Cast:
Adrian Pasdar... Caleb Colton
Jenny Wright... Mae
Lance Henriksen... Jesse Hooker
Bill Paxton... Severin
Jenette Goldstein... Diamondback
Tim Thomerson... Loy Colton
Joshua John Miller... Homer
Marcie Leeds... Sarah Colton

Summary:
Near Dark is a vampire Western film, written by Eric Red and Kathryn Bigelow, and directed by Bigelow. The movie has a sizable cult following.
Kathryn Bigelow wanted to film a Western movie that departed from cinematic convention, which at the time was strongly identified with the films of John Wayne and John Ford. When she and co-writer Eric Red found financial backing for a Western difficult to obtain, it was suggested to them that they try mixing a Western with another, more popular genre. Her interest in revisionist interpretation of cinematic tradition led her and Red to the idea of combining two genres that they regarded as ripe for reinterpretation: the Western movie, and the vampire movie, whose conventions largely derived from Bela Lugosi's performance in Dracula. The film was scored by the group Tangerine Dream.

Caleb Colton is a young man in a small Oklahoma town who flirts one night with Mae, an attractive young drifter. Shortly before sunrise, while kissing, she bites him on the neck, then runs off. Caleb discovers that the rising sun causes his flesh to burn. As he suffers in the sunlight, Mae and her 'family' of itinerant vampires pick up Caleb and sweep him away from his family's home. Severen and Diamondback are inclined to kill him then and there, but Mae, who has developed a romantic interest in Caleb, points out that she has 'turned him' ? made him a vampire. Reluctantly, Jesse Hooker, the leader of the gang, declares that Caleb will remain with them for a week, to see if he can learn to hunt efficiently and be trusted as one of the group. Caleb quickly learns that the vampires are doubly bloodthirsty: not only do they feed on humans, but they hide the evidence of their nature by acts of wanton destruction, particularly arson, lest the mortal population seek them out and destroy them.

Trivia:
Bill Paxton, Jenette Goldstein and Lance Henriksen all appeared in Aliens (1986), which was directed by James Cameron. All three actors were cast in Near Dark separately, without knowing that they were all auditioning for the same movie for the second time.

On the DVD interview, Lance Henriksen and Bill Paxton explain the lengths to which they went to develop their characters. Among other things, Henriksen constructed an elaborate backstory involving Jesse's service in the Confederate States Navy, and which is hardly mentioned at all in the film.

Henriksen decided that Jesse should appear emaciated; he accordingly lost so much weight to fit the image that he lost much of his muscle tone, and threw his back out while climbing the stairs of his house.

Despite being about vampires, the word vampire is never uttered in the film.

-Wikipedia