Editorials
Before ‘Doctor Sleep,’ We Traveled With Horror’s Original Winnebago Vampires in ‘Near Dark’
In Doctor Sleep, Mike Flanagan’s adaptation of Stephen King’s sequel to The Shining, Danny Torrance teams up with a powerful young girl to fend off a cult known as the True Knot. The True Knot is a makeshift vampire family of caravanning misfits. They travel the country in campers, EarthCruisers, and Winnebagos in search of victims to satiate their appetites and longevity.
They’re hardly the first nomadic vampire clan to grace the big screen, though, nor the first to call a Winnebago home. The psychotic vampires in Kathryn Bigelow’s Near Dark were pioneers of the Winnebago lifestyle, and they left an indelible mark on the genre.
Caleb Colton (Adrian Pasdar) thinks he’s in for a night of necking with Mae (Jenny Wright), the pretty gal he’s just met. He’s not exactly wrong. Just before dawn, their makeout session ends with a bite on the neck before Mae flees in a panic. The sun rises during his walk home, which causes his skin to smoke and blister. As his home is in sight, a Winnebago barrels through the pasture and picks him up. It’s Mae and her family. Just before Mae’s family destroys what they suspect is Mae’s unfinished meal, she reveals that she’s turned Caleb.
He’s now one of them. That is, if he can show he’s worthy.
This particular bunch revels in their bloodlust, and the only hard and fast rule seems to be that any witnesses to their carnage be snuffed out immediately. Mae’s family is led by patriarch Jesse Hooker (Lance Henriksen). His companion, Diamondback (Jenette Goldstein), has a progeny in Homer (Joshua John Miller), a decades-old vamp trapped in a child’s body. Then there’s Severen, the most gleefully sadistic of the bunch, played to memorable perfection by Bill Paxton. Severen’s bulletproof cowboy persona combined with Paxton’s charm gave us one-liners like “It’s finger-lickin’ good!” and “It ain’t what’s goin’ on, son. It’s what’s comin’ off. Your face. Clean off.”
The word “vampire” is never uttered in Near Dark. This blood-sucking family wields guns and weapons, traveling throughout the south in a Winnebago with blacked-out windows. They sleep in bungalows or cheap motels during the day and feed at night by exploiting the kindness of strangers. Homer lures victims by pretending to be a hurt child in the middle of the road. Severen uses his Good Ol’ Boy charm to woo ladies while hitchhiking. Jesse and Diamondback prowl together, reminiscing of their Confederate days during the Civil War when Jesse was newly turned.
They sometimes come together for an all-out brutal feeding frenzy in small-town dive bars, too. Leaving destruction and a high body count in their wake. Mae’s family is so bonded together and distinct in personalities that you almost wish Caleb would give in and join their ranks, just so we could spend more time with them. It’s brilliant casting. Bigelow cast Henriksen, Goldstein, and Paxton hot on the heels of their stint in Aliens. They’d already forged a shorthand and friendship working together on what was essentially a war movie, and Bigelow used it to create a believable family with deep roots. It’s easy to grasp straight away that this vampiric bunch has a profound love and respect for one another. Blood is thicker than water, right?
Bigelow and co-writer Eric Red set out to create a Western, which proved difficult to obtain financial backing for. Instead, they blended the western with horror, creating one of the most unconventional and engaging vampire films of all time. This beautifully shot gem is a gritty western that trades traditional black hat villains for a clan of vicious nomadic vampires. Jesse, Diamondback, Homer, and Severen make for an iconic bunch that steals the film. They live in poverty and constant upheaval, but they love their life and they revel in carnage.
The True Knot feed off of humans in a very different way, but there are still a lot of similarities between these two vampiric families. The impenetrable bonds, the Winnebago lifestyle, and the careful selection of who can join their ranks; it’s hard to imagine that Near Dark wasn’t some sort of touchstone in creating the cinematic version of the True Knot.
Mae’s family were the originators of the Winnebago vampire, but Doctor Sleep‘s True Knot carries the torch admirably.
In this day and age, the word “troll” is often used to describe various online nuisances. Yet as abundant and irksome as the modern troll can be, they aren’t usually as fearsome as their mythological counterparts. I’m not talking about the small and gentler versions that have become more common to see in media. No, there are much bigger and scarier trolls out there—and André Øvredal’s movie Troll Hunter is one of the best places to find them.
It doesn’t take long for Troll Hunter (or Trolljegeren) to dump the Blair Witch Project-esque setup and aim for something a lot fresher. The trajectory of the story is augmented by Otto Jespersen’s character Hans, the titular Troll Hunter. The second he comes barreling out of the deep, dark woods and shouts “troll” at the camera, this movie takes a turn into what feels like uncharted territory. Not only subject-wise, but also conceptually.
For fantastical and made-up subject matter in cinema, found footage is a fast way to add a guise of believability. After all, what we accept to be the most crucial aspect of documentaries—the truth—rubs off on pseudo-documentaries, despite our understanding of the pretense involved. That is what Øvredal delivered with Troll Hunter: a movie so convincing that some viewers wondered if trolls really do exist. So, had this been straightforwardly made, it likely wouldn’t have been as effective. Conventional narratives would be more inclined to treat something like trolls as flat out unreal, and never try to convince the audience to think otherwise.
Hans petrifies the three-headed Tusseladd troll.
The viewers, like the characters trailing Hans, are quickly thrown into the deeper end of that extraordinary story. They have to process all this new information while staying on the go. So, although there is no significant amount of meandering, narratively or physically, there is still a good amount of atmosphere, not to mention tension building. It’s never anything frightful, but then again, Troll Hunter isn’t your standard offering of horror; it’s more on the low end of the dark fantasy spectrum. We aren’t ever spirited away to a faraway world—we stay in rather familiar surroundings, as well as dip into those less so. The outcome is a movie where you’re constantly more in awe than in terror.
As fantasy fiction might do, Troll Hunter prefers not to deal with incredulity. There is no time to waste on doubt, as interviewer Thomas (Glenn Erland Tosterud), soundperson Johanna (Johanna Mørck), and cameraman Kalle (Tomas Alf Larsen) all follow Hans around, recording whatever this character is willing to reveal about his bizarre job. Of course, the Troll Hunter himself is not an open book; in that respect, the diegetic documentary fails to fully capture and unpack the more interesting of its two subjects. Yes, all those giant, monstrous trolls are indeed incredible, but understandably, your mind wanders to their pursuer. What kind of person signs up for this gig and then chooses to stick with it for so long?
Reviews have called out Troll Hunter for its lack of character development. In regard to Thomas and his fellow documentarians, that criticism is valid, but bear in mind, they aren’t the focus of the story, either. Meanwhile, Hans is a well-crafted character. At least better than first realized. Before he was introduced, Hans had already grown tired of the troll grind. Fed up with that low compensation for his services, resentful of the bureaucracy, and wanting to expose his employer on a large scale, Hans’ discontent is glaring.
Then there are those finer details about the Troll Hunter, such as that indifference to both the natural splendor of his everyday surroundings and the affections of an obviously smitten colleague, that also suggest some level of despondency. So it is fair to say this movie doesn’t feature any sizable growth for its characters; however, the namesake isn’t underwritten. No doubt, putting a real-life character like Otto Jespersen in that role is partly why Hans is so fascinating—maybe even relatable.
Otto Jespersen as Hans the Troll Hunter.
There is always a small risk whenever using the term “mockumentary” to describe a found-footage movie, as the word could imply humor where there is none. In the case of Troll Hunter, the term’s usage is appropriate. Some folks have claimed the English-dubbed version has the more comedic tone, however, the Norwegian cut isn’t exactly humorless. Apart from the trolls’ absurd appearances, this is a movie where the characters nearly choke on the monsters’ farts, and Christians are like walking targets. Hans’ complete apathy towards everything is another cause of laughter. Overall, the comedy is intentionally dry and inconsistent. Unfunny, though? Absolutely not.
In a movie where endemic creatures are maltreated, as well as disavowed from living freely and peacefully, it’s hard not to notice the ecological message buried beneath the story. In addition to that is the unmistakable political satire. There is this whole business about intrusive and unsightly power lines—like trolls, they’re big blemishes on the land—that leads to what is perhaps the movie’s funniest moment. The scene in question is that one where certain electric lines, the ones secretly being used to keep the trolls at bay, go in a loop and don’t actually send power to any residents. Yet the monitors of said lines don’t find this at all weird. So it stands to reason that Øvredal was having a go at those who accept the government’s doings without question.
Looking past the fact that trolls aren’t actually real, this movie is an enlightening source of information. And not just for international audiences; Norwegians, too, get schooled about their homeland’s own mythology. It’s also evident from everything on screen that Øvredal and his crew were enthusiastic about the topic. The creature designs are the most indicative of that zeal; those imaginative yet myth-accurate manifestations are equally amusing and grotesque. One second you’re laughing at their phallic noses, the next you’re white-knuckling during a hairy sequence. Most surprisingly is how well the trolls’ visual effects hold up after fifteen years. It’s not all spotless, but on the whole, they remain impressive.
Vouching for a mockumentary about trolls isn’t easy, but those who do come around and give it a shot will more than likely be grateful for the recommendation. For Troll Hunter is a real find in that vast and varied genre we call “found footage“.
A bridge troll reaches up for food and finds Hans decked out in armor.
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