Post by stefancrosscoe on Jan 31, 2018 13:30:43 GMT
"I sure haven't met any girls like you."
When the usually confident and sligthly naive country boy Caleb Colton (Adrian Pasdar) first lays his eyes on the stunning Mae (Jenny Wright), he is immediately entranced by her innocence and beauty, and will do whatever it takes to try and gain her attention, and pretty soon, the two strangers seems to get more than well acquainted. However, things are not always what they seem and it gets complicated when Caleb is suddenly taking part of Mae's little secret. One that will end up affecting both of their lives, as the night sure has its price.
Tried to look up if there was already made a thread for this film, but could not find one to my surprise.
Anyway, Kathryn Bigelow's 1987 horror movie Near Dark is one of my favorite 1980s titles, not just within the horror genre but overall I think of it as one of the finest films of that era. Stunning in places and might just be among the most atmospheric and "hypnotic" horror releases of the 1980s.
This is a very different kind of a movie, or at least compared to other big 80s vampire films.
It is not as fast-paced or action filled, instead it slowly builds up and for some, it might take a few views but it is one that I think will reward those who have patience with this kind of movies, and not just sit around and wait for an 90-100 minutes onslaughter, where you have an army of zombies or monsters ready to get blown to kingdom come.
This is a beautifully and very well made, (and not just visually but also story and character wise) film and one which contains a great romantic plot involving Caleb and Mae, but also one which comes with a hefty price and it is here we get to meet up with Mae's partners in crime, and then things begin to turn nasty.
I am not gonna spoil a lot by writing too much, but what a fantastic gallery of great character actors this film really have, as it is almost like a "best of" of the coolest and most used character actors of the 80s and 90s, all "thrown" into one film, and it worked like magic.
Beside the gorgeous Jenny Wright and Adrian Pasdar in the leads, we have Lance Henriksen, Bill Paxton, Janette Goldstein, Tim Thomerson, Troy Evans, Roger Aaron Brown, James LeGros and Theresa Randle, (just to name a few) and of course Joshua Miller as Homer.
Of course, when you learn that the german synth-wizards Tangerine Dream are involved, and it is made in the 80s, you pretty much know it is gonna be something special to look forward to. And, well it ended up after my first view to become one of my most overpriced (but best) CD soundtrack purchases ever, but damn, it was absolute worthy every penny, as this haunting, dreamlike and at times adventurous score is among some of the very best they ever did and my only little "complaint" is that the stunning number which is called Mae's Theme was not given a stand alone spot, instead it is featured as a part of Bus Stop/Mae's Theme.
Anyway, still it does have that classic, miminalistic, romantic, moody and fragile sound which all of my favorite Tangerine Dream themes often seem to come with.
Sadly, Youtube have removed most of the classic scenes from this film, (I could swear they had the bar scene along with a few others a while back) but I guess one have to look elsewhere for those these days.
Anyway, I found one of my all time favorite movie scenes, and very likely among the most badass ones, which is the classic bar scene:
"Did I do that?"
Also, a few years back (or more) a remake was in talks, but thankfully those plans were made to rest as the Twilight films sudden success became the biggest thing in Vampire fashion and it went as far that some "geniuses" even saw the opportunity to milk it even further by re-releasing Near Dark along with an very heavily photoshopped (and terribly so) DVD-Blu-ray artwork/cover, to make it look more "appealing" to the fans of the Twilight series.
Anyway, maybe it was for the best.