In her 1987 film, Near Dark, Kathryn Bigelow pulls off a neat trick.  She combines a western with a romantic fable and a violent, bloody vampire tale, and she makes it work.

Written by Bigelow and Eric Red (best known for Body Parts and the original version of The Hitcher), Near Dark is the story of two star-crossed teen lovers, Caleb and Mae.  Caleb (Adrian Pasdar) is a good ol’ boy from Oklahoma, a roper and a rancher.  Mae (Jenny Wright) is a sweet young thing that also happens to be a vampire.  They meet one night and are so taken with each other that Mae almost doesn’t bite Caleb…almost.  After a passionate goodbye kiss, she decides to nip him—the life of a vampire can get mighty lonely and she thinks she’s found her soul mate.  As usual, trouble appears in the form of Mae’s "family."  What’s not usual is that they kidnap Caleb and take him to see if he’ll fit in.

Near Dark is a different take on the vampire experience.  Mae’s family is basically a roving gang of sociopaths.  The word "vampire" is never uttered, though there is talk of "turning" people and feeding.  They don’t fly, they travel by stolen car.  Also, they carry guns, but don’t have fangs.  When they bite someone, they just rip their victim’s throat open with their teeth and drink the blood.  Although they can take a shotgun blast to the belly and seem to have superhuman strength, they do have weaknesses.  Sunlight is the enemy, as is fire.

Bigelow got lucky with her cast.  She chose wonderful actors whose careers were just beginning to take off.  Lance Henriksen plays Jesse Hooker, the patriarch of the family.  He’s been living the night life since the Civil War and wears a dirty old duster, not a cape and tux.  Bill Paxton plays Severen, the hell-raising "brother" who loves to kill, and has a great time doing it.  Paxton definitely gets the MVP award here.  He steals every scene he’s in.  The family is rounded out by Jenette Goldstein as Diamondback, the mother figure, and Joshua Miller as Homer, the little brother.  Miller is very good as the grown man trapped in a child’s body—evil yet pitiful.

The script for Near Dark is not quite as good as its cast, though.  It seems as if Eric Red wrote the first draft and Ms. Bigelow did the subsequent rewrites.  And knowing Red’s past work, it’s pretty easy to pick out which scenes are his and which are Bigelow’s.  The big action set pieces, filled with bullets and explosions, have Red’s fingerprints all over them.  All the quiet talk between the two young lovers must belong to Bigelow.  You know the actors are good when they can pull off the howlers that are sprinkled throughout this movie: "The night has its price;" "You haven’t met any girls like me;" and, of course, the classic "See you in hell."  And it all boils down to a showdown on a deserted street in town.  To Ms. Bigelow’s credit, she handles it all with aplomb.

Tonally, this film is all over the place, but Bigelow’s steady hand ensures everything flows and plays just right.  She is aided by one of Tangerine Dream’s most effective (and least dated) scores.  Moments of romantic bliss bump up against gory violence and dark humor.  And the film is filled with several striking images.  Bigelow definitely knows how to handle a camera.

Over the years, Near Dark has acquired a cult following, and deservedly so.  Any flick that contains lines like "Normal folks, they don’t spit out bullets when you shoot ‘em, no sir," and "Listen to the night, it’s deafening," but then actually makes you want to say "Awwwww, that was sweet" when it’s over…well, pardner, that movie’s all right in my book.