Rish Outfield's reviews
Hey, I loved Aliens. I mean, I LOVED it. But I didn't care for Near Dark. You know what one of my pet peeves is about vampire movies? Inconsistency. It bothers me that in From Dusk to Dawn guns can kill them, but in Interview with the Vampire, not even the traditional stake can kill them. In Innocent Blood, garlic is lethal, and in others, holy water and fire are the big weapons. In Blade swords and guns will get them, but crosses are useless. In Dracula crucifixes are like pepper spray to the undead, but in Fright Night crosses only work if you believe in them. In Bram Stoker's Dracula they can change into multiple forms, but in Bordello of Blood they're weaker than snowmen in a sauna. In one movie, if you kill the head vampire, all the rest get better, but in others (Salem's Lot, etc.), they all have to be wiped out, one by one. In Lost Boys the vampires can fly, and in The Night Flier they use a plane. In every movie from Nosferatu to John Carpenter's Vampires, sunlight completely destroys them, but here's Near Dark--where daylight is no problem if you're driving in a dark car. Boasting a cool cast and neat-o James Cameron blue lighting, this film has been very praised (the July 19th, 1999 Entertainment Weekly cited it as one of the twenty-five scariest horror films ever), but I thought it was pretty bad. It was slow and sanitized and I never felt for the lead character. The bloodsuckers were more annoying than anything else herein.
Best Scare: Entertainment Weekly notwithstanding, the movie just ain't that scary.
I'd Recommend It To: Well, it's alright. I guess it's worth seeing . . . once.

The tyranist's thoughts
These have to be the dirtiest, lowest vampires I have ever seen. I believe calling them the trailer trash of vampires wouldn't be too far off. My biggest problem with this movie is that we are never given a side to sympathize with. Are we supposed to side with the vampires? Are we supposed to be apalled by them? When the resolution finally came, I had picked the wrong side. The ending is totally unbelievable. By the way, the word "vampire" is not used in this film.