Near Dark Review

Review of Near Dark (1987) by screenqueeen: 👍 4/5

HOOPTOBER 666 DAY 26 1 DAY REMAINS

A vampire narrative that serves both sides of turning predator then prey. Bigelow seems apprehensive about happy endings here (it could be said that she still has this attitude). She posits a perfectly acceptable one for, say, Hollywood for example. It is immediately scrutinized and highlighted against what the outcast group of vampires value in their own twisted view of justice. The gunfight sequence in the motel is also quite inventive and fresh, a boost of adrenaline in a seemingly stopped situation for the gang of outlaws.

Despite the group mentality, each member seems to have something unfinished in them, a yearning that can never be fulfilled. Caleb realizes this before it's too late in a semi-lazy flexing of Bigelow's Deus Ex Machina, but the whole story is actually so much better for it (if it ain't broke don't fix it). It's not often that someone who makes this choice of the dark gets an opportunity for redemption.