Near Dark, 1987 – Movie Review

Director: Kathryn Bigelow
Starring: Adrian Pasdar, Jenny Wright, Lance Henriksen, Bill Paxton, Jenette Goldstein

Score: 6/10

Reviewed by pjowens75

WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS, BUT WILL BE CLEARLY MARKED.

I’m a sucker for vampire films. But I’m also a vampire purist and hold to the vampires of Bram Stoker and Nosferatu. I hold Anne Rice responsible for destroying the vampire genre by making them romantic figures. If she’d just left it alone after “Interview With The Vampire” (which I read and enjoyed), everything would have been fine. But somehow the notion caught on and now we have women of all ages (and some men too, I suppose) swooning over what should be an ugly, wicked, decaying, and thoroughly foul creature. But no matter what they’ve been made into today, one fact should always remain: they MUST kill to survive.

Kathryn Bigelow gets that right in her first film as a solo director, NEAR DARK. Using an imaginative script, some interesting camera angles, and recognizable actors, she put together one of my favorite modern vampire movies. It went nowhere at the box office, unfortunately, because it was up against LOST BOYS, an equally enjoyable movie that was more successful because it was aimed at a younger, hipper audience and had better marketing.

NEAR DARK starts out like a twisted classic love story: boy meets girl, girl bites boy, girl takes boy home to meet the family. In this case, the family that Mae (Jenny Wright) takes Caleb (Adrian Pashdar) home to meet is a family of vampires. And these are a far cry from the romantic figures we see today. These are cold blooded killers who rejoice in the mayhem they incite, especially Bill Paxton’s Severen (“Howdy. I’m going to separate your head from your shoulders. Hope you don’t mind.”). Bigelow shows us the dark, ugly side of vampirism, where the main focus is to survive. And for that to happen, the family must kill.

So before they will accept Caleb into the fold, he must make his first kill. Of course Caleb is reluctant, and wants nothing more than to return to his father and little sister who, unbeknownst to him, are hot on his trail. And this is where the movie shines, showing us the contrasting, but equally strong ties among the two completely different families. The relationship between Caleb and his sister is strong and totally different than the relationship between Mae and “brother” Homer, a 50 year old man trapped in a 10 year old’s body. And the devotion of both father figures, both Caleb’s own real father, and the vampire family’s father figure (brilliantly underplayed by Lance Henriksen, looking remarkably like Keith Richard), shows an unspoken affection and possessiveness for their respective clans.

NEAR DARK is a fun, bloody thrill ride from beginning to end, and is well worth watching for everyone. However, there is one thing that prevents me from giving this a higher score, and if you’ve seen it, you’ll know what I’m talking about. If you haven’t seen it, go get it and watch it now. If you like your vampires cold, blood thirsty, and wild, you’ll love this movie.

SPOILER ALERT: DO NOT READ THE REST OF THIS REVIEW IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN THE MOVIE!

Why, oh why, oh why, did Kathryn Bigelow choose to shoot herself in the foot with the outcome in this movie? After all the tension, after all the reflection on the downside to being immortal and having to kill for survival, we find that all it takes to cure vampirism is a simple transfusion. WTF?!?! Then why all the angst? Why not just have Jesse and the family walk into the nearest doctor’s office and say “Look, I don’t want to be a vampire anymore, so could I get a blood transfusion please?” One of the things that makes being a vampire so terrible and, yes, sympathetic, is that THERE IS NO CURE. In that one seemingly simple script decision, to cure Caleb and Mae with just blood transfusions, Bigelow takes away all the dramatic tension she spent the first 90 minutes building so masterfully. And, indeed, takes away the crux of the entire movie.

So in the end, despite being taken for an exhilarating, fun-filled ride down the long dark road to vampirism, we find that, in truth, we really have been “taken for a ride”.

Dead Cert – Trailer for Gangsters v Vampires film

Been a while since I last mentioned this one but now there is an unofficial trailer.

Dead Cert stars Craig Fairbrass (EastEnders, Modern Warfare 2, Cliffhanger), Billy Murray (The Bill, EastEnders and also the producer on the project) plus Jason Flemyng (Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) and Steven Berkoff. Directed by former actor Steven Lawson.

In the film a gang of tough London gangsters get more than they bargained for when a group of businessmen make an offer to buy their club, the Inferno. They turn out to be nothing less than Vampires wanting their land back and turn viciously on the gangsters when their demands are not met.

Source: /Film

Twilight Saga: Eclipse – Clip of Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson in bed

If you are a fan of the Twilight series then you’ll dig this clip from the third film. If you are not a fan then move along, nothing to see here.

What Sesame Street’s Count thinks of Twilight

One…Ah-ah-ah-ah!

Source: Film Drunk

The Monster Squad – Remake in the works. Wolfman better watch his nards

Another day, another remake. This one involves The Monster Squad. That excellent 1987 film that had a group of kids fighting the classic versions of Dracula, The Wolfman, The Mummy, The Gill Man and Frankenstein’s Monster – yes I know the Monster ends up helping them. The original was one of the first films were I fully realised how dreadful the curse of the werewolf could be (not just because of getting hit in the nards). The guy who played him really shows how much he wanted to die because of it. I digress.

Deadline have the news that Paramount are keen to remake it. Rob Cohen who produced the original is hoping to direct it and they are currently meeting with writers to get a script sorted. Shane Black (Lethal Weapon, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang) and Fred Dekker (Night of the Creeps) wrote the original so they need to get some good writers involved.

I really don’t think they’ll be able to recapture the coolness of the original. The kids in that were class and casting the new squad could be the weak link. If they do go for it I just hope they go for unknown child actors and none of the current Disney style kids with the big helmet type hair that seems to be doing the rounds.

Should it be a reboot or a sequel? Would be great to have the original Squad all grown up, but to be honest I don’t really want either. I’m sticking with the original (well until I hear more about this new one).

What are your thoughts on The Monster Squad getting back together?

Suck – New trailer for Vampire rock band film

This is a film with a killer cast – Henry Rollins, Moby, Alice Cooper, Iggy Pop and more. I first mentioned it back in August last year (there was also a different trailer). Now there is a new trailer out.

Written and directed by musician/actor Rob Stefaniuk – and featuring acting turns from the likes of Iggy Pop, Alice Cooper, Henry Rollins and Moby – SUCK, follows a group of rock ‘n’ roll wannabes in search of immortality and a record deal. Seemingly doomed to roadtrip doldrums and dives, the band The Winners break their slump when their female bass player disappears one night with a studly, stylin’ vampire. She returns charged with sexual charisma that creates audience frenzy and eventually ensnares the rest of the band. Their “hook” launches them to fame. But fame turns out to be a different kind of Hell than AC/DC promised.

Following an “incident” on a national radio show with “Rockn’ Roger” The Winners hit mega-stardom beyond their wildest dreams. But Joey is haunted by an eerie bartender with a dark secret. And legendary vampire hunter, Eddie Van Helsing, is on their tail tracking them down despite his fear of the dark. But when a veteran music producer calls them on becoming a vampire freak show, their rock’n’roll bubble bursts.

Stefaniuk (Phil The Alien) stars as Joey, the lead singer of The Winners. Jessica Paré (The Trotsky, Wicker Park) plays bassist Jennifer, the first Winner to succumb to blood lust. Malcolm McDowell (Heroes, A Clockwork Orange) plays the nichtophobic Van Helsing, while Dave Foley (Kids In The Hall) is the band’s sleazy manager. Rounding out the cast is Dimitri Coates (from the band Burning Brides) as Jennifer’s vampiric “Maker.” Carole Pope (Rough Trade) plays a club manager, Henry Rollins strikes a chord as an edgy radio show host, and Moby plays the lead singer of the rock band Secretaries of Steak. Iggy Pop plays a music producer, and Alice Cooper is a sinister bartender alongside daughter Calico Cooper who plays his cheeky sidekick/waitress.

Wesley Snipes talks Blade 4

It probably won’t happen and if it does it could well be a reboot, but Wesley Snipes was chatting to MTV about his new film, Brooklyn Heights, when the subject got onto a fourth Blade film.

“Man, this has been coming up quite a bit,” laughed Snipes. “I’m really surprised to see how people are anticipating me doing another one, so you never know.”

“There are some things we really want to do that we didn’t get a chance to do,” he expalined. “The first and the second one were experiments, and we started to get better. If we do another one, it will reflect our maturity and our better understanding of the genre.”

“[I’d like to see] a larger, multiracial cast, and it would be great to have some rehearsals before some of the action sequences,” he laughed.

Obviously he is referring to Blade Trinity which had its moments (Ryan Reynolds was funny) but was a huge let down after the first two. The opening of the first Blade film is still a classic fight scene. Personally I would like to see Snipes get a chance to wear the sunglasses again, but go back to the lone fighter and it would be great if it could be pulled into the Marvel Studios group and tied it in with Iron Man etc.

Abe Lincoln: Vampire Hunter to be adapted by Tim Burton and Timur Bekmambetov

Tim Burton and Timur Bekmambetov (Wanted, Night Watch) are joing forces to bring the Seth Grahame-Smith novel Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter to the big screen.

I posted the trailer for the book yesterday and, according to Heat Vision, this caught the interest of Timur and Tim.

The book was released today by Grand Central Publishing.

Burton and Bekmambetov will produce the adaptation with Jim Lemley.

Grahame-Smith, who combined zombies and Jane Austen in the best-selling novel “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies,” will write the screenplay. The Zombies book is set up at Lionsgate with Natalie Portman producing and attached to direct.

If it does get as far as a film who should star in it and would you want Timur or Tim to direct or someone else?

The facts included are: for over 250 years, between 1607 and 1865, vampires thrived in the shadows of America. Few humans believed in them; Abraham Lincoln was the most gifted vampire hunter of his day, and kept a secret journal about his war against them; and rumors of the journal’s existence have long been a favorite topic among historians and Lincoln biographers. Most dismiss it as myth. Through the extraordinary discovery of Abraham Lincoln’s previously unknown and long lost journals, Seth Grahame-Smith brings to life the Great Emancipator’s untold history- his lifelong pursuit of the immortal undead. With unparalleled daring, Seth re-writes Abraham Lincoln’s biography to include this significant and gory piece of US history. “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter” features all the detail, colour, and readability of Team of Rivals – Barack Obama’s favourite book and the number one bestselling Lincoln biography – with only some of the historical accuracy (and thrilling new scenes of vampire combat). From Lincoln’s frontier childhood to his assassination, this richly re-imagined history gives new meaning to the moments of an already incredible life.

Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter at Amazon.co.uk
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter at Amazon.com

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter – Trailer for the book

I mentioned this book by Seth Grahame-Smith (Pride & Prejudice & Zombies) a while back. Now, they have one of those book trailer things for it and it’s pretty good.

The facts included are: for over 250 years, between 1607 and 1865, vampires thrived in the shadows of America. Few humans believed in them; Abraham Lincoln was the most gifted vampire hunter of his day, and kept a secret journal about his war against them; and rumors of the journal’s existence have long been a favorite topic among historians and Lincoln biographers. Most dismiss it as myth. Through the extraordinary discovery of Abraham Lincoln’s previously unknown and long lost journals, Seth Grahame-Smith brings to life the Great Emancipator’s untold history- his lifelong pursuit of the immortal undead. With unparalleled daring, Seth re-writes Abraham Lincoln’s biography to include this significant and gory piece of US history. “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter” features all the detail, colour, and readability of Team of Rivals – Barack Obama’s favourite book and the number one bestselling Lincoln biography – with only some of the historical accuracy (and thrilling new scenes of vampire combat). From Lincoln’s frontier childhood to his assassination, this richly re-imagined history gives new meaning to the moments of an already incredible life.

Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter at Amazon.co.uk
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter at Amazon.com

Twilight Saga: Eclipse – Bryce Dallas Howard is trying to rip off Robert Pattinson’s head

Bryca Dallas Howard (Spider-Man 3, The Village) took over the role of Victoria from from Rachelle Lefevre in the next installment of everyone’s favourite sparkly vampire film series based on a book. FearNET had the image.

The new image shows Victoria (Howard) with her hands around Edward’s (Pattinson) head, preparing to kill him the old-fashioned way: by tearing his head clean off. Victoria’s boy-toy Riley (Xavier Samuel) is also present, restraining Edward who kneels in pain.

Twilight devotees will notice that nothing exactly like this happens in the book, although Edward does face off with the vengeful Victoria in the snow, so it seems as though screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg has taken some creative liberties to raise the stakes in the third, and more suspenseful, film installment.

The film is due out on 30th June.