Near Dark: Revisiting the unforgettable bar scene

While zombies and slashers may have ruled the 80s in terms of subgenre, vampire fiction was certainly no slouch. While my personal favorite of the decade, Fright Night, appeared on screens in 1985, there was a build up from there that even led to the early 90s with what some might say is the pinnacle of success in the multiple Oscar nominations that Bram Stoker’s Dracula received. It also made a killing at the box office which wasn’t always the case in horror generally or vampire movies specifically. 1987 has two vampire outings that share a similar outline, a group of vampires takes in a young man into their group, but he ends up escaping while getting them killed and his own vampirism reversed. The Lost Boys is by far the more marketable of the two with the creative team going after many of the trends in the late 80s including casting, crew selected, and musical choice but the other vampire movie of 1987 is the more unique entry by a country mile. While Near Dark failed at the box office, it has a scene that is impossible to look away from and is unlike anything else the genre has to offer.

Near Dark started out as an attempt at a western from writers Kathryn Bigelow and genre stalwart Eric Red. They knew though that westerns weren’t in vogue anymore and needed another angle to make it profitable for studios. Turning it into a vampire horror western was their ticket in and DEG from Dino De Laurentiis would help get the movie made. Bigelow was married to James Cameron at the time, and he suggested using a group of actors that were familiar and comfortable with each other to portray the unconventional family of vampires in her film. While Michael Biehn turned down a role in the movie after he read the script, the group of Lance Henriksen, Jenette Goldstein, and Bill Paxton signed on after working together for Cameron on his smash success Aliens. Henriksen had already worked in horror with things like The Terminator, The Omen II, and Piranha II and would of course go on to many more horror roles. Goldstein was just coming off her film debut in Aliens but worked well with her castmates and Paxton was in a similar boat as Lance with him being a well-known quantity in both horror and film in general. They were joined by Josh Miller, Jenny Wright, Adrian Pasdar, and Tim Thomerson to round out the small but talented cast.

Eric Red only had The Hitcher as a feature film at this point, but it was enough to prove he could work well within horror and Bigelow, who the studio was hesitant to let direct, only had one feature film to her name by 1987. The two would team up again for the fun and dark police thriller Blue Steel with Jaime Lee Curtis three years after. Near Dark follows the story of Caleb, a young man from Oklahoma, who meets Mae and goes on an all-night date before she bites him and flees just before sunrise. Though it isn’t really mentioned by the V word on screen, the vampirism takes hold fairly quickly until Caleb has to flee and finds Mae and her makeshift family of other vamps. They don’t take to him at first but Mae wants to keep him, so they attempt to teach him the way to survive. Caleb eventually gets away, but they come for his younger sister and family. Caleb ends up killing or getting the gang killed and a blood transfusion, something as of yet unseen in vampire movies, saves both Caleb and Mae from an eternal fate. About halfway through the movie we get to see the whole gang in action in not only the toughest scene to film, but also the movie’s best.

The whole movie really takes its time. In contrast to The Lost Boys rocking soundtrack and greased up saxophone player, Near Dark is a quiet and unsettling tale. The reason why the bar scene works so well is because of the table setting. There are death scenes to be sure as we see that the group needs to feed and we know that this group isn’t nice. They are vampires without the word being uttered and use their words and actions as weapons to intimidate. They show mercy on Caleb because Mae wants him, and he isn’t quite human anymore. We see them burn their RV and steal a car as they explain to Caleb that the night has its price, which is one of my favorite things about Near Dark. At 42 minutes into the movie, the group gets to the bar and this scene was the hardest and most complex to shoot. It took the longest and they really burned down the place they filmed at.

Bill Paxton’s Severen is antagonistic from the moment he gets in the bar. The bartender and other patrons aren’t scared, at least at first, because Severen and Caleb are at the bar and he just seems like a drunk asshole with the rest of the family at a table in the corner. They order drinks like normal people would but are clearly watching what Severen is up to. The minor twist is that it isn’t Severen who starts the killing. Jesse and Diamondback are the ones who kill a waitress and let her blood drain into a cup. The movie goes to great pains to not show you these killers as typical vampires. Most of the tropes that follow vampire movies aren’t here with no signs of stakes, religious iconography, holy water, or garlic. Sunlight still kills them but maybe the biggest thing missing is how they kill. You won’t see your stereotypical vampire teeth here or anywhere else and the deaths here are all violent and varied. We have a gun, a razor blade, and in the most inventive kill of the movie and a top one of the decade, a throat slashing with the spur of a cowboy boot. There isn’t a big sweeping score here either, just the diegetic sounds of the jukebox as the light and strength drain from the eyes of the people in the bar, to say nothing of the blood from their bodies.

The scene is great from everyone with the family doing their thing and Caleb coming into his own a little bit by fighting back and in a way fighting for his life, but this is Bill Paxton’s scene and really, one of the best roles of his career. As good as he is in nearly everything he appeared in, it’s the unhinged violence and outward joy at the chaos that makes Severen a keeper. His burned visage is typically what I remember from any posters of the movie or previous media releases like the great 2-disc DVD that used to exist, not the Twilight looking phony we would get later on. His dialogue, actions, and just flat-out cool factor make him, and this scene, unforgettable. The whole scene lasts 12 minutes. 12 minutes of tension and explosive violence. 12 minutes where lives are taken and a building goes from a business to embers. Caleb actually lets the last remaining bar guy escape and is scolded for it but that’s also the turn for the movie. Caleb has changed, his physiology and his mentality, but Jesse and his family remain the same soulless killers with the us vs. them attitude.

Near Dark is a gem of a vampire movie that doesn’t get enough love for its skillful blending of horror and westerns while keeping a lot of the sensibilities for both. The scene encompasses both, too, from the wandering bad guys finding their way into a modern-day saloon to a morally conflicted character that is going to turn his back on his gang for the forces of good. They just all happen to be vampires. The scene itself in all its 12-minute glory fully illustrates what the movie has to offer and much like the film in its entirety, just isn’t talked about enough when discussing vampire horror or some of the best the 80s had to offer. The Near Dark bar scene is worth its weight in blood and should be more than enough reason to give this neglected movie another look.

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