Near Dark (1987) poster
1987 · horror · western · vampire

Near Dark

Directed by Kathryn Bigelow1h 34m1987
ElsewhereIMDb6.948kRT80%Metacritic78TMDB6.8884
  • sombre
  • brisk
  • intense
Movie DNA

Sombre, kinetic, extreme horror / western, inventive in texture. Ambivalent, mid-stakes, measured, hand-scored across twelve axes of taste.

How every film is hand-scored →

A farm boy reluctantly becomes a member of the undead when a girl he meets turns out to be part of a band of vampires who roam the highways in stolen cars.

Our read · Near Dark (1987) reads as a sombre, kinetic, inventive horror · western · vampire entry — extreme in intensity, mid-stakes in scope, measured in temperature, ambivalent in outlook. Hand-scored on twelve axes of taste — mood, pacing, weirdness, hope, stakes, humour, reality, density, warmth, auteur, intensity, and era — with a derived palette drawn from its dominant cinematography.

Where the cast leads
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Availability in the UK · via JustWatch

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The shape of Near Dark

Tonight, this looks like

What watching it is actually like.

You want gritty eighties vampire road horror with western dust and neon motels.

ends bittersweetit stays with yougrabs you earlygrips by minute 3attention 3/5breezes by
Date nightWith friendsSoloWith parentsKids around
Heads-upgraphic violencegore

Skip it tonightSkip if bloody vampire violence or bleak outlaw moods are too harsh tonight.

DNA · twelve axes

The reading.

Each axis is hand-scored — not derived from votes or genre averages. The marker shows where this film sits; the gradient fill uses the film's own cinematography palette.

Mood · HeavyCosy
Pacing · Slow-burnKinetic
Intensity · GentleExtreme
Weirdness · ConventionalSurreal
Hope · NihilisticRedemptive
Stakes · IntimateEpic
Humour · NoneBroad
Reality · GroundedFantastical
Density · SparseTwisty
Warmth · ColdTender
Auteur · TransparentSignature
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