Pasdar struggles through the various changes that happen when someone becomes a child of the night, and not everyone in his new family is all that keen on keeping him around. The band of vamps is lead by Lance Henriksen (Millennium, Aliens) and also sports Bill Paxton (Aliens, Twister) and Jenette Goldstein (oddly enough, also from Aliens) as supporting members of the undead family.
Just as Pasdar starts to accept his new night-life, fate builds up a confrontation between his new family and his old one. Now he must choose between the person he is now, and the person he was before he picked up the cute hitchhiker that changed everything. All-in-all, Near Dark wasn't a bad movie, especially for a late 80's flick.
Not only does it tell a fairly good story, but (contrary to first appearances) it is not a horror film. Near Dark is more of a thriller. Sure there is the fair amount of blood flying around (what vampire movie would be complete without at least some), but the fear you feel isn't necessarily for the character's physical state -- it is for their mental well being and whether or not they can balance their human and monster halves.
Unfortunately, there are absolutely no features for this UMD. I was a bit stunned to pop in the disc and find the only option I had available to me was "Play". I expected this a little bit back when the PSP and UMD movies first came out. But now that a whole slew of movies have come out on UMD with everything from gag-reels to documentaries, it tends to stand out.
Near Dark is a great experience. Any fan of vampires should definitely check out the film -- whether it is worth owning... the jury is still out.
