NEAR DARK (1987)

USA. Direction: Kathryn Bigelow. Production: Steven-Charles Jaffe / The Near Dark Joint Venture. Screenplay: Eric Red, Kathryn Bigelow. Photography: Adam Greenberg. Music: Tangerine Deam. Edition: Howard Smith. Cast: Adrian Pasdar, Jenny Wright, Lance Henriksen, Bill Paxton, Jenette Goldstein. Running time: 94 min

LANGUAGE: English / SUBTITLES: Basque

One night in the middle of nowhere, Caleb, a young cowboy, meats may, a recent arrival to the small town. While going for a walk, she bites him on the neck, making him into a creature of the night, a kind of vampire (although the word 'vampire' is never uttered). Caleb is adopted by her "family", a (wild) group that travels the country in search of blood. The former Civil War veteran Jesse, the relentless Diamondback, the psychotic driver Severen and the (presumed) teenager Homer scatter the fields with dead bodies in this pioneer and powerful Western horror. In her first solo-directing effort, Kathryn Bigelow aimed to breathe new life into the vampire genre.