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DVD Tuesday: Heroes, Big Love, Aliens and Vampires!
Near Dark courtesy Anchor Bay
Near Dark puts a bloody twist on vampire cliches and features a very young Adrian Pasdar.
Send your movie questions to FlickChick.
See Maitland McDonagh and Ken Fox review this week's new flicks in Movie Talk!
A hero, a big lover and three alien fighters walk into a bar and let me tell you, all hell busts loose. I love Near Dark (1987), the best vampire film never to use the V word ever made.
As I was watching the Heroes finale last week, I thought this would be a fine time to acquaint — or reacquaint — DVD Tuesday readers with a very young Adrian Pasdar (Heroes' Nathan Petrelli), a scorching hot Bill Paxton (Big Love's Bill Henrickson) and dynamite middle-aged murder junkies Lance Henriksen and Jenette Goldstein. (Paxton, who was also in Aliens, does double duty in my admittedly gimmicky lead — forgive me, please.) Not to mention Joshua Miller, son of playwright and Exorcist star Jason Miller and hands down the creepiest movie kid ever. Plus the underrated Tim Thomerson, silver-haired star of too much direct-to-DVD junk. And there's the haunting Jenny Wright — anyone who can tell me what's become of her, please write.
Pasdar is good-looking Oklahoma boy Caleb, who loves his daddy (Thomerson) and little sister, his horses and his pickup truck, but not as much as he loves gamine blonde Mae (Wright) the moment he lays eyes on her, standing on a deserted small-town street, licking a vanilla cone and looking like moonlight made flesh. Their late-night date ends with a bloody kiss, and next thing Caleb knows, there's something really wrong with him. And that's before he finds himself scooped into a van with Mae's family, a pack of blood-drinking serial killers who keep dropping ominous hints about how long they've been criss-crossing the Southwest, wreaking gory havoc and reveling in every minute of it. "Let's put it this way: I fought for the South," says patriarch Jesse (the magnificently malevolent Henriksen). "We lost."
Caleb's dilemma: He's tainted by Mae's bite. He can't go home; he can't even stand in the sunlight without frying like bacon. But until he starts killing he's not one of them, and he's just not the killing kind.
Director and co-screenwriter Kathryn Bigelow never lived up to Near Dark's promise (and her writing partner, Eric Red — who scripted the nothing-short-of-brilliant original version of The Hitcher — suffered some kind of spectacular meltdown in 2000), but what a kick-ass variation on a theme: A vampire Western that anticipates The Devil's Rejects with a healthy dollop of serious sex appeal.
It died in theaters, and I had to spend a tidy slice of the '90s converting friends to its dark charms. Check it out on DVD: It looks fantastic and it holds up ferociously.
Things to consider:
What's the appeal of vampires? Filmmakers keep making movies about them, spinning the traditions every which way but loose, and moviegoers keep going to see them.
What's you favorite vampire movie?
When you like an actor or actress you know from something current, a movie or a TV show, do you seek out his or her earlier work? Any favorite discoveries?
Previously in DVD Tuesday…
Perfect Blue
Pan's Labyrinth
Les Girls
The Girl Who Knew Too Much
The Queen
Expresso Bongo
I'm Not Scared
Shocking Grindhouse Double Bill! — Scanners and The Candy Snatchers
Don't Look Now
Re-Animator
Casino Royale
http://community.tvguide.com/thread.jspa?threadID=800073953#comments">Pi
The Prestige
13 Tzameti
The Departed
Suspiria
Kiss and Make Up
Kiss Me Deadly
The Long Good Friday
What Alice Found
The Devil's Backbone
The Descent
The Devil Wears Prada
Pandora's Box
The Thief and the Cobbler
Nashville
Panic in the Streets/Jack Palance Interview
The Pusher Trilogy
Scarface
Slither
Sunset Blvd.
In Cold Blood
Brick
Also: This week's new DVD releases
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May 29, 2007 9:44 AM
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Maitland, NEAR DARK is such an amazing film. The print we had lined up this past Halloween as part of our Halloween Horror Marathon at the little indie moviehouse I work at fell through at the last minute and it was a huge disappointment.
Such a great flick and everyone needs to see it. So happy to see you out here pimping it!
My favorite vampire films would have to be the original Nosferatu then Near Dark followed by Lost Boys (nostalgic pop cultural reasons as I'm a child of the 80s) and Fright Night.
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May 29, 2007 10:59 AM
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I would have to pick From Dusk Till Dawn, then I too would pick Lost Boys.
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May 29, 2007 11:31 AM
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Why do we love Vampires? I think the Vampire story has such longevity because of how complex and intriguing these creatures are. My greatest fear as a child was not so much being bitten, but being turned into one. That in my eyes was worst than death itself. And through time they have evolved into super-human creatures that appear unstoppable. It is because they are so threatening and powerful that we enjoy seeing how us simple, everyday humans (and the occasional hybrid or chosen one) can defeat these terrifying monsters, scoring one for the home team.
And then Hollywood created "Hero" Vampires like Selene and Angel. This is an interesting twist on the Vampire legend because now we can't help but cheer them on even though all these years Vampire = Bad. Instead of mindless killing machines they are three dimensional characters with missions based on honor or redemption, with feelings and conflicts that we can relate to. And so we will return to the theaters to see if humans will win again over evil or to witness the struggle of a new kind of hero.
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May 29, 2007 11:48 AM
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Lost Boys has got to be my favorite vampire movie as Santa Cruz, where the movie was filmed, is my hometown. 
I did enjoy Near Dark, but some parts of the movie were SO cheesy, I couldn't say it's one of my favorite vampire movies.
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May 29, 2007 1:31 PM
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I think my favorite three vamp movies are Fright Night, Blood for Dracula and The Fearless Vampire Killers. OK... and any Hammer vamp movie as well.
I like Fright Night because I love the premise of a kid teaming up with their horror movie host and the intelligent way they dealt with the conventions of the vampire mythos.
Blood for Dracula is just over-the-top fun in a Warhol meets Grand Guignol way. Savory nonsensical goodness.
And The Fearless Vampire Killers does a great homage to creaky vamp flicks while injecting some humor into the proceedings. KILLER ending!
Runners up: Martin, Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein and Blacula. Does The Omega Man count when you take the original book into account?
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May 29, 2007 1:59 PM
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I'm not sure what it is about 'em, but I like vampire movies. The only real issue I have with some (especially ones made in the 80s) is how once someone becomes a vampire their hair suddenly becomes "styled" and they now have makeup on. What's up with that? One of my favorites would have to be John Carpenter's Vampires, of course I'm kind of a sucker for his movies. I also really liked Blade 2. Has anyone read any of the vampire related Batman graphic novels? Good stuff.
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May 29, 2007 2:18 PM
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I could never get past Corey Feldman's affected voice in Lost Boys. Killed the momentum every time he came on the screen. It was OK and I liked some of the toys they had... but Fright Night was scarier for me.
John Carpenter's Vampires was really good while it was playing. Left me a littly empty after it was over. But any time you got James Woods and vampires... sign me up!
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May 29, 2007 3:12 PM
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Yeah! Jeanette Goldstein! The kicka$$ female space marine of Aliens! Paxton's character asks her if she's ever mistaken for a guy. She says, "No. How about you?"
Classic! She's also the foster-mom in Terminator 2. Wonder what she's up to now?
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May 29, 2007 4:11 PM
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Favourite vampire flick? Whoah! To many to relate. Near Dark, of course, for its multi-genre approach and amazing writing [not to mention that stellar cast!]; the original Forever Knight pilot movie, for the then unique take on a contrite vampire; Buffy the Vampire Slayer, even though it got hacked up pretty good by the studio [which had no clue what Whedon was doing]; The BBC mini-series starring Louis Jourdan, for just being out and out creepy-smart, and on and on...
On the subject of the underrated Tim Thomerson, I love that he made a low-budget film called Trancers, which was meant to cash in on Blade Runner - and it was almost as good as a movie!
If there's ever a Hall of Fame for B-Movie Gods & Goddesses, he should be one of the first class of inductees!
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May 29, 2007 4:26 PM
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Captain A: I saw Trancers in a Times Square theater back when movies like that actually opened in theaters and enjoyed the hell out of it. That was the first time I saw Thomerson in anything (or at least the first time I noticed him), and he's never gotten the breaks he deserved. He's so good in Near Dark. I remember thinking maybe things were turning around fro him when he took over the Nick Nolte role in the TV version of Down and Out in Beverly Hills (1986), but no such luck.
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May 29, 2007 5:35 PM
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Captain Average:
If you're gonna count TV movies, then The Night Stalker and the original Salem's Lot could easily make my best-of list.
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May 29, 2007 5:43 PM
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This is slightly off-topic, but I would like to make a case for what I think is Kathryn Bigelow's shamefully overlooked movie Strange Days. I realise many people have problems with this movie, but personally I think it is one of the most underrated sci-fi movies of all time. The actors are spectacular (especially Ralph Fiennes and Tom Sizemore), the story is every bit as intriguing as any futuristic noir thriller and I can't say enough good things about the cinematography. The POV shots are most famous, of course, but they're nothing compared to the shots of the masses of people partying in the new millennium in a total state of frenzy. Also, evil Vincent D'Onofrio is the most delightful evil you could ever imagine.
Even though many people really dislike Bigelow (it's hard to defend K-19: The Widowmaker), I cling to this movie like a child to a beloved blanket. I've seen it many times now, and it has become one of my absolute favourites. Based on that movie alone, I'm down with whatever Kathryn Bigelow does next.
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May 29, 2007 7:12 PM
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Oskar, I just saw Strange Days for the first time last week (it's in heavy rotation on Encore). I saw some things to like but a lot I did not. I think it was the ending that troubled me the most.
It was pretty obvious who the "bad guy" was gonna be long before the final unmasking. And that final showdown seemed really unrealistic and poorly staged.
On the plus side, I was totally turned off to Vincent D'Onofrio after seeing The Cage (shudder). But here he kind of redeemed himself.
Not sure how you got from Vampires to sci-fi... but OOOOH... let me swing it back around:
Lifeforce
Lifeforce
Lifeforce
Luv me some Lifeforce! How could I forget one of my vamptastic favorites! (without the "u"... Oskar are you European?)
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May 29, 2007 7:30 PM
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