Screen to Scream: Near Dark and In the Valley of the Sun

Bill Paxton's Severen looks like me 
eating hot wings.

Vampires have often been portrayed in movies and books as sensitive, brooding, and sexy monsters. There are some media, however, that show them to be just monsters, monsters that happen to feed on blood and violence. They may make these vampires compelling, but they never let the reader/viewer forget what they are. Two such examples of this are examples of a mashup genre people might call Vampire Westerns: the gritty 80’s movie Near Dark and Andy Davidson’s debut novel In the Valley of the Sun.

Near Dark, acclaimed director Kathryn Bigelow's best kept secret of a vampire movie, stars Adrian Pasdar as Caleb Colton, a nice guy cowboy who falls for drifter Mae. Mae (Jenny Wright) has a secret, however, and all it takes is one bite before Caleb is indoctrinated into her vampire family, including patriarch Jesse Hooker (Lance Henriksen) and scene-chewer Severen (Bill "Game Over, Man" Paxton). The family takes Caleb in, even taking him out to dinner. Of course, dinner involves starting and subsequently consuming bloodbath at a local bar. Not partaking, Caleb still holds onto his humanity, even as he tries to both save his younger sister and help his new girlfriend as the family comes looking for them. Long before Twilight, Caleb and Mae exemplified a vampire romance and all the internal conflict and bodily bloodshed it entails, especially as both young lovers try to quell their murderous urges. 

Travis Stillwell, the protagonist of Davidson’s novel, knows something about fighting these urges, but he is also no stranger to killing. Not only is he a Vietnam veteran whose seen his fair share of death, he’s brought it to many young girls throughout Texas. He is given eternal life by Rue, a vampire who shares her blood with him and insinuates herself into his existence. Rather than use his vampiric abilities to sate his hunger with the blood of young women, he focuses on one family, a single mother and her son. Near Dark is horror, but it also has a few action movie moments, like a Terminator moment involving a semi-truck. It moves quickly from one scene to the next while In the Valley of the Sun focuses on Travis, the mother, and the Texas Ranger trying to stop him, fleshing out these characters while drawing them closer until the understated Western-like showdown that serves as the novel's climax. Near Dark features flaming vampires in the sun while In the Valley of the Sun features people and vampires exploding with unrequited passions.