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Caleb is a modern day cowboy. He meets Mae, a beautiful and
mysterious young woman who turns out to be a vampire.
When they kiss she bites him but then flees, leaving him to stagger home
wondering why the encroaching dawn in suddenly making his skin begin to smoke.
He's picked up - literally - by a campervan, Mae's surrogate family
a squalid band of nomadic vampires. Caleb too has now become a vampire
and they decide to give him a chance to join them.
Caleb is however unable or unwilling to bring himself to kill
and brings the police down upon them by allowing a victim to flee.
Though he earns himself a brief stay of execution by risking his own life to save them.
They are found by Caleb's father and little sister Sarah who are
threatened by the vampires but Caleb and his family escape
and Caleb's father performs a blood transfusion on his son,
which cures him of his vampirism.
The vampires come after them, kidnapping Sarah. There is a showdown
where Mae and Sarah are rescued and the vampires destroyed.
Mae is also given a blood transfusion and wakes to find herself
human once more.
The story behind this film goes that Kathryn Bigelow wanted to
make a Western, however, knowing she'd never get financing, decided to
blend it with a more commercial genre.
The result is, ironically, something fresh and highly original
as doing this allowed her blend the mythology of both genres and
pick and choose those elements from each that most appealed to her.
Furthermore, this is an up-to-date revision. When Caleb first begins to crave blood, it's
depicted like a junkie going cold turkey, an image that instantly
secures both mythologies in a stark and urban modern
day.
"What are you on?" "You wouldn't believe me if I told you."
Given the premise this film neatly avoids clichés.
These aren't your typical vampires. They have more in common with
Bonnie and Clyde than Louise and Lestat.
No suave, frock coated, Eastern European accents. Nowhere is there any mention of crosses, stakes,
garlic, holy water or any of the other standard accoutrements.
These vampires even carry guns. In fact, they could just about be
any normal crime-spree outlaws.
The film makes no apologies for its vampires and pulls no punches
when it comes to their kills, which are numerous and bloody.
They are predators, plain and simple, hunting to feed
and the film makes no attempt to moralise, it just presents them
for the viewer to accept as a given.
The bar room sequence, one of the more notable set-pieces,
is a typical example. Cinematically, it's a wonderful scene,
the menace and threat, palpable from the start.
Our protagonist here is Caleb, who is one of the bad guys in this scene.
Dramatically it's a question of whether or not he will fully
embrace his vampirism and in so doing be integrated into the group.
This lends the scene an uncomfortable degree of ambiguity
which is only heightened by the fact that these are disposable victims
and the audience do not particularly relate to them anyway.
It gives the viewer a guilty sense of complicity and the dark humour only serves to add to
this tension.
From the moment we meet the vampires they are dangerous and threatening
but they are also the surrogate family that Caleb is drawn into
and much of the early drama is derived from the question of
mutual acceptance between them.
Caleb needs to prove himself, and wishes to do so because of his
love of Mae. There is a genuine sense of joy and relief when
Caleb redeems himself in their eyes by saving them during the
police shootout and there is the feeling that this family
may yet be reconciled.
But just as Caleb is living under this constant, potential threat
so too is he a threat to their family dynamic, disrupting the equilibrium
and inciting jealousies within the group by his relationship with Mae.
It almost plays like the story of the girl who falls in love with
an outsider, and in so doing brings down destruction upon them all.
One detail of vampire mythology that is kept is that of daylight
which is a constant threat. Their nomadic existence makes them
especially vulnerable, given that they have no safe harbour to
haul up at the end of a night's work and put their feet up
with a glass of O+
It's a detail that is played out very well.
During a shootout sequence, the bullet-holes with sunlight streaming
through are far more dangerous to the vampires than the bullets themselves.
Much of the film takes place in the early hours of the morning with the dawn approaching.
Given their fairly major Achilles' heel it's perhaps a foolish time
for them to still be up and about but thematically it's highly significant.
It's a limbo state between day and night, between the worlds of
humanity and that of the nocturnal predator.
The film is after all called Near Dark.
It's this meeting of worlds which the film concerns itself with.
Caleb is caught in the transition, torn between two possible lives
his yearning to return to his own family, or to stay with Mae
and join her surrogate family.
But he can't stay on the fence forever, ultimately he has to
commit to or reject vampirism and all that comes with it
namely hunting and killing.
It's only when one family is threatened directly by the other
a scene where the two father's face off against one another
that he is able to choose between them.
He returns home and regains his humanity. (Though this interpretation
is somewhat marred by the fact that Mae who has lived years as a
vampire, is also ultimately redeemed.)
The idea of family is strong in this film: Jessie and Diamonback
have an odd sentimentality to them, their roles in the group
clearly parental. Jessie is like an alpha wolf
leading the pack with absolute authority.
Severan is the film's least ambiguous character, and it's through him
that Bigelow portrays what a pure vampire is, a perfect hunter
utterly without pity or remorse. He plays with his victims
like a cat plays with a mouse, relishing the power of it.
And Homer, the child vampire, who epitomises the chief flaw
in their lifestyle. Though they do not grow old, nor can they evolve.
They don't live so much as continually exist. An endless routine of running and hiding,
nightly slaughter and feeding then finding cover again before the dawn.
Most ambiguously played is Mae. At her first appearance she is
striking in her ethereal beauty and femininity. It's Caleb, ***-sure and full of bad-boy
charm who does the pursuing. The irony here, that he is in fact the innocent,
and she the predator. But the whole scene is multi-layered, and
nuanced.
Despite her intention, the seduction itself is sweet and
seemingly genuinely felt. She is conflicted between her instincts
as a vampire and her human want to fall in love with this boy
just like a normal girl. It's a conflict that gives her genuine pathos.
Her naivety and her innocence is reinforced, even as her predatory
vampire instincts are revealed.
It's this ambiguity that ultimately makes her as torn as Caleb and
cause her to betray her own family in order to save him and Sarah.
And in the end, it's what makes her just as capable and worthy of redemption.
Which brings us to a point which some viewers seem to have a problem with
that of the blood transfusion as a cure for vampirism.
This particular detail splits the audience somewhat, with people
questioning the precise mechanics of it. In my opinion, it's just
a plot-device and the logistics are unimportant. (And why split hairs
over this minor point yet still happily accept the whole concept of
vampires and all that goes with it?)
What matters is the fact that this is about redemption.
It certainly makes no less sense then the more often used cliche of
killing the head vampire to save those caught in limbo.
In conclusion, a beautifully shot movie, atmospheric, and stylish.
Enough blood to satisfy the horror fan and enough depth to
maintain interest between kills.