So, that was pretty cool. They had a midnight screening of ND at a theater not too far from where I live, so I went. They actually said it was the last 35 millimeter print of the movie left in North America! I have no idea if that's true, but that's what they said. So anyway, here are some of my thoughts.
I told the guy who sold me the ticket that, before the movie started, someone who works at the theater should stand in front of the audience and say "Boy, you people sure stay up late," and I told him if someone did that, I would shout from the crowd "We keep odd hours!" Hey, it was a midnight screening, so, I thought that would be really funny. The ticket dude laughed when I suggested that, but they didn't do it. I applauded loudly and quickly (like 5 or 6 claps, really fast and loud) when Bill P said "We keep odd hours," so maybe that counts for something, right?!?
It was a real, old 35 mm print, as I said, and it contained an old trailer (preview) for Death Wish 4: The Crackdown, starring your friend and mine Charles Bronson. That alone was worth the price of the ticket, just because the audience went apeshit. It was amazing.
During the movie, I kept thinking, it's kind of a shame that they didn't let Tim Thomerson have fun with his character (Caleb's dad) and do some comedy. He is freaking hysterical, as anyone who has seen the Trancers movies can attest. But, I guess maybe they decided that that would change the nature of the movie too much... it's easy for me to think about that now, in 2017, and be like "oh, Tim Thomerson is so funny, they should have let him ham it up a little," but when I think it over I have to admit that if his type of comedy was built into the original ND back in 1987, that would have really affected the tone of the entire movie, and taken things in a pretty campy direction, which is really NOT what Near Dark was supposed to be all about. Bill Paxton brought a lot of comedy to the film, of course, but it was always completely in the character of Severen, it wasn't campy at all. I think you could say that Tim T gave just a hint of a hint of a hint of a hint of his comedy when he had the line "Normal folks don't spit out bullets when you shoot 'em! No sir!" but even then he was mostly just being a freaked out character, without ironic self-awareness or anything like that. Anyway, whatever, it's always good to see him, I'm glad he was in it at all.
Another random thought was that it occurred to me that Bill Paxton could have been a solid additional character in Predator, which was filmed right around that same time. That is pretty funny to imagine. Or, maybe the Predator could have gone up against the "family" of vamps in ND. That could have been an interesting film. Its heat vision wouldn't work on the cold dead skin of vampires, so they would have that advantage on it. Also, they can survive a hell of a lot of damage, so maybe the Predator could assume it had killed one of them, but then the "dead" vamp would come back and beat the shit out of it... Hey, does predatorfan from the IMDB board come here, maybe under a new name? He might get a kick out of that idea.
Also also... I didn't see this at the theater last night, but there was a really excellent collection of interviews with some of the cast members, Kathryn Bigelow, and a producer, included on the DVD back in 2002. I'm sure some people reading this own that... anyway, I remember trying to find those interviews one time when we were all on IMDB, but I had some kind of trouble and couldn't find them/it. Here, it is divided up into four parts, and is a 47 minute feature included on the DVD extras. Here is the first segment, you can easily click to the rest:
By the way, I know Onyx Hades does horror art, (keep it up, please!) and maybe others here try their hand at that as well. Lance H gave a description of his vision of the origin of his character, and I think it's just really mesmerizing to contemplate. The way he talks about it makes it easy to form a compelling mental picture of what he is saying. Here, it's in the second segment of Living in Darkness, from 2:22 to about 3:00, especially from 2:48 to 2:57 (but just listen to all of it, you'll know what I mean when you hear it).
What else, what else... I thought some parts of the soundtrack were similar to To Live and Die in L.A, whcih you might think just means "hey, it was an 80's movie," but there are some very specific sounds that were virtually identical, and maybe borrowed from the TLADILA soundtrack.
Well, that's all for now. I'm glad I went to see it! A great movie, and a great experience in the cinema. Had to share.
In Brain Damage, we find an elderly couple losing their shit due to their pet Parasite-Worm hightailing it. For a while, we're not certain of the significance, but we soon discover this thing is like a walking drug. A walking, talking drug, actually. A silver tongued "Aylmer" who has the ability to inject a psychedelic drug into people's brains, giving them one hell of a trip. Unfortunately, a drug that is highly addictive. That's not even the catch. We'll get to the catch.
Once Brian notices, he's far from cool with Aylmer killing, especially since it's mostly people he comes in contact with. This issue is certainly addressed ASAP, but by now, it's far too late for Brian to be making demands, or to even negotiate. Aylmer's got him. Either Brian keeps on helping him find food, or it's back to boring old sobriety. That's to assume he makes it past the excruciating agony of withdrawals. A far worse cold Turkey than Heroin, it would seem. Brian can't take it, and soon, caves in, as Aylmer always knew he would. The thing about Aylmer is that he's been around for centuries, and is a long sought after legend, who has been kidnapped by many, a lot of which probably lived to regret it. In other words, Aylmer knows how to get what he wants. And without compromise. So, that's about the size of it. Brian's fucked!
Aylmer seems friendly enough, but don't let his calming demeanor fool you. That thing is a selfish asshole. And I can't help but feel for his victims. Not so much the people who got their brains sucked out and eaten. But the vulnerable Brian, who never stood a chance. But especially the elderly couple from the beginning, who apparently spent decades tripping their asses off and loving life, only for it all to be snatched away in an instant. Doesn't sound worth it to me. Personally, I would have had my fun, and then kick that thing to the curb once it got mouthy. And then smoke some pot, or something. Fuck him!
