YMMV / Near Dark

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• Awesome Music: Tangerine Dream's haunting synthesized score, especially "Mae's Theme". At times, it resembles band member Christopher Franke's later work on Babylon 5. Also "Naughty Naughty" by John Parr, used in trailers and in the infamous bar scene.
• Cult Classic: The movie gained a new life in DVD and tends to be present in "Best Vampire movies ever made" lists.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Severen is widely acknowledged as the movie's most memorable part.
• Memetic Mutation: "Finger-lickin' good."
• Magnificent Bastard: Jesse Hooker is a vampire possessed of a free spirit and a desire to just have with his makeshift "family." Having lived for decades by regularly draining the blood of countless victims — usually assholes who instigate conflict in the first place — Jesse grants any new vampires the chance to become a part of his gang, offering Caleb this exact bargain. Continuing to run amok and use a combination of arrogant bravado and humble stealth to take down a variety of victims and threats, Jesse leads his "family" in an attempt to kidnap and turn Caleb's little sister as a favor to one of his gang. Jesse truly values the lives of cohorts and has a twisted sense of honor to make him all the more charming, going so far as to face death with nothing but a sneer and final attempt to pay Caleb back for betraying the gang.
• Narm: Homer burning to death in sunlight in complete agony is pretty horrible and almost tragic. Homer burning to death in sunlight in complete agony and then randomly exploding without any warning whatsoever is completely jarring and more than a little hilarious. The comic timing is perfect, it really shouldn't be nearly as funny as it is.
• One-Scene Wonder: Among the various victims of the vampires, two standouts are the women who Severn flirts with and convinces to join him for “a drink”.
• Signature Scene: Probably the most widely-recognized scene of the movie is the moment Jesse's crew goes to a random bar and end up killing almost every single person while doing some bonafide Evil Gloating.
• Squick: Homer wants to turn Caleb's young sister to have a companion. While it might not initially be all that unsettling given that Homer is still a child, he's clearly more grown-up than Sarah, referring to himself as a man trapped in the body of a child. Then again, Homer's probably patient enough to wait for her to mature emotionally.
• Vindicated by History: Once the movie was released in VHS and DVD, it acquired a much larger fanbase and appreciation. It's now a Cult Classic of the vampire genre and particularly popular with the Vampire: The Masquerade crowd. White Wolf regularly includes it on lists of recommended viewing to get into the "mood" for both Masquerade and Vampire: The Requiem.

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