2 Guys and a Chainsaw

Near Dark

Near Dark

A man in a leather jacket leans casually on a bar counter, holding a shotgun, like a scene straight out of a horror movie. Another man sits behind him on a barstool, perhaps discussing the latest episode of their review podcast. The dimly lit room exudes a rustic, edgy atmosphere.

Our tribute episode to the late, great Bill Paxton, who puts a chilling yet lovable turn on the classic vampire-biker-western genre.

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Near Dark (1987)

Episode 73, 2 Guys and a Chainsaw Horror Movie Review Podcast

Todd: Hello, and welcome to another episode of Two Guys in a Chainsaw. I’m Todd.

Craig: And I’m Craig.

Todd: Well, Craig, we lost another hero last week. Bill Paxton, one of our, uh, favorite actors, died pretty suddenly. I think he was 61 years old. Not very old, but had some complications from, I believe it was a heart surgery. And, um, passed away.

Big, big surprise for all of us. 

Craig: Yeah, it was a shock, and a sad one too, because I think that he had a lot of life left in him. I know he was, you know, currently working on some TV projects, and he was just a great actor, and, yeah. You know, of course, we never know these people personally, but everything that I had seen of him, he seemed just like a really stand up guy.

Um, and it was a shock, and a sad one. 

Todd: Yeah, it’s funny how you get these connections to people who you don’t really know. But you kind of feel like you know them, right? Through their characters, you just see them all the time. It’s like an old friend, and so it always feels bad when you have somebody from, like, one of your favorite movies.

I know, you know, for me, Aliens was when I was probably first introduced to him. Yeah. And I just loved that movie, and I loved his character in that movie, or, or loved to hate his character in that movie, maybe is the better way of putting it. And so we decided, uh, that we would pay some tribute to Bill by doing one of his horror films, and this would be Near Dark.

Near Dark came out in 1987, and it actually has quite a bit of connection to that Aliens movie I was, I was mentioning earlier. He himself, of course, starred, uh, was one of the main stars in Aliens. He is one of the stars in this film, along with a couple others. Lance Hendrickson, uh, plays a character, Jesse, in this film.

He played Bishop, of course, in, in Aliens, the android. And, uh, Jeanette Goldstein, who, uh, Plays like a hispanic What’s her name? Yeah, what’s 

Craig: her name in aliens? I I don’t remember what her name is in aliens, but she’s she’s pretty badass She’s this really tough character. I want to say Marquez. Maybe 

Todd: yeah, it’s like something like 

Craig: that 

Todd: Yeah, 

Craig: and, and she’s fantastic.

Uh, she, uh, was in that. I, I also always remember her, um, from Titanic. She played, uh, a really touching character in Titanic. She was an Irish immigrant mother who ends up, um, kind of having to put her children to bed as, uh, the, the ship goes down. Yeah, all three of these folks from Aliens. I guess what had happened was James Cameron, the director of Aliens, knew, uh, Catherine Bigelow, who is the director of this film.

Um, and in fact, they were later married for a while. They’re not married anymore, I don’t believe. James 

Todd: Cameron doesn’t stay married for long. 

Craig: Right, right. Um, and I guess that they, that, um, Aliens had wrapped, and she was going to be doing this project. And Cameron said to her, you know, I’ve got this great cast assembled.

Why don’t you just, uh, make use of them? And so she did. They were also interested in casting Michael Bean, Michael Bein, I’m not sure what his name is, but, um, also from Aliens, but, uh, he wasn’t quite satisfied with the script. But we still got, um, Lance Henrickson, Bill Paxton, and Jeanette Goldstein, and all three of them, Uh, really great actors and and excellent range.

I mean, that’s one of the things that I like so much about Bill Paxton is that he had such versatility as an actor. You know, he could be funny. Um, he could be really charming and endearing. Um, and he could also be, you know, pretty scary and intimidating. And I think that he really kind of displays all of that.

You know, arguably he is One of the central villains of this movie, but at the same time he’s also really charismatic. I mean, there’s just something about him. That’s sexy and and And it works. He’s great in this movie. He’s in fact, I would say probably my favorite part of this movie 

Todd: Yeah, he can he could turn on the charm and be smiling and then he just gets those wild eyes that you’re like Oh my gosh, this man is unhinged And at the same time, he gets an opportunity in this movie to play, you know, the grease ball, which, uh, which he also does in a true lies to great effect.

I loved him in true lies. Yes. So hilarious. 

Craig: And I mean, I always, from my childhood, I’ll always remember him as Chet from Weird Science. That was my first. Introduction to him and then of course aliens soon after that, but heck of a good actor. It’s it’s too bad. He’s gone 

Todd: Yeah, it really is. Well, he did leave a nice little oeuvre behind him And of course this being near dark was one that probably not a lot of people have seen I would imagine I mean, I think if you were to start going around just about everybody on the street and have them list off Bill Paxton movies This isn’t gonna be at the top of their list Right do really well at the box office, although it did garner quite a bit of critical acclaim and does have a cult following, uh, as well.

And I think that’s well deserved. I really enjoy this movie. It’s, it’s, uh, it’s hard to categorize because it seems to bridge several genres. It is maybe at its heart, A vampire story, but there aren’t any fangs in this. And aside from the fact that vampires are out at night, they need blood and they need to kill for that, and they’re afraid of sunlight, we don’t really see a lot of the other typical things that you find in vampire films.

Craig: Right. Yeah, no like religious iconography, you know, bothering them or stakes or, or any of that kind of stuff. I mean, it is just the basic stuff. The, uh, the nature of these types of vampires, I think I read that they kind of left deliberately vague. Uh, of course, the word vampire is never uttered once, um, in the movie.

It’s really kind of treated more just as an infection. Um, and in fact, ultimately, uh, we find out an infection that can be, uh, treated and cured. And, and you’re right, the movie does blend genres. Catherine Bigelow, this was her first solo project, and, um, she was really interested in doing a western. But westerns know, they, they had kind of fallen out of the focus of, of pop culture.

They just weren’t being made very much. Um, and so it was suggested by the studio to her, um, that she tried to blend the Western genre with another genre that would potentially draw more viewers. And there was. Um, or had been kind of an increase in interest in the vampire genre. Uh, the lost boys came out right around this time, um, and a couple others.

And so they decided to, you know, try to blend those two, the Western, um, and the vampire film. Um, and there’s a little bit of a kind of biker road movie in there too. Um, and it makes for an interesting and, uh, unique. film. I had really forgotten. You know, the truth of the matter is, I’m not positive that I’ve seen this movie before today.

I thought that I had, I was just absolutely sure that I had, but watching it, I just didn’t remember the details. I don’t know if you’re right or not about a lot of people having not seen this. Uh, it seems like, I think maybe part of the reason that I thought that I had seen it is that over the years I’ve.

Read so much about it and read about specific parts and read about, uh, the different characters and whatnot that I think that I just had a familiarity, um, with it because of that. Uh, and so watching it again or watching it maybe for the first time today, um, I was really kind of coming at it fresh and, uh, I thought.

If nothing else, uh, it’s, it’s unique while there of course are similarities to other vampire movies, it’s quite different too. And I appreciate that. And Catherine Bigelow, you know, this was her first, uh, solo directorial, um, debut, but she went on to do big stuff. I mean, She won an Oscar for Best Director for The Hurt Locker, and I think that she shows a lot of that potential here in this movie.

It’s, it’s, it’s well made, it’s well shot, it’s well acted, it’s well put together, and you’re right, the critics responded, uh, really well. And the production company was struggling at the time that it was released, so it didn’t have, in fact, it shut down, uh, after it released this movie. So it didn’t have, um, it didn’t get a lot of, Uh, I don’t know, media, a lot of, uh, advertising, um, and so that may have something to do with its poor box office, uh, returns.

But, um, I do think that it definitely has established a cult following and, uh, I think people have a lot of respect, uh, for this movie on, on many levels. 

Todd: And also the, the, the way that it’s shot is so good. It’s actually kind of typical of some movies of this time. It does remind you quite a bit of The Lost Boys, and I don’t know if that is more, uh, just the fact that we have, uh, a really 80s type soundtrack that goes behind it.

Not a cheesy 80s, but a ethereal, kind of new agey 80s, because Tangerine Dream did, like, the soundtrack for Legend, uh, The Keep, I don’t know if you remember that one, Um, I don’t fire starter a lot of these. In fact, I could have sworn that they did the soundtrack also for never ending story, but they didn’t.

But you hear it and immediately, you know, the sound. It’s this very ethereal new agey. A little heavy on synth, but not in the kind of synth, but more of the swooping sounds. Sure. And you don’t hear that kind of music so much anymore. It’s really firmly planted, I think, in this era. And it’s not. I feel like the whole film is scored, but when that comes in, it really reminds you.

I, at least for me, it really reminds me, yeah, this is a movie from the 80s. And then also the way that it’s shot, obviously necessarily because so much of it happens at night, almost the whole movie happens at night, you necessarily have a lot of very poorly lit scenes. And I don’t mean poorly lit in that they didn’t know what they were doing.

I just mean that they really make use of dark and shadow. And also the contrasts there too. You hardly have a scene in the outside at night without some, some lights, artificial lights coming from somewhere. And often they cast a, like a, like a, what we call backlight against the back of the character so their hair kind of lights up and their shoulders kind of light up.

And it all makes for an interesting effect and also adds for a lot of that, what I call, like high noon type feeling. feel to some of the cinematography where you get these iconic scenes that you recognize from westerns where there’s a character riding, you know, even on a horse in this case, over the hill and instead of the sunlight behind him, he has some kind of artificial light from what may be, An oil refinery behind them, or a truck stop behind them, or whatever, or even headlights.

I think it lends a particular feel and look 

Craig: to this 

Todd: movie. 

Craig: That, that shot that you’re just talking about with, with, with the main characters coming up over a hill and being backlit, I remember that scene, um, so vividly. I think that any time, uh, you see An article like this or about this movie posted on the internet.

That’s typically the image that they put with it. I think that it was on the, uh, box art, maybe, uh, perhaps and pretty iconic. Um, and, and the music, when I saw it, when I was watching it today and, um, I saw that it was Tangerine Dream, I was really excited because I love their scores. You’re right. They are, um, very eighties, but of course I don’t have any problem with that.

Um, The one thing that I will say is I had no other choice but to watch this today in a completely fully lit room with, with windows with no blinds or shades or anything. Um, and so there was a lot of light in the room and that sometimes made it kind of difficult to see, um, some of the, the more darkly lit scenes.

Um, I’m sure that if I had been able to see it in a dark room or in a theater that it would have been fine. But listeners, if you’ve not seen the movie and you plan to sit down and watch it, turn the lights off, uh, cause I think you’ll get a much better experience. 

Todd: Yeah, and definitely go for like a restored edition or something.

I don’t really know what’s out there. I’m not sure what version we got. But I can imagine if you’re watching this on an old VHS tape or maybe a copy that hasn’t been so lovingly digitally transferred that it is hard to see stuff in some of these scenes. Yeah, all those things make a difference. It starts out, the very first image I think is interesting where there’s, it’s just a close up on a mosquito on someone’s skin and a guy slaps it and A little blood splatters out, which is an interesting way to start what is kind of a vampire movie, but kind of not, because as you said, this is about an infection, and mosquitoes spread infection, mosquitoes suck blood.

In many ways, these guys in this film aren’t so much vampires as they are mosquitoes, maybe. Anyway. Uh, the guy who, uh, who, uh, belongs to that arm. His name is Caleb and he is, he is a redneck through and through clearly like a cowboy imagery that we get right off the bat. He’s chilling in this truck and he has a cowboy hat on and we are in Oklahoma.

I believe it is. And he drives his truck to a spot and gets out. Just outside of a bar, and a couple guys approach him, and at first you think maybe they’re starting trouble, but it turns out they’re just friends. And they slap his hat off, and they have some talk, and as he turns around and looks over the back of his, uh, pickup, he sees off just down the block a beautiful girl coming out of a store.

Of course, it’s nighttime, and she’s just outside of what appears to be a convenience store, and she’s eating an ice cream cone. And this girl’s name is Mae. Just so southern. Such southern names we have. Caleb and Mae. And they both have these southern accents. He goes up and he strikes a conversation with her.

And right away the conversation is laden with, um, Overtones of VA vampires. . I would buy it. 

Clip: Buy 

Todd: It’s Dying for a cone. 

Clip: Dying around Here are you? Nope. You got nine. It’s me. That’s a nice name. It’s pretty.

From Babe, you ever heard of Sweetwater? It’s down near Snyder, isn’t it? Texas. Who you out here with? Friends, 

Todd: boyfriend, 

Clip: friends. 

Todd: Again, this is all very eighties too, where a guy sees a girl from afar and suddenly he’s smitten with her, and the whole movie seems to revolve around this kind of romance that unrealistically just develops from, from sight.

Craig: I thought that was funny too, but, um, I did appreciate one of the things that I appreciate about this movie is that it really is a pretty simple story. Um, and, and it moves pretty quickly. Uh, it’s only just a hair over an hour and a half long, but yeah, I mean, it is pretty unrealistic. I mean, these two hit it off right away and it’s, it’s nighttime and uh, uh, they just go for a drive together and.

They park somewhere, I don’t remember where, and they get out of the truck, um, and you’re right, I mean, she’s saying all this stuff that makes it evident to us as the viewers that she’s a vampire. I sure haven’t met many girls like you. 

Clip: No, you haven’t met any girls like me.

Stoners. See that one? First one I laid my eyes on. You know, the light that’s leaving that star right now, take a It’s been a billion years to get down here. I wonder why you’ve never met a girl like me before. Why? Because I’ll still be here when the light from that star gets down here to Earth. It’s been a billion years.

That sounds like fun. It is. I’d like to be there, too. Maybe. How? Who knows? 

Craig: I mean, if I were hearing this from somebody that I had just met, I would be, you know, reconsidering my choice to be alone with them somewhere. But he, uh, he tells her he wants, uh, to show her something and he takes her to meet his horse and the horse doesn’t like her.

Like it freaks out and panics and rears up and all that stuff. So all of these. It’s not at all subtle, uh, in indications that she’s a vampire, which lead us, he, uh, they get back in the truck. She says she needs to go home. We can tell that it’s becoming dawn. You know, the sun’s not up, but the light is, is getting, uh, brighter.

She says, you got to get me home. Hurry. He does something that I think in today’s society would not go over very well. Um, he, he stops the truck and says, uh, I might take you home, but you’re going to have to kiss me first. A little, little pushy for, for just having met this girl maybe an hour ago. 

Todd: I have to say Caleb come, he comes across as a bit of a predator in this movie.

The way that he, he’s pretty slick and talking with her. He’s pretty insistent on getting her into his truck. And then, you know, aside from the fact that he’s not leaping on her right away, Uh, the fact that, you know, he’s constantly going at her head as though he wants a kiss. He’s got his hands all over her.

And on her part, it’s not like she’s pushing him away. She’s certainly not doing that. But she just has this distracted and uneasy air about her the whole time. And a guy Again, like you say, that’s also warning signs, and we’re looking at this from the lens of, of men should be a little smarter nowadays because we’ve called so much attention to this, uh, kind of behavior in our society.

But, you really don’t garner a lot of sympathy, at least I didn’t at first, for what’s happening to Caleb. My thought was, yeah, I’m sure he’s kind of a great guy, but he was not raised to treat women properly. 

Craig: Right. Which is kind of odd because he has this little sister that he’s protective of later. So I don’t know.

I really do think that it just had to do with the time period. Um, and, and maybe that would have, you know, been just considered, you know, boys will be boys, uh, in those days. But if they were to remake the movie, I think they might, uh, handle that a little bit differently. She, she kisses him, I think, but she also bites him on the neck.

Um, and he’s bleeding and then she runs off. Of course, when he tries to restart the truck, it’s dead, and so he has to walk home. And there’s this cool shot where he’s walking across this field. We realize towards his house because we see his dad, uh, named Loy, who is played by Tim Thomaston. Uh, I remember him as, Uh, the villain from this totally obscure movie, Cherry 2000, which I think you and I have talked about before.

Uh, Melanie Griffith movie. Totally obscure, but he was really, he was the bad guy in that movie. He was really funny. And we see him and Sarah and they see him coming and realize there’s something wrong because The sun is coming up and he is smoking, like not smoking a cigarette, like there’s smoke pouring out of his coat and his pants, um, as though he’s, uh, on fire.

And, and apparently that is what’s going on. Um, the shot in itself, I mean, it’s just kind of a long shot of him walking across this flat field. Uh, and it looks really cool. I read that the way that they did this effect was they had this like complex series of tubes all throughout his clothes and they were all connected to five.

lit cigars underneath his clothes, which sounds terribly dangerous. I don’t know if it was a stunt man. I mean, cause you can’t really see him. He’s got that big, uh, hat on and he’s, he’s kind of hunched under his jacket. Like he’s trying to shield himself from the sun. So maybe it was a stunt man, but either way, it looks cool.

Um, you think he’s going to get home. Um, but just as he’s about to get there. there. This big camper comes flying down the road, the dirt road toward him, leaving dust, you know, flying behind it. The dad, Loy and the sister, Sarah, see him, um, Caleb basically get abducted. He gets pulled into this camper and then it takes off.

that we see is kind of from Caleb’s perspective. He opens his eyes and leaning over him is Bill Paxton, who is playing a character named Severin. Howdy. I’m gonna separate your head from your shoulders. 

Clip: Hope you don’t mind 

Craig: none. Uh, and uh, then we meet this, this whole crew, which ends up basically being this, tribe, I guess, uh, of nomadic vampires.

We’ve got Jesse, who’s the leader, played by Lance Hendrickson. Um, Diamondback, uh, Jeanette Goldstein, who we’d already mentioned. And then there’s also, uh, Homer, who is a child vampire, like an adolescent, a teenager. And he’s played, um, by the very, Joshua Miller, who you may, as a child of the 80s, also remember as the, the annoying brother from, uh, Teen Witch.

And May is there too, of course. And I don’t know what May has told them at this point, but it’s, it seems like Homer and, and Severin want to just dispatch Caleb right away. Um, but May kind of pleads with Jesse and, and Jesse says, all right, well, we’ll give him a week to see if we can call him, um, one of us.

And so it lit. It’s like he’s going to be on this trial period with them. And, uh, then really all we see is, uh, they, they ditch the camper that they’re in and, uh, they burn it up. And Severin says something to Jesse about, Hey, remember that fire? We started in Chicago, which I think is meant to suggest to us.

Uh, if they’re talking about the great fire of Chicago in the 1800s, I think the suggestion is that these guys have been around for a really long time, um, and probably, uh, plan to be around, uh, for a really long time. They steal another car, like a station wagon or something, and they pull into this town and Caleb is, is sick.

He’s, he’s feeling sick. Now, of course we know that he’s changing, um, but he wants to go home. He, uh, heads to the bus stop. Um, he’s a little bit short on cash. Uh, alone or, uh, I guess a gift from, um, this, uh, plainclothes, uh, policeman. There, there’s a scene where he, like, tries to eat a candy bar, but it makes him sick and wretch and so he can’t eat it.

And he actually gets on the bus to go home, um, but he’s so sick that, uh, he, he makes the bus stop and he gets off and he makes his way back to Mae. Um, and he is at this point so sick that he can barely even stay on his feet. Mae bites her own wrist and feeds. Her blood, um, which again, kind of goes against vampire more to some extent, I think, um, but, uh, it, it makes him better.

Todd: And I thought that that scene was pretty interesting. It’s very, it’s played up very sexually, like she’s also kind of getting off on him. On him sucking her blood and then once he has his energy back, you know, they start making out and so their whole relationship Is still a little It’s still a little weird.

I mean, you know, they don’t really know each other She is just the person who’s the one Who’s tasked with protecting him now, she has some affection for him, for reasons that we don’t quite understand. Maybe she just likes him, likes his looks, or what not. He’s also totally dependent on her now, and so the roles are kind of reversed here from what he, I think, would be doing.

Most comfortable with, or most familiar with. She’s kind of initiating him, I guess, into this vampirism. She’s saying, look at the night. Now do you hear it? Um, the night is so bright it’ll blind you. It’s, it’s all very poetic. And, I have to say, just from a perspective of this movie, Watching this movie just felt like a dream to me.

You know, it felt very dream like. Uh, none of it seemed quite real. And so, I can forgive things that don’t seem real. Feel like they quite click people acting in ways that I wonder in real life. Would they really act that way? But if you think of yourself at that state where you’re waking up in the morning and everything’s still kind of a daze I feel like not only did that movie just evoke that feeling in general and and But that’s probably partly because of the fact that it happens at night and at dusk.

But also it feels like the people in this movie, in some cases, especially Caleb and this girl, are also just like that. They’re in this kind of daze where they’re a little confused and, you know, Don’t really know what to do and don’t really know what’s going on and they latch on to each other when it’s convenient and they seem to have this relationship.

But you also get the sense that it’s not going to be really tenable and it can go away at any time. 

Craig: I don’t know. I hadn’t thought of that. And I don’t know that I would have said it in that way, but you’re right. There is kind of a dreamlike feel to it. Um, and part of that just comes from some plausibility issues for me, um, you know, after he feeds off her and, and he’s feeling better, he says, what do we do now?

And she says, anything we want until the end of time, but you’re going to have to learn to kill. And then we get kind of this, it’s not really a montage, it’s not like it’s set to music or anything, but we just get these short snippets of scenes where we see how these vampires are, are feeding in this small town.

And Homer, The young one or the young looking one. He’s not young. Um, he just is frozen in that body. He, uh, pretends to have been hit by a car on his bike and somebody comes to help him and he attacks and Severin hitchhikes and picks up a couple girls and we don’t even see necessarily these people get killed.

Diamondback and Jesse, I think that they pick up some hitchhikers too, who then kind of try to card Jack them. But of course, uh, Jesse and Diamondback are playing it so cool. Cause they know that they’ve really got the upper hand. And what I was thinking when I was watching this is how can they get away with this?

You know, if they’re in. The Midwest, and they’re going through these towns, leaving this incredible trail of, of death and destruction. Um, because like every new town they go to, they steal a new car and they burn up their old ones. You know, they’re leaving all that behind. They’re, I assume, leaving these bodies behind.

Um, It’s a clear pattern. Right, right. I mean, I, I didn’t, I didn’t worry about it. You know, you’re typically the one that worries more about realism and plausibility than I do, but it definitely came to mind. Yeah. 

Todd: Yeah, no, I, I’m with you 100 percent on that. I felt the same way and, and then you get to this scene where he’s in the truck cab with May.

Craig: Yeah, like they’ve hitchhiked with uh, yeah, with a semi guy, yeah. 

Todd: Yeah, and I guess the other thing too is it doesn’t, the movie doesn’t show you all of the steps that lead to this, right? Uh, he doesn’t show them by hailing a truck. It doesn’t show her convincing. It, there’s none of this like, Prepping him, like, okay, now it’s time for you to kill, let’s find a target, uh, here’s how we find a, you know, whatever, it’s just boom, and then as part of this montage, they are in a truck cab.

And we get this really likable, really nice, uh, truck driver, who seems to just be happy for the company. 

Clip: You kids, y’all run from home. Sir. Hey, that’s my car. Sometimes home is bad. Me, I got a truck for a home. Nice stuff you got here. How do you fly it? Hey! You drive a truck before? No, a semi. A semi, that’s five.

Five gears, brother. This got 13. You got two to the rear and the rest go forward. 

Todd: At this point I was also thinking about this movie, man, this film is so steeped in the southern and midwest imagery and feel. This could not feel more like the town, you know, Craig, that you grew up in and the surrounding areas, right?

I mean, you have truck drivers, you have horses, you have lots of nature, you have the big open fields, campers, you know, coming around, and a lot of this, I I think, you know, for people who’ve grown up in New York or people grown up even in Chicago at some of these places, you know, this, this is all stuff that they don’t see every day, whereas this is the kind of stuff that we see every day.

Like, we know truck drivers, you know, we have, in my neighborhood we had semis parked down the street. You know, a guy would come home after a long haul and he’s parking at night down there to go again. And so, all this was very familiar to me and it really brought back that sense. And I thought she did a really good job of this.

This was a good scene, because I felt like, if Caleb could relate to anybody, he could probably relate to this truck driver. Even though he’s an African American, he’s kind of a good old boy, he’s kind of a nice guy, just like Caleb is. Caleb himself says that he used to, you know, he drove a semi, he knows his way around this.

So, you can tell that he’s not going to be able to go through with this, it’s very difficult for him. And finally, he decides not to do it, and so, he asks him to pull over the truck, and he wretches. Stumbles out against the ground and the truck driver comes out and he’s a little concerned But he’s also kind of jokey and May comes up behind the driver and bites him and instead of feeding off of the driver again Caleb can’t bring himself to do this.

He feeds off of May instead and we get another scene That’s highly sexual and if it’s not sexually charged enough It’s in the middle of like an oil field where they’re pumping oil out of the ground. I felt like it was so heavy handed that this is like, again, it adds to the dreamlike quality of the movie, but it also makes it like an art film.

Craig: The other vampire. I mean, I keep calling them vampires. They never say vampire, but it’s the easiest term. The other vampires are mad. Um, and, and they, they demand, um, that Caleb kill somebody and soon, uh, if, if he’s going to be able to stay with them. And that’s where we get that cool, uh, silhouette shot that we talked about earlier.

Then it moves to a scene that, I know that I’ve read about this scene. I, I guess it’s kind of a, it’s not really the climax because it’s kind of smack in the middle of the movie. Um, but it’s our big action piece, um, where they all go to this bar, this, this dive hick bar where, you know, guys are smoking and playing pool and, uh, drinking and all that stuff.

And, uh, Severin kind of takes the lead in here and he just comes in and he’s just a dude. like, it seems like he’s intentionally trying to tick people off. Like he goes up to the bar and he spills some guy’s drink and. He’s just openly insulting these people. 

Clip: Give me a couple shots of whatever donkey piss you’re shoving down these c suckers throats.

Hey! Hey! You spilled my drink. Well, why don’t you lick it up off the bar, meatball? Why don’t you lick it up yourself? Hey, ever tell you the one about Buffalo Bill? 

Craig: He wants this guy who’s drinky spilled to want to fight. But when the guy goes to fight, um, Severin puts Caleb in between them. So it’s actually Caleb that ends up taking the punch.

And then, um, Severin says, give him a couple more. I’m trying to teach him something. And this guy does. He hits Um, Caleb a couple more times and then Caleb hits him back and the guy like goes flying and he’s knocked out. He goes flying across the room, lands on the pool table. Um, so I guess what Severin wanted to show Caleb was that he’s got this super strength now.

Then we just get this long scene where they just. Kill pretty much everybody in the bar. Diamond, uh, cuts a waitress’s throat. Um, Severin kills, uh, the bartender, uh, with his, he like cuts, he jumps up on the bar and like cuts the guy’s throat with his spurs. I mean, again, you know, all of these Western ideas to Homer, the, the kid one shoots a guy.

Um, and, and so it’s this bloody thing until there’s only one guy left. Um, and they all look to Caleb, Caleb doesn’t make a move. So may go. And there’s a slow song playing on the jukebox. And so she asked the guy to dance and they dance for a little while. Um, of course this guy’s terrified. Uh, she says he’s for you, Caleb.

Um, but the guy runs and jumps out the window and takes off running. Caleb chases him while the other vamps, uh, torch the bar and Caleb catches the guy, but then he lets him go. Like he still can’t do it. And when Jesse finds out. The leader, he’s pissed because he says it’s only five minutes to sun up.

We’ve got no place to stay. Um, that kid is going to immediately go to the cops and they’re going to be looking for us, um, which is exactly what happens. They go sleep in a motel and, uh, sometime in the morning. The kids, or excuse me, the police show up with the kid from the bar in the backseat and you’ve got this standoff in what’s really a pretty cool action sequence.

Todd: It is. It’s like gunfight at the OK Corral. They’re, they’re in there. They’re there inside their, their bungalow. It is morning time now. Again, it’s, it’s morning. It’s not middle of the day and the cops are outside and they’re trying to get them out. And these guys are starting to get their weapons loaded and they’re putting on like, not sunglasses, but kind of aviator glasses with Maybe even their welding glasses, I don’t know, but in any case, they’re suiting up and stuff like they’re ready to hit the sunlight as well.

And that’s one interesting thing about these vampires is they have necessarily developed these tools and techniques, and they’re primitive and crude, but these tools and techniques for Staying out of the sun, because, again, another plausibility issue is how can these guys just go from town to town to town all night long and not be exposed to sunlight in one way, shape, or form?

I felt like the movie made it so that the sunlight didn’t affect them when it was convenient. And that’s one criticism I have, and, and I wouldn’t criticize it so much, except that they make such a big deal out of the smallest bits of sunlight when it is cool or intricate to the plot. 

Craig: Yeah, I mean, cause, yeah, they, they have this big shootout, I mean, they shoot first, and then of course the cops start shooting.

start shooting. So it’s, it’s visually really cool because they’re all, they’ve got the room all blacked out with curtains and, and everything. Um, but as the bullets start to fly, of course, um, holes are appearing in the walls and windows. And so there’s all these streams of light coming in. Um, and you’re right, you know, they make such a big deal out of staying out of the sunlight and yet they’re kind of running around through this room where there’s, I mean, it’s still dark in there, but there’s beams of light coming in and it’s not as though they don’t.

appear affected at all. I mean, their skin is kind of charring and they are smoking. Um, and they’re 

Todd: very pointed moments where somebody’s arm will pop into a beam and it’ll catch fire. I mean, they make a big deal out of out of it in some shots. And then, like you said, in other shots, it seems like they were able to run around through them and and there’s nothing.

I mean, it could have been this really, it starts out as this really cool scene where it seems like, you know, it’s like, It’s like the scene from the, the alarm, you know, in, in a heist movie or something where they’re laser shooting everywhere and they have to avoid them. And so they’re, they’re in this tense situation and that’s what it starts out as, but then, like you say, as it goes on, it seems like they’re able to run freely in here and as long as they pass through the beams fast enough, it doesn’t do anything.

So it’s a cool scene and it looks cool and it’s initially set up cool, but then I was a little let down by the end of it to see how loose they were going to play with the sunlight, you know, at the end of the day. Yeah. 

Craig: Yeah. And, and I mean, what, what ends up happening is, you know, they’ve got to get out of there.

And so Caleb volunteers to drape himself in a blanket and run out to retrieve their van that they have. Um, and he does, and he’s smoking and his, his skin is, is burning. Um, he’s also getting pelted with gunfire. And again, you know, we’ve, we’ve already seen, he’s been shot once before in the bar. We’ve seen that, Like other vampires, they’re not harmed by conventional things, or at least, um, not that badly, and they can heal and regenerate and those types of things.

But he gets there to the van, and he gets in the van, and he drives literally into the motel room when they get in, uh, and they make their getaway. I think somehow they, I don’t know if they shoot the gas tank of the police car or what, but it blows up and, and, uh, they get away. Um, and they end up going to this, this, uh, Yeah, a lot of explosions and fires.

Yeah. And so they go to this, uh, new hotel or motel, excuse me. And now everybody’s cool with Caleb because he has, uh, saved them. And, and so they’re kind of all being chummy and buddy, buddy and severing even gives him his spurs and may and Caleb go off together, like on a little romantic evening walk or something.

And then this is where something happened that I didn’t see coming. I don’t know. It surprised me. Um, they’re, they’re kind of buddy, buddy. Caleb and may are off doing their own thing. The rest of them are sitting in the room playing cards and, um, Homer, uh, ducks out of the card game and goes for a walk outside and who should he stumble upon?

But Sarah, Caleb’s little sister. Now we’ve kind of neglected to say that we’ve been getting these little, um, scenes here and there, where we’ve seen that lawn and Sarah have been looking, they’ve been out looking for Caleb. Um, and, and maybe it’s a coincidence. Um, I mean, I don’t know. Maybe it’s too much of a coincidence that they all ended up at the same motel.

Um, but when I saw her and Homer saw her, it inspired this feeling of dread in me. I’m like, Oh no, what’s going to happen to this little girl? And, uh, Homer approaches her and he approaches her in a very friendly way. And she’s spunky, you know, she’s. I like this little actress. She’s cute. She holds her own.

And, um, he asks if she wants to come back and watch TV. And I thought that this was a really interesting character development for Homer. He’s just been kind of acerbic and, um, grouchy all this time. And now it seems like, He feels a kinship with this child, because even though he’s, I don’t know, maybe hundreds of years old, he in some ways is still a kid, too, um, and it’s, I got the feeling that what he wanted was a companion, um, and that that was the plan.

So he takes her back to the room and again, it’s just, I think that it’s a credit to these, you know, it’s the writing, it’s the characters, but also the performances. Diamondback is very friendly and almost maternal in talking to Sarah and we’ve just seen her be really kinda tough, uh, Up to this point, um, but she’s really sweet and talking to the little girl and, and she gets out of Sarah that, um, she’s there with her dad.

So we see Severin kind of, um, sneak out, uh, and I, assuming to go fetch the dad. And then Caleb and May come back, um, Caleb sees that his sister is there and they embrace, um, and then Severin comes back in the room with, uh, Lon, the dad. And there’s the, oh man, I just left the tension in this scene. All of these characters are in this one little motel room and I was, there was so much suspense.

I didn’t know what was going to happen because, you know, Caleb’s in a position where he still wants to protect his family, but these vampires are, are, you know, they’re dangerous and they’re indiscriminate in who, uh, they kill. We’ve 

Clip: been out a lot, driving in the truck, trying to track you down. Dead. Son.

Son!

Round and round and round she goes. And when she stops, nobody knows. It’s about time for that big ol wheel to stop rotating.

You work with people. I’m with them now. Just you let them go. It’s my family. 

Craig: I, oh, I just thought this was a really tense scene. 

Todd: Yeah, they don’t care about anybody’s feelings at all, and the bar scene really shows that. These aren’t the vampires that are burdened with their need to kill, but They have long passed that, and now they seem to, it seems to be the only joy that they can find in life is to terrorize people.

They’re in total danger. Loy is kind of a tough guy, uh, and he’s a pretty no nonsense dude, and he doesn’t seem to mind, uh, being in this, this place with these biker type guys, because he’s focused on Caleb and his daughter. Um, but then, when the stakes start getting high, and They’re threatening. He really stands his ground and he really puts apparently some trust in Caleb that at least Caleb’s not going to try to kill him and we know that that is that is not true.

I mean, Caleb’s probably not going to try to kill him, but we don’t know that Caleb is really going to be able to protect him from these people. Caleb is just falling into their graces. And so there’s that aspect to it as well. And I’ll say before we finish out this scene that I got a slightly different vibe from Homer approaching the girl.

One point in a much earlier scene, I think it was in the first scene, when they had picked Caleb up in the Winnebago and they’re introducing each other to Caleb, Homer makes a comment about, you know how hard it is being a man stuck in this boy’s body. When he was approaching her and he seemed really excited by her, I kind of got a creepy sexual predator vibe.

Like, This guy’s interested in girls because he is himself a boy at heart, so there’s that physical aspect to it. But knowing that deep down inside he is a man, this is the kind of person he’s smitten with. It was all level of uncomfortable for me when he was bringing her back. And, and, uh, And I felt like because these people were so brutal, like, her days were number two, like, he might bring her back to watch TV as kind of a ruse, and he may watch a little bit of TV with her, but I just got the sense in the back of my mind that he might also have a bit of his way with her and either convert her, want to convert her to, or just You know kill her off like they’ve done other so many other people so even from that point on I thought the scene was was Getting pretty intense and I actually didn’t even recognize at first that this was Caleb’s sister I thought it was another girl that just happened to be there That’s how how little we really see of Loy and his sister, you know in these quick scenes in the middle where they’re Right.

You’re supposed to be searching for him. But yeah, I think, uh, there’s a bit of a standoff, and Dad is to the point where he shoots Jesse, and Jesse looks up at him and spits the bullet out into his hand, which is, which is kind of a cool deal. But of course, the Dad’s pretty terrified by that. And they end up getting out!

I mean, pretty quickly, I think Caleb just runs for the door with them. Isn’t that how it happens? 

Craig: Sarah breaks away from Homer, and she opens the door, and it’s morning again. 

Todd: Yeah, it’s morning again and this is the sunlight streams and to me it was actually kind of a little anticlimactic. I was a little disappointed a little bit that that happened.

But in any case, it’s morning and so they can’t run out there though easily. So that gives them the cover, 

Craig: you know, I guess he had kind of resigned himself. In fact, Loy says to him at one point, you know, are you coming with us? And he says, No, I’m with them now. But when they turn on when the vampires kind of turn on him, and it’s it’s pretty apparent that they’re not going to take his Desires into consideration, you know, he doesn’t want anything bad to happen to his family and they don’t care I think it’s at that point that he realizes that he doesn’t want to be any part of this Um, and so he runs out with them and of course he’s you know Charring and smoking and all that stuff, but they get in the car.

He says, um something like uh, i’m not a person anymore I’m sick. Take me home Uh, and he shows them what happens when he puts his hand in the fire um And the dad says We’re gonna get you to the hospital right away. 

Clip: No! Goddamn, you want me killed? I ain’t going to goddamn hospital! Hospital’s fixed this!

Fuck, daddy! Let me home! Daddy

You’re a transfused person. 

Craig: Now we had seen the very first time we saw Loy, that he is a veterinarian. Uh, so he has, you know, obviously people and animals are different, but the principles, like, guess are the same. Um, and so they, they, they go home and this is a part of the plot that I just really kind of don’t get.

Obviously they can’t transfuse him with animal blood. That’s not going to work. So Loy gives him a transfusion of his own blood. Not the, maybe I don’t understand. understand transfusions. But if that were to happen, I would think that there would be some mixing of the blood, which I would think would just have the effect that they would then both be infected.

Um, but in fact, that’s not what happened. 

Todd: I think Loy is bleeding himself out into a bottle and then he sets up that bottle and puts the blood into Yeah, you’re right, because that’s what I thought at first. I thought that he was like, direct lining into him. But actually, uh, I think what’s happening is, because you see some scenes of these blood bottles kind of hanging, uh, and, uh, and after Loy taps himself, uh, you see a little bit later on that he is, uh, for the first time, you know, tapping the vein of, um, So yeah, I think he’s draining himself, and then he’s put, putting that blood into Caleb, and they’re not, you know, it’s not a direct line to line transfer.

But, again, what are the chances that he’s gonna be the same blood type? I mean, that’s not something that, you know, You know, gets passed down from parent to kid reliably. And then, I guess maybe we’re supposed to believe there’s a long passage of time, but there’s no way that, that in a short period of time, he can have enough blood produced to be able to, I guess, replace?

Caleb’s blood, is, is that how this works? That his blood, he drains some of it and then replaces it with the other? Or, it still seems 

Craig: like there’s some mixing. It doesn’t really make sense. Yeah, right? It’s all pretty clear. It doesn’t really make sense. But it is, it’s, it’s an interesting plot twist because I’ve never seen that before.

Yeah. Um, in any vampire movie. And, um, so it, it kind of distinguishes this from others and it’s interesting. Well, anyway, Yeah. Regardless of how realistic it may be, it works. Um, and in the morning, um, Sarah, I think, or somebody, opens up the barn door where Caleb is laying and the sunlight hits him and he’s fine.

And then, you know, it appears like they’re just gonna go on with their lives, like, oh, okay, everything’s fine now. And, again, this was another thing that I thought was a little probably implausible. I can’t imagine that Caleb would have thought, knowing these people and having been with these people for several days, that they were just going to let this go.

And so, as they’re all sitting at dinner, you know, they’re sitting and, and Loy has his back to the window. I’m thinking, oh man, somebody’s going to come through the window and grab him. Um, they don’t. Sarah goes up to bed by herself. And Caleb goes outside. She runs in there. He, excuse me, runs into May and he’s happy to see her, which again, I thought was kind of implausible because he would have to know that the other ones were around, you know, that would be as soon if I were him, as soon as I saw her, I would be hightailing it back into the house.

my dad and my sister. Um, but they just kind of have this little, you know, they, they, they kiss. Um, and, and she says, Oh my gosh, you’re warm. What’s happened? And he says, I belong here. May. This is my family. Um, and so she just runs off. He goes back in the house. And, uh, he walks upstairs, I don’t know if he’s going to his bedroom or what, but he sees that Sarah’s window is open, and she’s gone.

He runs outside, now I don’t even remember, is the, did they just leave the dad there? I mean, do we even know what’s going on with Lloyd? Yeah, that’s a good 

Todd: point, I think the dad just totally gets left off the, uh, The plot, I mean, yeah, he’s, he’s not there, he’s not looking for him, he doesn’t run out. The next shot is Caleb going and getting his horse because all the tires have been slashed on all the cars and taking off for, for town.

I guess he assumes that’s where they, they took her. And so yeah, that’s not anywhere in the picture from here on out. Which is 

Craig: interesting. I don’t even think I realized that until just now, but yeah, I don’t think we see him again at all. 

Todd: Yeah, you’d think he’d need the help, you know, they might saddle up together and take, take off, uh, it is his daughter after all, you know, it’s kind of funny, maybe he just didn’t want to wake him.

Craig: Yeah, or I mean, I guess you could say maybe he didn’t want to put him in any other danger either, like he wanted to, you know, take care of it himself, but it’s not very smart, I don’t think, um, his dad seems quite a bit tougher than him, I would have been getting my dad. But yeah, he saddles up and, you know, there’s this great scene of, you know, the lonesome cowboy just riding his, uh, horse.

down the middle of the street at night, um, and eventually the horse rears up and, and neighs and, and bucks him off and he’s on the street, the horse takes off, um, and there again is Severin standing over him, um, and Severin kind of toys them a little bit. 

Clip: Hey Caleb! 

Craig: I hate to be an Indian 

Clip: giver, I really do, but you disappointed me, now you’re gonna have to pay.

First you’re gonna give me back my spur, then I’m gonna knock your tonsils at your asshole. What do you think of them apples, huh? 

Craig: So, so Caleb turns around and takes off running down the street and there’s a semi coming down the street. Um, he jumps up on the foot rail of the semi and, and he’s telling this trucker, um, we gotta go, we gotta go.

And the, the trucker is, you know, just saying, get off my truck while Severin shoots the truck driver right in the head. So Caleb gets in the truck behind the wheel and he just heads down the road right at Severin and hits him. And I guess he thinks that’s good enough, but of course we know, uh, that that’s not going to be good enough.

And so Severin climbs up on the top of the, the hood of the semi and he just looks, I mean, he’s like half of his face is just like hamburger meat. I mean, yeah, I mean, he looks terrible, but he’s, he’s kind of laughing and smiling and taunting Caleb. And he’s like the Terminator, like he rips open the, he rips, of the car and starts yanking the insides out.

And so Caleb, when he had been in the truck with the other truck driver earlier, the truck driver had explained that there are two sets of brakes on a big rig. One for the truck itself and one for, um, the hall and you have to do them both. Otherwise they’ll jackknife. Well, so Caleb intentionally does that.

He jacked. It’s a fuel truck, he jumps out right at the last minute, and it blows up, and that’s the last we’ve seen of Severin, so, um, we assume that works. 

Todd: We even see his spur, uh, fly away from the explosion, fall on the street, and Caleb goes and picks it up, and, so he’s got the other spur now, too. It’s very poetic.

Right. This is our, uh, this is our, like, uh, high noon standoff, basically, for this movie. Yes, 

Craig: exactly. So once severance out of the picture, then, um, I believe a car pulls up and, um, Homer has Sarah in the back seat and Jesse may and diamond back are all standing out in front of the car and he approaches them or maybe diamond back is not yet.

Um, I think as Kayla approaches, she comes up behind him and she’s getting ready to throw a knife at him, but may warns him at the last second. Instead, the knife goes right into Jesse’s mouth, like into his throat and he pulls it out and he’s fine. Of course. Um, but again, Sarah breaks away from Homer, who I believe is trying to bite her in the backseat, but she’s struggling with her, er, with him, and, um, she gets out and she runs to Caleb and he grabs her and they start running, um, the vamps follow them in the car, at one point, Caleb falls down, and again, And not a very good choice.

He tells Sarah, keep going, go on without me, um, which is pretty foolish because the car just passes him and they get, um, Sarah again. Sarah’s in the back seat, I think, and Homer is trying to bite her, and Caleb is running, and May looks back and sees Caleb chasing. And so May Well, she grabs a hold of Sarah, I guess, kind of throws a blanket over her head and then dives out of the car.

They run to, towards Caleb, and Homer gets out of the car and starts chasing after him, and he just starts burning up. Um, and eventually he does, I mean, he just, he, he bursts into flames, um, and eventually explodes. 

Todd: Exploding vampires. 

Craig: Yeah. We’ve seen that before. I think one of them exploded in The Lost Boys.

Um, so Jesse and Diamond are the last ones and, and they’ve been kind of presented as a couple throughout this and there’s, you know, a good dynamic between these actors. Um, and they kind of pull, I guess, just what is kind of a Thelma and Louise, you know, they kind of just hold hands. Um, and start driving towards Caleb and Sarah and May, but the light is coming into the car and they catch fire and eventually the car just kind of veers off into the field and then the whole car explode.

And then next thing we see is May, and again, not very plausible. Here she’s out in the sun. She’s just covered by a blanket. I don’t know. I guess it’s just a blackout curtain that she’s happened to have with her. It seems to work very well. Um, the next thing we see is may laying on the same table that Caleb was laying on when he got his transfusion again, the door opens, the light streams in, she is unfazed and Caleb comes and sits by her and she says, I’m scared.

And he says, there’s nothing to be afraid of. It’s just the sun. Um, and they kind of embrace. And that’s the end. Um, so I guess we’re left to believe that all of the bad vamps are gone, or at least the ones that we know. And, um, Mae and Caleb can now live happily ever after. 

Todd: Yeah, the bad vamps self destruct a little too quickly, I think.

They, they give up to, these guys, they were brutal and they’ve been living for a long time. Surely they’ve seen worse than this. One of them said he fought for the South. And the fact that they just, like, Kind of commit suicide, essentially, over this one guy and his daughter. Just, I don’t know, that’s the part that bothers me, I think, the most of this movie, is that they are just presented as such brutal, brutal, take no prisoners kind of villains.

At the end of the day, they end up just turning in, you know? 

Craig: Right, yeah, it bothered me too. You know, we’re meant to believe that they have been around for all this time, and they’ve gotten by all this time, and then here at the end, they fall victim to this teenager? Like Yeah. It seems a little improbable.

And as bad as they were, like, as bad as they were, were, there was something and as brutal as they were, there was almost something endearing about them. You know, like you thought of them as a family. Um, and you thought of them as, as you know, protecting one another and having each other’s backs. Yes, they’re evil, terrible murderers, but you kind of almost bond with them as characters and then to see them all go out like that.

It’s not sad necessarily. They’re the bad guys and the bad guys lose. But, um, I think that it says a lot about, um, the writing and the acting that I was really kind of disappointed to see him go, you know, I don’t think that I would, I don’t think that I would have been, um, unhappy if they had just gone off and gone away.

And, you know, we. Thought maybe they would go on to see another day, but overall, um, I like this movie. It’s different Westerns are certainly not my genre of choice. I’ve not even really seen very many Either the old ones or any modern ones, but this definitely has a Western feel it blends really well Into the vampire genre.

I mean we kind of it wasn’t necessarily a Western per se but we What was the name of that movie that we watched? Um, was it ravenous that, uh, was set in like pioneer America? 

Todd: Yeah, 

Craig: it’s, it’s, it’s got shades of that. They’re not alike really, but there’s kind of shades, uh, there of, of that movie. And I liked that movie too.

Um, overall, you know, I walked away from it. 

Todd: Yeah, and I would even say this lands even further into the biker, you know, movie territory. I mean, it’s got a lot of western aspect to it. It was definitely written to be kind of a blend of western. But it turns out that this is like a gang of marauders in modern day America going around, and just kind of like the biker movie, and like you said, Once you spend some time with them and you get in their world, you do start to sympathize with them, as I won’t say the misunderstood bad guys, but you can at least understand where they’re coming from, even though ultimately you feel like they’ve turned into terrible people.

You do get that sympathy for them, you know, and in that, in that regard. It is a bit like a biker movie. There’s so much, um, going on in this film. There’s a lot of fire. There’s tons of fire. There’s a, again, great portrayal, I think, of the American Midwest and South. You know, I lived in Texas, uh, for, uh, six or seven years.

Even just the shots of him stumbling out across the field, kicking out smoke behind him, it’s not an unusual sight, to see somebody walking across the field, or running across the field, and there being a cloud of dust behind them, because it’s just so darn dusty that you kick it up everywhere you go. And so even in that regard, it’s a great blend, and a great picture.

Uh, throw to those icons of what you’re surrounded by when you were living in Texas and you’re living in the South. And so it really has a great sense of place. And then again, that dreamlike feel to it allows me to forgive a little bit of the implausibility of it. It all Maybe just ends up feeling kind of ethereal and at the end of the day you can argue they wake up from their dream You know, that’s how it’s ending He kind of had this crazy adventure and not not a lot of it made a lot of sense But at the end of the day he gets the girl and there you go I have to say I don’t even think it was terribly satisfying.

I wanted to see something a little more real happen but Again, it also seems to strike a bit of a chord for its time. In the 80s, there seemed to be this sense of everything’s alright at the end, the guy gets the girl, and we didn’t get a lot of the more depressing things that we ended up with in the 90s.

Craig: Yeah, and I read a criticism, I was looking at Rotten Tomatoes or something, and one critic’s review said something about it being kind of the quintessential teenage, um, Vampire love story, um, which I can see in 2006. Um, they announced a remake of this movie. Um, and it was in pre production. Um, but then in 2000, I think that it was delayed because twilight was also in production and they felt like I’ve never seen Twilight.

I’ve intentionally avoided it, but I read that they were concerned that there were too many similarities with like the teenage vampire love story. And so it ended up getting shelved and I, I don’t think anything’s going on with it right now. And I don’t think it’s necessary. I mean, I think that this is the kind of movie where if it’s done really, really well, if you get a good director, if you get a really strong cast, it could potentially Be a good movie, but it’s just unnecessary.

Like this movie is fine the way it is. It, you know, it’s not something where, um, a a lot of technical advancements are gonna make a big difference. You know, I, I, I think that it, it’s perfectly fine as is. Um, and if we never get a remake, I’m perfectly okay with that. 

Todd: Yeah, I agree. This, this movie has a grittiness too, and some of it has to do with the characters.

Some of it has to do just with the way it was shot, that that would be hard to replicate. I think. 

Craig: Yeah. I agree. 

Todd: Well, thank you for listening to another episode. If you like this, please share it with a friend. You can find us on iTunes and on Stitcher and on Google Play. You can also find us on our Facebook page where you can like us, share us there, and also let us know what you thought of this episode.

We also love to hear your suggestions for future episodes, so please share those with us as well. Until next time, I’m Todd. And I’m Craig. With Two Guys and a Chainsaw.

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