught up with this one, it’s time to get
that stamped into your brain. A must see for horror fans, vampire fans,
and even fans of the Western genre.
