Sculpt
01-15-2014, 02:21 PM
Just saw Near Dark for the first time. It was a glaring omission for me, as I was a teen in the 80s. It's a vampire film from 87, co-written and directed by Kathryn Bigelow, who's directed films Point Break, Strange Days, Blue Steel, and won Oscar for best director for The Hurtlocker.
(film description below)
I was a little surprised at the allegory used. It's not uncommon, especially for vampire films. A young male, Caleb, is drawn into a somewhat initially shallow relationship with a young woman, Mae, who turns him into a vampire. She wants him to join her small group of ruthless cruel vampires.
(spoilers)
He must have blood to survive, and suffers horribly with the blood hunger. He refuses to kill people, nor join in the brood's cruelty. He survives for awhile drinking blood from the young female vampire, who appears to have genuine feelings for him.
Caleb's father and sister have been devotedly searching for him on the road for days, and eventually runs into the him and brood. The brood wants to kill the father, and the equally cruel child vampire of the brood wants to make Caleb's sister a vampire (was the impression I got). Caleb pleads to let his family go, but they refuse. The sister opens to the door to the morning sunlight, and Caleb & family escape.
Caleb's father gives his son a blood transfusion, and Caleb is completely cured of the vampires. Mae finds Caleb and wants him to rejoin; he refuses. The brood grabs the sister. In the melee Mae joins Caleb and the brood is burned up. Mae gets the family blood transfusion and is also saved from vampires.
Sometimes symbolism and allegories are unintentional, and one can see things that aren't there. But experienced writers, especially screenwriters, study their audience's cultural, mythos and symbolic fondations and use is constantly. The allegories are: the father devotedly searching is the good Shepperd searching for his sheep (God/Christ pursuing relationship with us http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Shepherd); and the father's blood transfusion is, of course, the blood of Christ, God/Christ providing the blood, "this is my blood" Lord's Supper, Christ's saving and transformative power over sin. (There's a million references for that, IE the New Testament, but here's a relevant set (http://godsbreath.net/2011/12/02/addiction-bible-verses/)on a page I found if interested).
(film description below)
I was a little surprised at the allegory used. It's not uncommon, especially for vampire films. A young male, Caleb, is drawn into a somewhat initially shallow relationship with a young woman, Mae, who turns him into a vampire. She wants him to join her small group of ruthless cruel vampires.
(spoilers)
He must have blood to survive, and suffers horribly with the blood hunger. He refuses to kill people, nor join in the brood's cruelty. He survives for awhile drinking blood from the young female vampire, who appears to have genuine feelings for him.
Caleb's father and sister have been devotedly searching for him on the road for days, and eventually runs into the him and brood. The brood wants to kill the father, and the equally cruel child vampire of the brood wants to make Caleb's sister a vampire (was the impression I got). Caleb pleads to let his family go, but they refuse. The sister opens to the door to the morning sunlight, and Caleb & family escape.
Caleb's father gives his son a blood transfusion, and Caleb is completely cured of the vampires. Mae finds Caleb and wants him to rejoin; he refuses. The brood grabs the sister. In the melee Mae joins Caleb and the brood is burned up. Mae gets the family blood transfusion and is also saved from vampires.
Sometimes symbolism and allegories are unintentional, and one can see things that aren't there. But experienced writers, especially screenwriters, study their audience's cultural, mythos and symbolic fondations and use is constantly. The allegories are: the father devotedly searching is the good Shepperd searching for his sheep (God/Christ pursuing relationship with us http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Shepherd); and the father's blood transfusion is, of course, the blood of Christ, God/Christ providing the blood, "this is my blood" Lord's Supper, Christ's saving and transformative power over sin. (There's a million references for that, IE the New Testament, but here's a relevant set (http://godsbreath.net/2011/12/02/addiction-bible-verses/)on a page I found if interested).