Near Dark is the best example of a new approach to the vampire film since George Romero's Martin (1977): there are no fangs, stakes through the heart, garlic, crosses or empty mirrors in this film of a band of vampires traveling through Oklahoma and Texas, sometime using sexy Mae (Jenny Wright) to "recruit" new members by seducing them and biting them in the neck. The one thing these vampires, led by Jeese Hooker (the always-creepy Lance Henriksen), are afraid of is the sunlight. Mae bites young rancher Caleb (Adrian Pasdar) and he joins the group, but never makes his first kill and is rescued by his father when the vampires try to take Caleb's sister Sarah (Marcie Leeds); Caleb's father (Tim Thomerson) transfuses Caleb's blood (a new method of rescuing a vampire, by screenwriters Bigelow and Eric Red) and the Coltons destroy the vampire band by exposing them to sunlight.
Most of Near Dark takes place at night (of course) and the scenes of violence in truck stops and bars are effectively choreographed by Bigelow and slickly shot by cinematographer Adam Greenberg to the sounds of country music and a modern score by Tangerine Dream.
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