Near Dark DVD: Review By mikestickel

Well, to be honest, this was one of those impulse buys. I usually like most films in this genre of film even though there have been quite a few duds.

Basically the film is about a young rural man living out his life and very happy doing so in the small town where he was raised. When he meets an unusual girl and tries to pick her up she ends up biting him. On his way home he starts to realize that something is up when the sun burns his skin but he is picked up by the rest of the girls friends and taken away before he makes it home. After that the story is about the group of vampire-like people trying to get him to fit in and make him understand what is happening to him and how he now has to live in the dark.

After several gruesome episodes with killing people and feeding off of them the group is starting to strain with the tension of trying to make this new person fit in.Meanwhile, the young man's father and little sister are looking all over for him as well.

Considering that it's a two disc set and in a fancy shiny box I thought there would be more to the special features. Here's what it comes down to though.

Living in Darkness

This is an all new 47 minute doc*mentary on the making of the film. It includes interviews with the Director Kathryn Bigelow, and actors Bill Paxton, Lance Henriksen, Adrian Pasdar, and Jenette Goldstein as well as the Producer, Director of Photography and Executive Producer. A well done feature especially considering that this movie was done so long ago.

Deleted Scene with commentary

Your basic, run of the mill, deleted scene with an explaination by the Director as to why that scene wasn't included in the final cut of the movie.

Trailers

The original trailers that played in theatres. It's interesting to see how this film was marketed considering it's not the typical vampire film.

Original Storyboards

Always a favorite of mine, I love to see how the film was conceived on paper and how much it changed when it was put on film.

Poster and Behind-the-Scenes Galleries

These give you a look at what the international posters looked like as well as the domestic ones. As well as the candid behind-the-scenes shots of the various cast and crew doing what they do best.

Talent Bios

Your usual list of the cast and crew and the various films that they have worked on over the years. I personally like to go through this at least once to see if I can find some hidden jems that I haven't seen before.

The look of the film is very gruesome and it definitely fits into the horror genre. Both the packaging and the menus are very consistant and they fit the theme extremely well. The film itself is presented in widescreen format (1.85:1) enhanced for 16x9 TV's. The transfer to DVD was done very well and it's hard to tell how old this film actually is.

The sound is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1, Dolby Surround 2.0 and dts. On my particular setup the sound was quite well done and it seems to have been remastered well to take advantage of the advancements in audio technology since the original release.

Ah, my thoughts on the film. This is always the fun part and I always try to stay away from outright slamming a film, this is going to be one of those instances. Although the route taken to create a new and original look at the classic tale of vampires and vampirism I find the story a little weak and lacking in some basic explaination. That's basically all I can say about this film though, it was a ho-hum movie that should be rented when you just want to watch a movie that is something different and not the typical vampire film. Lastly I would just like to applaud the filmmaker and cast for making this film because it has gathered quite a cult following and, like I mentioned, it isn't the typical vampire film.