NearDark Tagged Articles at Cinematical

he Hurt Locker opens this week, and one of the most remarkable things about this remarkable war movie is that it plays more like a gut-busting Sam Fuller/Don Siegel WWII action film than it does one of today's somber, navel-gazing, message-driven war films. Perhaps even more remarkable -- though it's sad that it has to be so remarkable -- is that director Kathryn Bigelow is a woman, out-shooting most of today's male directors. But thankfully she's not the only one to give men a run for their money in guy-oriented genres.

1. Near Dark (1987, Kathryn Bigelow)
Bigelow has already racked up an impressive career of male-bonding films of all genres. Most of them are underrated gems or cult films, and I like all of them, but this vampire film is my favorite (though, technically, the word "vampire" is never used in the film). It was one of the first films to remove the classic gothic setting and place the bloodsuckers in the modern-day American west, among the denim-clad rednecks, neon bars and pickup trucks. It's relentlessly violent and sometimes disturbing but at the same time it knows how to pause for moments of glorious beauty and even a touching love story.

I was a 10-year-old girl when I first stumbled across a book about a vampire rock star, but from that moment on, I have always had a thing for the plasma-challenged. I've gone on to read everything from Penny Dreadfuls to Poppy Z. Brite, and to this day I will always watch a vampire movie, no matter how bad -- and there are no shortage of those. But there are some good ones, too, and one of my favorites is Kathryn Bigelow's Near Dark. I have plenty of reasons for respecting Bigelow's work (whose new -- and excellent -- film The Hurt Locker opens on June 26th), because let's face it -- there aren't very many female directors, especially female 'action' directors -- and thanks to her vampire-Western hybrid, I'm willing to give her a bit of slack for her lesser flicks. So to anyone out there who thinks girls can only do 'hearts and flowers' on the big screen, just watch the scene after the jump and tell me if you still feel the same way.

But back to vampires: ever since Dracula first stepped off the Demeter and into London society, vampires have usually been frock-coated aristocratic types, but not these guys. Bigelow's vamps are more Hell's Angels than love-starved dandies, and unlike a certain vampire who shall go unnamed, have no qualms about being the bad guy. I do like to think of myself as a connoisseur of all things 'vamp', and I have to say, this scene is a doozey. In less than 10 minutes this group manages to clean out an entire redneck bar, and it ain't pretty. But then again, that's why I love it. In the end I prefer my vampires to be a little more bloodthirsty and a little less sensitive, don't you?

After the jump: Near Dark fun facts and the Scene We (I) Love...

Y'know, for every horror flick that gets a remake, there must be like ... dozens that don't! And since Platinum Dunes is a production company that enjoys dabbling in the horror remake department, it's good to know they won't just CHASE popular titles for the hell of it. According to Filmstalker (and a variety of other sources), the company behind the remakes of Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Amityville Horror, The Hitcher, Friday the 13th, and (eventually) The Birds and A Nightmare on Elm Street is dropping its formative plans on remakes of Roman Polanski's classic chiller Rosemary's Baby and Kathryn Bigelow's cult fave Near Dark.

The reasons are both basic and uninteresting ("We couldn't come up with something where it felt like it was relevant and we could add something to it other than what it was so we're now not going to be doing that film."), but at least we can take those two off our "ugh, why?" list.

But fear not, remake admirers: Next year looks to be a big-time buffet of My Bloody Valentine, Friday the 13th, The Wolfman, The Crazies, Piranha 3-D, and the sequel to the remake of Halloween. So these two won't be missed, really.

OK, I'll admit it: I couldn't be happier that that the long-planned remake of the vamp classic Near Dark will not be happening any time soon. Producer Brad Fuller recently spoke with Empire magazine about the just-announced Twilight sequel, when Fuller brought up the remake, telling Empire, "Near Dark is probably not going to happen, I think that Twilight was the same type of thing we were going for although Near Dark was a much darker, sexier, rated R version of that." And if you have seen the original Near Dark, you know that "darker" is a nice way of putting it (anyone remember that scene in the bar? I'd like to see The Cullens top that).

Originally released in 1987, Dark was written and directed by Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker) and centered on a small town boy (played by Adrian Pasdar) who is roped into a vampire gang when he falls in love with one of its members ... and this is probably where Fuller started noticing some comparisons with the 'Bella and the Gang'. Fuller went on to explain Dark's delay was a direct result of Twilight's release, saying, "For now, that movie is on hold. The concept of 'one person's a vampire, the other person isn't and they're in love, with the success of that film, we would not measure up, It's not the right time to make that." That does seem like a flimsy excuse once you consider that "star-crossed lovers with fangs" isn't exactly a new idea.

But, no matter what happens, it seems like Dark is the remake that will not die, so I would expect that for now the film is simply down ... but definitely not out.

UPDATE: Speaking of Twilight, it's just been announced that New Moon will arrive in theaters on November 20, 2009.

If you're a horror fan who's even close to my age, then you probably have a geek-crush on filmmaker Eric Red -- and you might not even know it. Mr. Red made a big splash in the genre arena with The Hitcher in 1986, and his Near Dark (1987) would eventually go on to become a bona-fide cult classic -- even if it didn't exactly set the world on fire upon its original release. After those successes, the guy wrote and/or directed flicks like the little-seen Cohen and Tate (1989, Roy Scheider & Adam Baldwin), the intense Blue Steel (1990, Ron Silver & Jamie Lee Curtis), the semi-clever Body Parts (1991, Jeff Fahey & Kim Delaney), the really solid The Last Outlaw (1994, Mickey Rourke & Dermot Mulroney), the bizarre Undertow (1996, Lou Diamond Phillips & Mia Sara), the half-decent Bad Moon (1996, Michael Pare & Mariel Hemingway) -- and then ... nothing.

What happened to Eric Red? Well, part of it was a horrific car crash in 2000 in which two people were killed, the details of which can be found in this LA Times article. (The headline reads: "Horror filmmaker Eric Red crashed his Jeep, killing two. Then he slit his own throat. That was only the beginning." Yikes!) But now it looks like the guy is primed for a big-time comeback and, as The Arrow tells us, Eric Red's got a pretty nifty idea for a ghost story.

The 100 Feet plot goes like this: An abused wife kills her horrible husband, only he was a cop, and now his ex-partner is staking the widow out, desperately hoping she'll set off her ankle collar so he can cart her back to jail. So all she has to do is stay in the house, right? Well, yeah, but the evil ghost of her dead husband has other plans for his former Mrs.!! (I think it's a pretty cool concept, so there.) Mr. Red tells Mr. Arrow that "This is an elevated, old school and classical supernatural thriller that relies on suspense, character and suggestion," but he also promises a little gore, too. Cool. 100 Feet begins shooting in Hungary early next year.

Director (and former Mrs. Jim Cameron) Kathryn Bigelow has had a rather uneven career in her twenty-odd years in Hollywood, but always managed to keep working and bring some pretty interesting projects to the screen. Now, according to Production Weekly, she is setting her sites on the Iraq war with her newly announced film, The Hurt Locker.

The film, which Bigelow co-wrote with war reporter-turned-screenwriter Mark Boal, tells the story of an elite bomb disposal unit and its exploits during the gulf war. This is not completely new territory for Bigelow, having directed other testosterone-heavy projects like Point Break, with Patrick Swayze and a pre-Neo Keanu Reeves, K-19: The Widowmaker, with Harrison Ford and Peter Sarsgaard and the near-perfect Near Dark with Bill Paxton and Lance Henricksen. These past films should give her a pretty good handle on what it takes to tackle this latest story.

The Hurt Locker has already begun pre-production with shooting scheduled to start in March. No word yet on a release date or cast but, as always, I'm going to make some suggestions: Let's get Bigelow vets Patrick Swayze, Lance Henriksen and Bill Paxton together to fill key roles in this project. I think they would make part of a pretty kick-ass bomb disposal team.

Think about it: Henriksen as the grizzled veteran who's seen it all, Swayze as the guy on the edge with only a few days left before he can go home to his family and Paxton as the guy who's wound just a little-too-tight for bomb disposal. Throw in a few young up-and-comers like Emile Hirsch and/or Chad Michael Murry and you might have something there. Sadly, from the description of the movie, it doesn't sound like there's a role for Jenette Goldstein in there anywhere, but I can hope. What do you think of my casting ideas?

Like many fans of the original film, news that Michael Bay's production company Platinum Dunes was planning to remake the 1987 contemporary western/vampire film Near Dark caused my intestines to explode made me wince. An Armageddon-esque sensibility just doesn't seem to jive with this little indie horror flick. The original film was directed by Kathryn Bigelo and starred Adrian Pasdar (currently playing a Congressional candidate who can fly on NBC's Heroes) as a young man who is bitten by and falls in with a dysfunctional vampire "family" roaming America's heartland. The vampires were played by three recent alumni of James Cameron's Aliens: Lance Henriksen, Bill Paxton and Jenette Goldstein, as well as Jenny Wright and young Joshua Miller who was particularly memorable in River's Edge.

According to Sci Fi Wire, though, one person who is excited about the remake (which has been discussed previously on Cinematical) is Lance Henriksen. The veteran actor of many a horror flick and TV shows was quite tickled at the notion. "Oh, man, I hadn't heard that," Henriksen said in an interview. "It's one of my favorites, Near Dark. If they were smart, what they would do is get a hold of Bill Paxton, Jenette Goldstein and me, and do something that starts as a prequel to Near Dark. They need to have a conversation with us, because, man, Billy Paxton and I have been talking about this, about what we would do, if we did a prequel. And really great stuff came up. So it would be very wise of them to connect us."

I'm not clear on how this would work since these supposedly immortal vampires are now twenty years older than they were when the first film was shot, and Henriksen is talking prequel. Still, Bay's company could do a lot worse than get some input from the actors who originated these characters, right?

Waaaay back in April I shared the news that Pumpkinhead 3 would soon arrive from director Jake West (Evil Aliens) and actors Lance Henriksen (Near Dark) and Doug Bradley (Hellraiser), and it looks like "soon" equals October 28th ... on the Sci-Fi Channel. Ugh. I may just wait for the DVD release...

But wait, there's more! Aside from Pumpkinhead 3: Ashes to Ashes, we also have a fourth chapter to (kinda) look forward to! Pumpkinhead 4: Blood Feud (formerly Pumpkinhead 4: Love Hurts) recently wrapped production under the eye of writer/director Mike Hurst, he of Room 6, House of the Dead 2, and Mansquito. Mr. Henriksen will be returning for Part 4, whereas Mr. Bradley will ... not. (Is that a Part 3 spoiler? Sorry.)

The Sci-Fi Channel co-bankrolled both of these flicks, and if you've seen more than four or five "Sci-Fi Originals" in your time, then you probably know what you're getting yourself into. If I'm not mistaken, these guys tried the same thing last year with Return of the Living Dead 4: Necropolis and Return of the Living Dead 5: Rave to the Grave -- and those didn't really work out too well.

[Thanks to Bloody-Disgusting.com for the reminders.]

OK, the true-blue horror geeks can generally deal with it when you remake something like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, because everyone knows that flick, but when it comes to titles like, say, Near Dark -- we tend to get pretty protective. (It's sorta like you and that one band you loved -- years before everyone else loved 'em.) Word out of all the different horror sites (well, the three I trust, anyway) is that not only will there be a new rendition of Kathryn Bigelow & Eric Red's brilliant cult classic Near Dark, but a screenwriter has already been hired for the gig.

The good news is that Matt Venne, the guy who just turned in his screenplay for White Noise 2, seems to have his head screwed on where Near Dark Redux is concerned. As quoted at Fango, Venne says "there are images in the original film and in Eric Red and Kathryn Bigelow’s screenplay that are absolutely beautiful. Completely dreamy and captivating. Pure poetry. It’s an incredible project, and I’m honored to be writing it."

Near Dark, for those who haven't had the pleasure, is a blisteringly cool Southern-fried vampire noir from 1987 that was written by Eric (The Hitcher) Red and directed by Kathryn (Point Break) Bigelow. Although the flick features strong performances from Adrian Pasdar as one unlucky lad and Tim Thomerson as his devoted pop, the three blood-soaked standouts had just gotten done working together in Aliens. As a devilishly evil trio of bloodsuckers, Lance Henriksen, Jenette Goldstein, and Bill Paxton are just perfect together. And yes, Netflix has it.