Near Duped

I know that I've mentioned this before, but I really hate the new artwork for Near Dark. Kathryn Bigelow's vampire western deserves better than to be photoshopped into a Twilight clone, especially when the movie is about as far as you could get from the Sparkly world of Robert Pattinson.

But, because mopey blues and dopey looking romantic longing is suddenly what "vampire" movies mean, when I went to pick up the Blu Ray of one of my favorite genre entries, it was disheartening to see this:

That's the new cover slapped together to dupe Twilight fans into thinking that Near Dark is anything like those books. It's not.

If you've ever seen Near Dark, you know that. Here, for comparison's sake, are the trailers for Near Dark and Twilight.





I mean, I can see the superficial similarities, but the major difference is that instead of being solemn loners who wine about "she doesn't belong", the vampires in Near Dark are actually dangerous and pose a real threat to just about everyone they meet. Go all the way back to Nosferatu if you need to; vampires in cinema are not supposed to be safe. Alluring, sure, but always dangerous. If you pine for a vampire, things end badly.

Now, I haven't (and don't plan on) reading / watching Twilight, so if I'm missing some critical insight, fill me in. In the meantime, allow me to share the old dvd artwork for Near Dark, which while a bit spoileriffic, is much more appropriate to the tone of the film (which is essentially a western):

I suppose it's fair to say "so what? it's just a dvd cover!", and more adventurous readers might even suggest this is a great development for Near Dark, which has for a long time hovered in the fringes of vampire films (along with Martin). Maybe a wildly misleading dvd cover will bring a new audience to the film that never would have discovered it before. Maybe, but when they realize that this is not the film they've been promised, then what?

Oh well, I can always print a new cover out for the Blu Ray and enjoy the film for what it is. But I'm not going to pretend it's not terrible artwork in the meantime...