Near Dark [Blu-ray]
Country boy Caleb Colton (Adrian Pasdar) whittles away the quiet rural nights hunting local girls – but when he falls prey to the mysterious and beautiful Mae (Jenny Wright), Caleb unknowingly becomes the hunted. Mae is no ordinary girl, Caleb soon learns; she is part of an outlaw band of vampires, and their love is about to lure him into a terrifying world of bloodlust, mayhem and absolute horror. Will Caleb pay the ultimate price for love and eternal life – or will he find a way to defeat the evil growing inside him each night NEAR DARK?
User Ratings and Reviews
2 Stars Not worth it
I bought this Blu-Ray at Walmart for $10, but the movie wasn’t even worth that. It was a silly wanna be Vampire movie, they made better ones than this in the 80’s so you can’t blame it on the time. I love Vampire movies and usually even like the cheesy ones, but this one wasn’t even cheesy.
3 Stars Vampire Twist - mediocre quality
I’ve always liked this Vampire movie and was looking forward to the HD resolution of BlueRay. Although the quality was a step better than standard, it was obvious that no attempt was made to re-master the original. The video was slightly grainy, but still better than a standard DVD. You’ll like Bill Paxton in an early role for him and everybody has to enjoy Lance Henrickson? Wait for a price reduction or a digitally remastered version.
1 Stars Ugly white trash vampires doing very little.
Not much happens in this “vampire” flick set in Texas (or maybe Oklahoma). The film is dark and ugly and so are most of the cast members. It wants to be a love story but it isn’t especially easy to believe since Caleb and Mae fall in love about two minutes after their first meeting. Mae is played by the rodent faced Jenny Wright, whose acting range consists of pursing her lips, occasionally blinking her eyes and whispering all her lines. Adrian Pasdar is Caleb who is rather more attractive than Wright and has more acting skills (including drooling, clutching his stomach and mumbling his dialog). Lance Henrickson is on hand looking for all the world like an AIDS victim with a meth addiction and annoying Josh Miller is a 12 year old with a Cindy Brady lisp and a penchant for younger women. They all ride around in stolen vans and cars, forever tapeing tin foil and cardboard to the windshield as they inevitably stay out past sun up. These vampires seem to have an allergy to water that is as severe as their aversion to sunlight, since none of them ever seem to bathe and they are all constantly covered in black soot for various reasons. Other nonsense includes Caleb’s dad discovering the cure for vampirism is blood transfusion.
The film gets plenty of extras on this Bluray from LionsGate. The transfer looks good enough but since the film itself is so unattractive looking, this disc is never going to be very impressive in terms of picture quality. 5.1 soundtrack is okay but nothing special. The disc includes a mind blowingly insipid commentary track from bland director Kathryn Bigelow, mouthing platitudes and indicating to the unfortunate listener how inspired and creative she believes she is. There is a forgetable deleted scene that can be watched with or without commentary. There is a drab making-of documentary and theatrical trailers.
I had somehow missed this film for years (turns out I wasn’t missing much) and I picked it up for 10 bucks in WalMart hoping it might be halfway decent. It wasn’t.
1 Stars Why?
Why would this be put on Blu-Ray? Why do people like this movie enough to give it 5 stars? Just, Why?
5 Stars Don’t Let the Cover Fool You
The 1980’s was the Decade of some great Films
5 Movies of the 80’s Changed the vampire genre and brought new Life/Twist into the Mythology
(Fright Night, The Hunger, The Lost Boys, Near Dark & Vamp)
Thankfully 2 of the 5 Films have been Transferred to the HD Format
A Film like Near Dark was made for HD
Kathryn Bigelow was Behind A Film that was Decades a-head of the time.
At the time was Over-Looked due in fact It was Released around the same time as Joel Schumacher’s The Lost Boys
But, since then has Gained a Cult Status in the Leagues of Any Romero, Carpenter, and Coscarelli Film!
With A Dream Cast of Vampires
Lance Henriksen,
Bill Paxton,
Jenette Goldstein
The 3 Bring So much to the Film and are such rounded Charters you actually Hate to see Them Die
The 3 were also in a Little Film called Aliens
A young Adrian Pasdar (Pre Heroes)
I Highly Recommend This BR
The PQ is 5 Star along with a True DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
Lionsgate/Studio Canal put allot into the HD Transfer
w/ all The extras from the Previous Anchor Bay SD DVD
This Film is a Must have for all Horror/Vampire Fans who wanna see How A Real Vampire movie Should look like in Stunning HD
A Masterpiece 10/10
Filed under: Blue Ray Movie Reviews