The Horror Time Capsule - 1987: Near Dark

DECENT

Near Dark - Decent

It was only a matter of time before I'd sneak a vampire review in here, and I tried to think of one of the most obscure ones I could. This brings me to "Near Dark" and if you pay close enough attention, or use your imagination you might think this is a vampire sequel to "Aliens"

Out tale begins with Caleb, a cowboy on the prowl for a lady love; he finds one in Mae, a mysterious girl who needs to be home before dawn. Caleb bites off more than he can chew after he asks for a kiss and soon finds himself turning into a vampire. He is kidnapped by Mae's "family" which includes Severen (Bill Paxton) and Jesse (Lance Hendrickson). Jesse tasks Caleb with making his first kill within two days or the family will kill him.

Meanwhile, Caleb's father, Loy, along with his sister are on the hunt to find him and find him they do, while they narrowly escape from the family with Caleb in tow. At the end of the day Caleb figures out a way to stop the vampires and lives happily ever after.

There are a lot of interesting things about this film. First is the cast, which is pretty much half the cast of James Cameron's "Aliens."The other tie-in is the director, Katheryn Bigelow, who was married to Cameron at the time. I almost feel like as soon as "Aliens" wrapped Paxton and Hendrickson walked over to a set right across the street and started filming this.

Speaking of Paxton, he steals the show as Severen, the most loony of this vampire family. His antics in the bar scene make the film and show his comedic timing as well as his acting mania. People might give him crap for his overacting in "Aliens" but his overacting in "Near Dark" is exactly what is needed in this film.

Overall, "Near Dark" is a fun film and you can see the tidbits that shows like "True Blood" stole from this offbeat look on our favorite onscreen bloodsuckers.

Here are some other awesome flicks from 1987:

Bad Taste
Creepshow 2
Dolls
Evil Dead 2
Hellraiser
Nightmare of Elm Street 3
Opera