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Near Dark Special Edition DVD
01/03/2007 . Source: Pauline Morgan 
region 2 DVD. Optimum Classic OPTD0648. 2 DVDs 95 minute film and extras. Price: £17.99. Stars: Adrian Pasader, Jenny Wright, Bill Paxton, Jeanette Goldstein and Lance Henrikson. Buy Near Dark in the USA - or Buy Near Dark in the UK  check out website: www.optimumreleasing.com www.optimumreleasing.com
This is a film which cannot quite make up its mind what it wants to be. It contains elements of from western, horror and romance genres which do not quite gel together.
Caleb (Adrian Pasader) is the son of a homesteader. His problems begin when he sees an attractive stranger at the gas station and takes a fancy to her. Mae (Jenny Wright) is quite happy to accept a lift from him but objects when he makes a move on her. He has the kind of attitude that assumes that any girl that gets into his pick-up must have the hots for him. Instead, she insists he takes her back to her friends by sunrise.
The horror aficionado will already have worked out that she is a vampire, a fact that is confirmed when she bites his neck before legging it. For those not looking for the clues, they are quite subtly dropped into the script. As his truck fails to restart, Caleb sets off home across the fields. The sun rises and he begin to smoke. In sight of his father and sister, he is snatched by Mae's friends.
These vampires are of the nastiest kind, killing nightly as they feed. Caleb has scruples. He refuses to kill. He tries to go home but hunger drives him back to Mae who feeds him with her own blood. Caleb is put into the position where he is expected to redeem himself by killing humans and the viewer is treated to a bloodbath. Although brutal, it does not quite descend to the gratuitousness of a Tarantino film. Meanwhile, his father and little sister are searching for him.
The cinematography is at times beautifully done and some of the set pieces are excellently paced with good tension. The characters of the supporting roles, especially Homer (Joshua Miller) and Severen (Bill Paxton), are well defined and are actually more interesting than the lead characters. Unfortunately, the plot is full of holes.
This is a group of vampires that has been on the move for a long time. If they kill every night, as the story suggests, they show no sign of trying to hide the bodies except by a bit of self-indulgent arson. Surely the police would be close behind following the trail of death and destruction. They don't seem too bothered about hunting this group down until Caleb is abducted and his father starts making a fuss. The resolution of the plot is totally ridiculous. It is the equivalent of suggesting that antibiotics would cure death. Jesse (Lance Henrickson) is the leader of the group and has supposedly been around since the American Civil War, yet a vampire of his experience makes too many stupid mistakes.
The one plot factor in the film's favour is that the vampires do not sprout pointed fangs. Mae has to visibly chew at her wrists to provide the blood to feed Caleb and the others mostly use sharp knives or guns to make the blood flow freely.
As with most DVDs these days, there are extras. One scene omitted from the final cut attempted to show the heightened senses of Caleb after he was 'turned'. Filmed in black and white, it is an interesting concept but the director was right to leave it out as most viewers would not have understood its purpose. There are the expected set of stills but the most interesting extra is the audio voice-over by the director explaining what she was trying to achieve and the decisions she had to make to make the scenes work. For example, the film is set in the summer but it was actually snowing during shooting. To make sure breath did not cloud in front of the actors, they had to suck ice before they spoke.
Although, the film does not stand up to close scrutiny it can be regarded as a light time-filler.
Pauline Morgan
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