"I wanna do bad things with you" - Jace Everett

I'm going to write about one of my all time favorite film characters. I watch a lot of movies. At home, we have a floor to ceiling bookcase that is overflowing with DVD's, and another of VHS. Yeah. VHS. George Carlin could have written his "stuff" schtick by just taking a gander at my film collection.

Nope, it's not Indy, or Bond, or any of the usual suspects. It's Jesse Hooker, leader of the vampire clan in Katherine Bigelow's excellent and underrated film "Near Dark". Jesse cuts a swath through this film and in my horror loving heart like the former soldier he is. Jesse is bad, bad news. He is no longer human, and yet he shows an incredible devotion to his family of "Nocturnal Nomads" as I have heard the actors refer to them. They are are like a feral version of the Joads.

I had a great talk with a friend today about this film. In an incredible coincidence, one of my best and oldest friends happened to be in my hometown the same time I am. The reasons we are both here aren't good actually, but the parallel existence he and I seem to share has thrown us together again. Life does that sometimes.

Greg and I have always shared a love of horror. Horror literature for sure, but especially horror films. We had lunch today at one of my favorite places, an Irish bar that I've been going to since I was kid. You read that right. It used to be that the Dad of the dear friend that I mentioned in the last post would take us there, install us at the PONG table, and we'd have burgers while he had a couple of beers. It was a total dive back then. Seriously. Charles Bukowski kind of place. It's more of a fern bar now, but the burgers still rock. And they cook them rare, as it should be.

Of course our conversation turned to things dark almost immediately. The thing with my buddy Greg is that he and I share a very twisted sense of humor. Not just a little of kilter, seriously twisted. And he is one of a few friends I have that if we get to laughing about something, it's like we click, and we can't stop. We can't look at each other, because we already have tears rolling and have gone limp and can't breath. And we mess with each others heads in a big way, and it always ends up in laughter.

He has this thing he does, where he voices a random creepy and generally goofy thought. Like "What if you and I were stranded in the wilderness together, and we were like reduced to eating our own feet, Considine, would you? Or would you just eat me and get yourself out? *he kicks me under the table* "because I would definitely drag your footless ass back to civilization. Yeah. Considine. I'd be there for you". *again with the kick*. This kind of thing usually forces me to publicly flip him off, and that's why I love him.

Then we get to talking about the films that have recently creeped us out, or stayed with us in a very visceral way. We talk about "The Shining" for a while, and then I mention "Near Dark". He hasn't seen it.

There is a special kind of glee when you share a film you love with someone who is fresh to it. I got real excited and focused and conspiratorial, and I immediately launch into why I love this film so very much. It hits the mark on so many levels, but for me, it's all about Jesse Hooker.

I tell him all about it. "There's this scene. Two drifters, petty thiefs, thugs...approach the car where Jesse and his lady, Diamondback are stopped by the side of the road. They threaten different kinds of mayhem. At first, they especially focus on Diamondback. They taunt her something awful, and she just takes it and smiles". She's the perfect partner to Lance Henriksen's Jesse, and in this scene they both do that stillness thing that I was talking about in my previous post. They just slowly grin, a truly evil grin, have a sideways glance that speaks volumes, and after much harassment from these idiots, Jesse speaks.

"I'm wondering how you'll look with your face ripped off". The grin that turns into probably the scariest display of mirth I've ever seen on film. And I actually think it was a good choice that we never see these asshats demise. It would take away from the bar scene. Oh, the bar scene.

The tribe enters a roadhouse to the stains of John Parr's "Naughty Naughty". The minute this happens, you have a sharp intake of breath, because you just know bad things are going to happen, and they do. In a big way. Greg will read this, and I already gave him a few highlights, so I'm going to leave it at that in the interest of those you who may not have seen this film. And if you haven't Get thee to netflix, or your local big box store, and CHECK IT OUT.

I tell Greg about the blogathon, and why I've been enjoying the hell out of it. And why Mr. Henriksen is one of the best artists out there. We've talked previously at this lunch about scaring each other, Greg is a man who has actually hid in the bushes outside my house to jump out and scare the crap out of me. I tell him all about the preparation that was done by Mr. Henriksen for Jesse. The story of that is on an extra of the disc I have, and it's a good one. And I know Greg will appreciate the tale.

Mr. Henriksen basically starved himself prior to filming, and it shows. Jesse is positively skeletal, which is appropriate. He looks like Death that has come for you, and indeed he is. Lance/Jesse took some roadtrips, and he deliberately made himself look like a drifter, hungry, very hungry and gritty looking. He picked up a hitchhiker on this roadtrip, and he messed with him. He told him to roll a cigarette, and then mercilessly berated him about what a bad job he had done with it. In the clip about this, Mr. Henriksen says that he was sure this guy thought he was going to die. And he laughs. We get that.

Greg looks me in the eye, and he says "I LOVE that". Love it. Why do I love that?" And I reply, "It's commitment".

He will be watching "Near Dark" at the next opportunity, and I can't wait to talk to him about it.