Near Dark

A young farmhand in Oklahoma is bitten by a girl he meets and joins a travelling gang of vampires. The word vampire is never used once. Kathryn Bigelow and co-writer Eric Red actually wanted to make a western and could not raise the money. The solution was to fuse genres, putting a western inside the commercially easier vampire film of the moment. It is Bigelow's first solo feature as director. Three of the cast come straight from Aliens: Bill Paxton, Jenette Goldstein and Lance Henriksen. James Cameron, who would later marry Bigelow, has a cameo. Tangerine Dream wrote the score, released as its own album in 1988. On a 5 million dollar budget it took only 3.4 million. Bigelow said plainly why: The Lost Boys had opened two months earlier on far wider distribution, 1,542 screens against her 262. It became a cult film over time, with critics praising the genre fusion and the photography. Who it is for: viewers who like where the western meets horror. The bar massacre alone is worth it. Who it is not for: anyone wanting rules from vampire mythology. The film explains nothing and its resolution is too easy.