There seems to have been a movement in the late 80s for bringing back the classic vampire character in a thriller or serious scary movie. By this I mean the suave, sophisticated leader with power or authority, and whom all the other creatures of the night take their orders from. His power was sometimes shown in a business or a big house. Like Chris Sarandon in Fright Night, the "head vampire" in The Lost Boys (1987), or Lance Henriksen in Near Dark (1987). These guys tend to be calmer and more at ease than the others they hang with, but that only makes them seem more powerful, and they cana be very dangerous and violent when they are ready to strike.
Now, Near Dark is a movie I never knew existed before until recently. Director and co-writer Kathryn Bigelow cast three actors (Henriksen, Bill Paxton, and Jenette Goldstein) who also appeared together in the previous year's Aliens, which was directed by her future husband (now ex-husband) James Cameron. The movie takes place in present-day Oklahoma and is kind of a reinterpretation of the western and vampire genres. The plot involves an everyman, played by Adrian Pasdar (TV's "Heroes"), who gets mixed up with an outlaw gang of vampires after he himself is bitten by a innocent-looking femme fatale in the film's romantic first 10 minutes. He starts to experience the change and is rescued by her and her friends before he is exposed to too much sunlight. The rest of the film shows him not wanting to kill, but still needing blood to live, and the gang becoming impatient with this. They intend to kill him themselves if he does not embrace his new way of life and start acting like they do in attitude and bloodthirsty actions. The film is easy to nitpick - for one thing the gang makes some dumb decisions and gets in too many life-threatening situations for having survived as long as they have as vampires. But Bigelow does a fine job creating an atmosphere and tone of uneasiness, with help from a synthy score composed by Tangerine Dream.
