Near Dark UMD-Video For PSP Review

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Title: Near Dark

Region: One

Genre: Horror

Stars: Adrian Pasdar, Jenny Wright, Lance Henriksen, Bill Paxton, Jenette Goldstein, and Tim Thomerson

Writers: Eric Red and Kathryn Bigelow

Director: Kathryn Bigelow

Feature length: 94 minutes

Languages: English Dolby Headphone Track

Subtitles: N/A

Packaging: Keep Case

Sound: Dolby Headphone Track

Year of Theatrical Release: 1987/UMD Release: 2006

Theatrical Distributor: DEG

Home Video Distributor: Anchor Bay Entertainment

MPAA Rating: R

Reviewer: Mark A. Rivera

Kathryn Bigelow and screenwriter Eric Red (The Hitcher) collaborated on this spec film project that served as her first solo feature length directorial effort and featured a number of cast members who had appeared in colleague James Cameron’s “Aliens” in what would be a cross between the vampire myth and contemporary westerns and in the process recreated and opened up the postmodern vampire film years before Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez would produce their “From Dusk Till Dawn” trilogy of films. The premise is simple; a young man is taken into a surrogate family of vampires after being bitten by a potential love interest. Among the clan are a forty-year-old man trapped in the body of a boy from the 1950s when a woman who wanted to add a son to her family turned him into a vampire. She had been turned around the time of the great depression by the oldest vampire among the group who dates back to the civil war. There is another that he has mentored who dates back to that same era or close to it. Collectively these three played by Lance Henriksen, Jenette Goldstein, and Bill Paxton make up the core group along with their vampire boy and his victim, played by Jenny Wright, who has spurned him by taking the young man, played by Adrian Pasdar, into their world. Among my favorite sequences is a massacre sequence within a remote bar. One of the victims is the same actor who played the biker that puts out a cigar on Arnold Schwarzenegger’s chest and then gets thrown on top of a kitchen stove for refusing to give up his clothes in “Terminator 2: Judgment Day.” Jenette Goldstein also appeared in “T2” while costars Lance Henriksen and Bill Paxton appeared in the original “The Terminator.” Lance Henriksen also worked with James Cameron in “Piranha II: The Spawning” while Bill Paxton has since appeared in Cameron’s “True Lies” and “Titanic.”

“Near Dark” had a short theatrical release despite good word of mouth and good critical reviews among the NYC newspaper critics. It developed a cult following through home video and cable broadcasts and a UMD for PSP version is presently going to be released courtesy of Anchor Bay Entertainment. The UMD for PSP features a widescreen (1.85:1) transfer. The image has some grain that appears to be from the source materials used and not a result of MPEG-4 compression. While it is a bit uneven, most of the film looks pretty good considering how old the film is and the fact that it was produced on a shoestring budget. Anchor Bay Entertainment has committed itself to releasing all future UMD for PSP titles with a Dolby Headphone Soundtrack mix for a virtual 5.1 Surround Soundtrack feel. The soundtrack here is quite full and clear as well as atmospheric. No captions or subtitles are encoded onto the UMD and like previous Anchor Bay Entertainment UMD titles; the menu is quite rudimentary with only a “Play” option offered to users.

“Near Dark” will debut on UMD-Video for PSP on Tuesday, March 7, 2006 courtesy of Anchor Bay Entertainment.

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