Near Dark/Notes

Near Dark is an American action/horror film of the vampire subgenre. It was written and directed by Kathryn Bigelow and co-written by Eric Red. It was produced by the De Laurentiis Entertainment Group (DEG) and released theatrically in the United States on October 2nd, 1987.

The premise of the movie centers around a young boy named Caleb Colton who falls for a pretty blonde-haired girl named Mae, only to discover that Mae is part of a traveling group of shit-kicking vampires. While trying to help Mae get away from these lunatics, he has the bite put on him and begins turning into a vampire and it is up to his farmer father Loy to concoct a cure for him using his farm-like wizardry.


 * Production on Near Dark began on November 17th, 1986.


 * Near Dark grossed $635,789 over its opening weekend. It averaged $2,426 in 262 theaters. At its widest release it was screened in only 429 theaters.


 * Near Dark was released on DVD in Region 1 format by Anchor Bay Entertainment on September 10th, 2002. The DVD includes a forty-seven minute documentary on the making of the film called "Living in Darkness". It also includes audio commentary by director Kathryn Bigelow.


 * Near Dark was released on region free Blu-ray on November 10th, 2009. The Blu-ray contained all of the same bonus features as the 2002 DVD release as well as bonus scenes, deleted scenes and storyboards.


 * Near Dark is something of a hallmark in filmmaking as it is one of the first and few horror movies directed by a woman. This is director Kathryn Bigelow's second film and her first work in the horror genre. She will go on become a highly respected mainstream director, praised for her work on films such as The Hurt Locker, and Zero Dark Thirty.


 * Actor Joshua John Miller is credited as Joshua Miller in this film.


 * On the film review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes, Near Dark has an 88% "Fresh" rating. This is based on a total of forty-eight counted reviews, forty-two of which gave the film positive marks.


 * Near Dark was released the same year as The Lost Boys by director Joel Schumacher, albeit three months earlier. Along with that film, Near Dark paved the way for the burgeoning "Southwest Vampire" subgenre which carried on through films such as John Carpenter's Vampires and From Dusk Till Dawn.
 * The tagline for this film is "Pray for Daylight". This was the tagline seen on most promotional material for the film. Other taglines include "Killing you would be easy, they'd rather terrify you... forever.", "In one hot hungry kiss, he gave her everlasting love. She gave him everlasting life.", and "Blood is our life, Darkness, our feeding ground and sunlight, our eternal damnation."


 * Though he may not seem immediately recognizable in this film, young Caleb Colton is played by Adrian Pasdar. Pasdar will go on to play Nathan Petrelli in the NBC television series Heroes and will also play Colonel Glenn Talbot in episodes of Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. on ABC.


 * If the actors playing the three main bad-ass vampires seem familiar, its because they should. Lance Henriksen, Bill Paxton and Jenette Goldstein all played key roles in James Cameron's 1986 sci-fi/horror movie Aliens.


 * This movie premiered in theaters on the same day as Zombie High by director Ron Link.


 * Near Dark was released on DVD on the same day that Society was released on DVD. Both films were distributed through Starz Productions and Anchor Bay Entertainment.


 * Actor Tim Thomerson is best known for playing the role of Jack Deth in the Trancers sci-fi film series by Full Moon Entertainment.