Near Dark - Production Notes

Production Notes

Vampire films had become "trendy" by the time of Near Dark's production, with the success of 1985's Fright Night and 1987's The Lost Boys (released three months before Near Dark and grossing $32 million). Kathryn Bigelow wanted to film a Western movie that departed from cinematic convention. When she and co-writer Eric Red found financial backing for a Western difficult to obtain, it was suggested to them that they try mixing a Western with another, more popular genre. Her interest in revisionist interpretation of cinematic tradition led her and Red to combine two genres that they regarded as ripe for reinterpretation: the Western movie, and the vampire movie. The combination of these two genres had been visited at least twice before on the big screen, with 1959's Curse of the Undead and 1966's Billy the Kid vs. Dracula.

Bigelow knew (and later married) director James Cameron, who directed Aliens, a 1986 film that shares three cast members (Paxton, Goldstein and Henriksen) with Near Dark. A cinema seen in the background early in the film has Aliens on its marquee, and Cameron played the man who "flips off" Severen.

The film was scored by the German electronic music group Tangerine Dream.