Synopsis: Pray For Daylight

In the dusty heart of the American southwest, innocent country boy Caleb Colton (Adrian Pasdar of Mysterious Ways) is seduced by a beautiful girl (Jenny Wright) into joining a roving pack of vicious drifters led by the enigmatic Jesse (Lance Henriksen of The Terminator and Aliens). But this is no ordinary band of outlaws; Caleb is now trapped in a nightmare of soulless evil that waits in the shadows, hellish mayhem that thrives on blood and absolute horror that begins Near Dark.

Bill Paxton (Twister) and Jenette Goldstein (Aliens) co-star in this extraordinary shocker co-written and directed by Kathryn Bigelow (Strange Days) that Entertainment Weekly calls “ultrastylish, ultraviolent and altogether brilliant.” This is more than simply the most ferociously original vampire movie of our generation; Near Dark is one of the best horror movies of all time.
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Near Dark 6.5

Vampires are super-hot these days. And sexy. But there was a time, not so long ago, when vampires were a bit gritty. And scary.

In ‘Near Dark’, we delve into the world of a band of outlaw vampires who sleep by day and terrorize the living by night – as seen through the eyes of lovers who are caught up with them. These vampires are down-and-out dirty and they eschew the usual glamour for street edge. The usual rules that we find in vampire-lore also don’t come into play here – aside from their (im)mortal fear of the sun.

At the time of its release, this provided the film with a novel spin that was rare in such films – very few films strayed from accepted conventions. And, with a serious void of freshness in Hollywood at the time, and a lot of word-of-mouth, over time the film became a cult classic.

But is it a good film?

With all due respect to its fans, I think that it’s only “okay”. Sure, it’s a watchable film that takes a few bites out of the vampire genre. But it is so full of holes that it appears to have been made with style more than substance in mind – because, frankly, the script (while it attracted a tremendous cast), could have benefited from a few rewrites by the Logic Police.

Case-in-point: the sun rises so fast that it feels as though the vampires are in a race against it. For some reason, the moment they realize that sun is about to rise, they get in a demented tizzy and drive to their shelter before it’s too late – chased by their solar tormentor. It’s rather ridiculous, if stylish, and it makes you wonder how little wisdom these vampiric hooligans had accumulated in their centuries on earth.

Another such moment comes during a blood transfusion scene that defies all reason. The fact that it’s taking place on a farm in the middle of nowhere initially raises the question of where the farmer could have gotten all this blood in the first place. But it also brings up the dubious matter of the transfusion itself, and its purported effect.

For the critically-minded, the sheer number of issues that pop up can be rather daunting. On the surface, ‘Near Dark’ seems like a simple story of lovers in plight (but with vampires!). The problem is that, below the surface, a lot of questions remain unanswered and many “as if” moments remain inexplicable. One clearly has to invest in some serious suspension of disbelief to enjoy it.

Bottom line: does ‘Near Dark’ deserve its cult status? Probably. Is it a flawed gem? Frankly, I wouldn’t even call it “near perfect”. It’s simply a decent film that deserved better than to be buried at the box office by another, more stylish, but even more-flawed ‘80s icon: ‘The Lost Boys’.