‘Hell Yeah!’ is an ongoing series in which horror filmmakers, critics and fans share their take on movies they love. This month: vampires!

When I was asked to submit my own piece for FEARnet’s 20 Days of Vampires, I faced an extra-special challenge: I don’t particularly care for vampires.  There are a few movies that I wholly enjoy from the genre for various reasons, but as a whole I think the majority are just one big blood-sucking cliché.  This makes Kathryn Bigelow’s sorely overlooked Near Dark all the more satisfying for me, as it’s a vampire movie for people who don’t like vampires.  I’ll explain more after the jump!

Near Dark was released in 1987, just a few short weeks after a little movie directed by Joel Schumacher called The Lost Boys.  Unlike its spiritual brethren however, Near Dark is an exercise in calculated subtlety and dealt with some very heady ideas.  The set up is similar between the two films: a young man (Caleb, played by Adrian Pasdar) falls in with a group of bloodsuckers when he becomes enamored with a mysterious woman (Mae, played by the stunning Jenny Wright).  Where The Lost Boys wore its fangs on its sleeve, however, Near Dark never once calls its pack of nightwalkers the V-word.  They have all of the vampiric traits, from severe photosensitivity to the legendary blood thirst, but they never bare fangs, opting instead to use knives or a sharpened boot spur to bleed their victims.

Even more refreshing, Near Dark never feels the need to glorify the condition of its characters.  True, they’re superhuman and don’t age (at one point Mae exposits "Y'know, the light that's leaving that star right now will take a billion years to get down here. You wanna know why you've never met a girl like me before? Because I'll still be here when the light from that star gets down here to earth."), but even that facet of their existence is painted as a burden at times, especially by the young vampire Homer, who bemoans being "a big man on the inside and [having] a small body on the outside." 

Even more horrific are the scenes where the nightwalkers find themselves in the sun, their flesh bubbling and blistering under the ultraviolet assault of the sun’s rays; it really hits home that they are forever trapped in the night, even if they can live forever.

All of this nocturnal navel-gazing and undead introspection would be pointless if you didn’t feel for the characters, and Near Dark’s phenomenal cast sees to it that you find them to be at least interesting if not a little sympathetic.  The group is led by the mysterious Jesse, played by Lance Henriksen, who oozes mystery and timelessness from every pore: when asked about his age, Jesse simply responds "I fought for the South.  We lost."

On the opposite end of the spectrum is Lance’s Aliens co-star Bill Paxton as the homicidal Severen, who seems to relish his station at the top of the food chain.  Rounding them out are the aforementioned Mae and Homer, as well Jesse’s mate Diamondback, completing the vampiric family unit.  Everyone has a distinct identity and personality, adding to the depth of the characters.  These aren’t your typical oversexed bloodsuckers, but real, dangerous people who happen to be you-know-whats.

All of this is tied together with Kathryn Bigelow’s gorgeous direction which alternates between cold and sterile and unsettling and garish, all played out over a beautiful, dreamy score by Tangerine Dream.  It’s beautiful, it’s terrifying, it’s provocative, and it’s my favorite vampire movie...because it really isn’t a vampire movie!