Craig Rettig.com

Caleb: “How old are you, Jesse?”
Jesse: “Let’s put it this way: I fought for the South. We lost.”

—Caleb Colton (Adrian Pasdar) & Jesse Hooker (Lance Henriksen)

Near Dark is one of the more interesting vampire movies to come out of the ’80s. Instead of painting the gothic romance or going the glam metal route, the vampires were a small, ragtag group of ne’er-do-wells roaming the country going from one meal to the next to avoid discovery. Things go awry when Mae meets Caleb, nips him, but doesn’t finish him off. Because he’s one of them now, the vampires have to take Caleb with them. Unfortunately, Caleb’s father and sister don’t stop looking for him, and Caleb won’t kill.

Near Dark also presents the concept that vampirism can be cured through medical procedures, which seems a bit far-fetched, but hey, you’ve already got some suspension of disbelief, so why not?

Packing a cast of ’80s and ’90s stars, Near Dark is definitely worth watching and remains one of my favorite vampire movies.