Hurt Locker, another war film filled with adrenaline junkies, thrill seekers and wild men. Not much of a stretch from those damn vampires Kathryn doled out years ago in Near Dark. Blood, mayhem and murder and all the assorted accoutrements of any good horror flick were there in abundance in her latest blood soaked celluloid opus. Face it, that war film had pedigree written all over it. Look at the director and the cornerstone work of her early director days. Near Dark is a near perfect pitch scary movie. Vampire "family" on the loose in Texas with a certain kind of twisted moral code that ensured they protected their own, outsiders and daylight be damned. They were skilled in gettng what they needed in order to survive, they knew that discipline and hard work and their heightened sense of bloodlust would yield them a peculiar kind of riches.
Then there were those moonsuit wearing cats in Hurt Locker. Those soldiers were pretty much cut from the same cloth as those night riding vampires. Hardworking, hard partying, solid in their skill set but still somewhat fractured by the uncertainty of the environment, by the recklessness of the FNG, the bomb disposal tech sergeant. That is, until he proved himself, showed that he had brass plated cojones and could take on bombs and bad guys and bottles of whiskey with equal measure.
I feel I keep stumbling on Ms Bigelow's films instead of actively seeking them out. I can still remember the first time I even heard of Near Dark. I was up in Seattle visiting an old library pal. He was a quirky dude, a major film head, worked Tower Records for the music deals, knew where all the great little ethnic restaurants and interesting watering holes and bargain movie houses were like nobody else around, 'cept maybe some equally culture crazed staffers from The Stranger. He was a movie poster collector, too, and had a major oversized print of Ms Bigelow's vampire opus up on his living room wall. My pal, for having such a big movie jones, had one vital link missing from his possessions chain: he was lacking a VCR. Big pity, but then again I didn't have one at home, either. All the same I was intrigued, got caught up in the search for the film. Years later I tracked it down and was left seriously unsettled. I felt then and still feel now that Near Dark is one of the most vicious horror films ever created. Yeah, good stuff.
So I must admit I was surprised when I found out that Ms Bigelow put out a war film. Read about it, put it on the things to view list. Somehow missed it as it blew through the local cineplex and the neighborhood arthouse. Was HL destined to be missed? Not with such a big awards presence, it wasn't. Finally found a rental copy last weekend, watched it once, gave it a day's rest and watched it again tonight. What got me was that it wasn't really a war film at all, but a full out horror fest draped in the lastest Middle Eastern conflict. It's heroes were fragile, tough, covered with blood and gore, the bad guys ellusive, the episodic scenes packed with tension, edgy lighting and edge of your seat mood music. A good scary flick will have stuff jump out at you willy nilly to make you scream, to jack up the goosebumps. Instead of lunging bloodsuckers Hurt Locker was packed with modern day bloodletters like remote control bombs, assault rifle weilding assassins, sinister civilians and miles of det cord with no end in sight. More, it made our innocent daily existence in the States seem highly suspect, too. I can still picture the unease that the furloughed soldier felt as he scanned a long aisle of boxed cereal in an apparently deserted supermarket. I felt more discomfort in that scene that I have felt in a half dozen recent zombie flicks. Yeah, it's the everyday normal stuff that kills you in the end.
Vampires may be the stuff of legend, but our various conflicts overseas are the real horror stories we get read about every day in the newspaper. The innocent flotsom and jetsum of lives turn sinister by degrees when you have no idea who is a friendly and who is a foe. Wander about in the dark of night and more than likely will not stumble upon a wandering family of bloodsuckers. Wander about in the daylight in soldier's uniform a bustling town in Iraq circa 2007 and the chances were that you would experience some sort of horror guaranteed to make your hair white overnight.
Hurt Locker. Near Dark. Horror films deluxe. Watch them with the lights off. And thanks alot, Kathryn, you thrill junkie, you.
Action!
Kathryn Bigelow: IMDB overview, with connections to Hurt Locker and Near Dark:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000941/
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