trange Days director Kathryn Bigelow made her name with this 1987 bloodsucking take on the traditional western. Frequently hailed as the greatest vampire flick of all time, it gave a flagging movie sub-genre a visceral and imaginative adrenaline shot, earning itself cult status in the process.


Any self-respecting goth will know the stylish tale like the inside of their coffin, yet Near Dark deliberately contradicts the conventional folklore of Bram Stoker et al. Essentially, it's a fucked-up and effortlessly cool love story, with Adrian Pasdar's simple country boy Caleb falling for the angelic-looking Mae (Jenny Wright), only to discover she and her ultra-violent 'family' are claret-quaffing fiends.