Near Dark

(1987) ***

Near Dark is not your average vampire flick, it's more of a western really, well sort of. The gang of vampires is kind of more like if vampires were outlaws and such, but that's not the real story here. Essentially I guess when you really get down to it you could call it a love story.

Meet the boy: Caleb, just down home country boy with a heart as pure as gold. Lives with his dad and his little sister. He's out having a fun night with buddies when out of nowhere he spots Mae.

Meet the girl: Mae just seems to be the sweetest thing since home churned butter. Their eyes meet and it's love at first sight. Caleb offers her a ride and away they go. She gets nervous about the time says she needs to be home by dawn. As he's driving her home he suddenly stops and says he's not going any further until she gives him a kiss. Kiss leads to bite and after she bites him Mae suddenly gets out of the truck and runs off. Caleb's truck won't start after and as he's walking home his body starts smoking. He's burning up, Dad & sis see him struggling when suddenly a big RV comes along, scoops him up and drives off.

Meet the family: Jesse Hooker is the leader with his woman Diamondback big 80's hair and all.

Big Brother?: Severen, a jolly sort who really enjoys a good kill.

Little Brother?: Homer, don't let his size fool you this kid's got enough attitude to fill a pair of man sized boots.

Now Caleb is willing to stay with them because he loves Mae. There's just one problem, he doesn't want to kill anyone. He survives by feeding off of Mae and the others don't like that at all. Caleb must learn to kill or he will be destroyed by his new found family. In the meantime, his Dad & sister have not given up searching for him. He is torn by his love for then and his love for Mae.

Now as 80's vampire movies go I would have to say I would pick "Near Dark" over "Lost Boys" any day of the week. How can you really go wrong when you have Lance Henriksen? He's a bad ass and he doesn't need any fangs to prove it. That's right, I don't recall seeing one set of fangs in this flick. Oh there was plenty of blood, but no fangs flashing around. The kid Homer is much cooler than that lame ass Laddie in "Lost Boys". Huh, Laddie? Does anyone really name their kid Laddie? Isn't that a dog's name? Ok so they threw in plenty of bad 80's background music and well there is the hair and no we didn't get even one Corey in this flick when the other has two. But still, Lance f'in Henrikson! You just gotta love the man.