Near Dark - Critical Reception

Critical Reception

Part of a late 1980s revival of serious (as opposed to comedic) vampire depictions on the big screen, it received mostly positive reviews for its mix of the Western, biker and vampire movie genres:

In her review for the New York Times, Caryn James wrote, "Ms. Bigelow's too-studied compositions - Caleb in silhouette riding a horse toward the camera - clash with her unstudied approach to the characters' looks."

Jonathan Rosenbaum of the Chicago Reader, conversely, was impressed by Bigelow's first foray into big budget films with the "hillbilly vampire" movie, describing it as "beautifully shot." As well, Hal Hinson of the Washington Post said the intermixing of vampire legends, westerns and biker movies has an end result that's "both outrageous and poetic; it has extravagant, bloody thrills plus something else - something that comes close to genuine emotion."

Jay Scott in his review for the Globe and Mail wrote, "Bill Paxton as the undead sex symbol - is exceptional, but not exceptional enough to put across the cop-out that concludes the film."

In his book, Monster Show: Cultural History of Horror, Film critic David J. Skal highly praises the film's mix of western and horror genres, and homeless wanderings and undeath. Richard Corliss, of Time Magazine calls Near Dark "weird (and) beautiful" and "the all-time teenage vampire love story." Likewise, Richard Schickel (also of Time) considers the film a clever variant of the vampire film genre. Peter Travers, of Rolling Stone concurs, calling it "gory and gorgeous."

Near Dark is ranked 34 on Rotten Tomatoes' "Top 50 Horror Movies" list of the 50 best reviewed horror movies of all time.