Near Dark: The Night Is So Bright It’ll Blind You

Lance Henriksen as Jesse

My teenage friends weren’t as focused on the star-crossed lovers; they reserved all their enthusiasm for Mae’s “family” of fellow vampires, who snatch up a confused, transforming Caleb and carry him away in their Winnebago From Hell. Severen (Bill Paxton), the most voluble and volatile of the group, just wants to slaughter Caleb, but Mae pleads that Caleb’s been bit, and thus should be welcomed into the group. The leader, Jesse (Lance Henriksen, rawboned to perfection) allows Mae to keep her new pet, as long as she looks after him. Jesse’s woman, peroxide-blonde Diamondback (the criminally underrated Jenette Goldstein), couldn’t care less, but Homer, the one who made Mae, hates Caleb just a little bit more than he hates everything else.

Homer, as portrayed by go-to creepy kid Joshua Miller, has been alive for more than 40 years, but remains forever trapped in the body of a chipmunk-cheeked, greasy-haired 12-year-old, and he hates it like poison. While Severen is the most outwardly crazy and homicidal of the bunch, Homer is a black hole of loathing, jealousy, self-pity, and rage; I would have loved to know more of his story, because what we see is obviously just the tip of the iceberg.

The agony-wracked Caleb repeatedly and unsuccessfully tries to escape and get back home, where his veterinarian dad (Tim Thomerson) and spunky little sister (Marcie Leeds) are freaking out, trying to figure out what happened to their handsome, trustworthy, but restless son. Of course the cops are no good (are they ever?) and Caleb’s devastated family have to manage things on their own.

Bill Paxton as Severen

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