MovieChat Forums > Near Dark (1988) Discussion > This could have been a great movie...

This could have been a great movie...


I loved it from the start, as it had quite a dark atmosphere. But it kinda lost it later on - from when the dad and sister find them at the motel - wtf? Isn't the US quite a big place? The chances of that are exceptionally slim, like millions to one. I really hate it when they do that in movies, it's lazy writing to have such huge coincidences. And this was a group of people who are experts in disappearing, as they have been doing it for years, so there's no way his dad and sister could have tracked him. So they just bump into them in a random motel...

And that was at night wasn't it? So how did they escape out of the room? By opening the door and sunlight hurt the vampires, then somehow the dad, sister and Caleb teleported to the inside of the van and drove away. Lazy writing again, as they changed it from night to day, and because they somehow managed to escape from a room full of superhuman vampires.

And when he killed Severen with the truck.. that was just silly. How did it explode? It just went boom! for no apparent reason. Was it a truck full of grenades?

Still, it was good to stumble on this movie, some parts of it were awesome. I just feel that it fell apart later on.

reply

The dad had had a few leads from the sheriff (tracking the stolen vehicles, crime sprees, etc) so he was heading in the general direction where the group of vampires had been seen. So it may have been a coincidence about the motel, but not a huge one.

When Homer runs into Caleb's sis at the motel it's about 5 a.m., so very close to dawn. Therefore, when she opens the door the sunlight pours in. Then she and the dad run to the veterinary truck; Caleb follows (covered by a blanket) and climbs into the back of his dad's truck. I don't really see a problem with that scene.

As for the semi exploding later, yes, I agree that happened a little too easily. Caleb remembered how to jack-knife the truck as the trucker had told him, but it still exploded a bit too readily, even if it had been carrying something pretty volatile. So I'm with you on that point.








👻 🎃 Boo!

reply

Agree, I was even going to give it an 8 after the brilliant bar scene. But the family reunion and everything after that completely ruined the whole movie. It turned a fun and atmospheric vampire flick into a typical clichéd Hollywood junk.

reply

Yes. Plus the winy hero (at least Lestat was appropriately brooding, and he did get around to killing). Plus the ending with the extra-cheese.

reply

it's a movie of two halves for me, first part was good and second part fell down






so many movies, so little time

reply