"The Back Shelf"

Sometimes, there is a movie that just comes out at the wrong place, or the wrong time, or in the wrong setting.  It is often a very good movie, and, some-times, has an incredible cast.  However, due to something about the release, the movie is not re-ceived very well at all.  This was the case for the movie Near Dark.  Much to the loss of anyone who has never seen it.

The year is 1987.  On Halloween night, two competing vampire movies are released.  The first, an independent film about nomadic vampires, with minimal advertisement and only a simple poster, showing a young man named Billy Paxton on it with his head split open, the movie name, and the motto "Pray For Daylight."  The other, a Warner Bros. film about nomadic vampires, which was advertised to Hell and back, and starred Jason Patric and Kiefer

Sutherland.  The first was Near Dark, and the second... a little flick called The Lost Boys.  Simply due to the fact that most people I know have never even heard of the former, while the latter is practically a household name, it is pretty easy to figure out what happened.  Near Dark was completely shadowed by the Warner Bros. film, and hardly even got a second look.

Well, here is that second look.

The setting is the small-town Midwest... Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma, something along those lines.  One Saturday night, a young man by the name of Caleb spies himself the prettiest young woman he's seen in a long time, and makes the attempt for her.  The young woman, a young girl by the name of Mae, is willing to play along, and even accepts a ride home from this cowboy stranger.  She's not exactly accommodating, and the little bite she leaves on his neck before running off... an attempt to get home before the sun rises, and her "family" gets upset... leaves Caleb with more than just a bruised ego. 

With his truck broken down, he has to make his way across a few miles of open country, and when the sun starts making his skin smoke, it's not hard to see where things are going to go for our young hero.  And when the Winnebago pulls up to pull Caleb out of danger, and reveals Mae's "family" was actually a nomadic group of vampires, the plot really begins to take some amazing twists and turns.

To tell much more would be giving it all away, and, believe me, seeing the movie is more than worth it.  But the least I can do is give you a quick introduction to the players of this macabre little play.

The first, of course, is Caleb Colton (played by Adrian Pasdar), a young man with a loving father and doting, if not a little temperamental, little sister.  He's your boy next door... at least until a bloody little hickey shows him the dark side of the world.

Next, we have Mae (played by Jenny Wright).  Beautiful young woman with a passion for life... or is it what's inside the living?  A vampire of only four years, she doesn't seem so bad, and still seems to enjoy kissing as much as any living woman, at least, with the right guy.  But above all, she is loyal to her pack.

Mae, however, is only but one member of this nomadic vampire pack.  The leader is an older man known by the name Jesse (played by Lance Hendrikson).  He's been around quite a long time, probably more than anyone else in the group.  "Let's just put it this way: I fought for the South. - We lost."  He's kind when he has to be, hard the rest of the time, and is the "leader" of the group.

Severen (played by Bill Paxton) is the next of our motley crew.  A gunfighter of the "Old West," he was made by Jesse, and is easily the brute force of the group.  He's rough, violent, but can play the Don Juan when he has to.  Oh, and he "hates them when they're not shaved."

Another of Jesse's "children" is Diamondback (played by Jenette Goldstein), an out-of-luck Antebellum Southern Belle, with bleach-blonde hair and a spirit that outshines even her dark, vicious nature.  She could easily be called the mother of the group, though she doesn't coddle anyone, by any means.

Finally, we have Homer (played by Joshua John Miller).  He's a child of the 50's, and is still, for all physical purposes, a child of around 13 years old, at best.  Though most of the time he has a very mature outlook on life, there are still times when he slips into his child-like nature.  And don't mispronounce his name... it might be bad to upset someone with the spite of a child and the power of a vampire.

Whether traveling in semi-trucks, modified hearses, or even a van that looks like something out of "The A-Team," this group manages to find trouble at every turn... all of it by their own making.  After all, when you drink the blood of other human beings, and live virtually forever, what is life but one big party?  About the only thing I didn't like about the movie was the ending; it was contrite, fluffy, and left the audience wanting something more as the credits rolled on.  But if you can handle a few little problems, I'd highly recommend getting this movie.  It's worth the rental fee, at least, and the DVD has some special features that make buying it very worth while.