Grade: B+
Good: Good old-fashioned vampire horror with slick wit, an endearing campiness and solid performances from Colin Farrell and David Tennant.
Bad: Trudges a little in anticipation of each encounter between Yelchin and Farrell; Collette is sadly underserved; A bit too geeky for its own good, which could be off-putting to the uninitiated.
Ugly: Colin Farrell’s vamp face.
Word on the street is moviegoers are getting sick of vampires, reboots, remakes and overpriced 3D movies. Clearly, the studios have heard their customer’s complaints and responded with Fright Night, a 3D remake of a 26-year old vampire flick.
With the odds overwhelmingly in its favor, Fright Night has to do something special to capture an audience that would sooner roll its eyes at it than give it an honest look. But, Fright Night does work, and excels, by eschewing pretension, ridiculous rules and overwrought teen melodrama in favor of campy, bloody fun with a skewed sense of humor.
I’ll admit I went into Fright Night as a virgin. I was four years old when the original was released and somehow I’ve managed to avoid ever seeing it. But, I did my homework and the new remake doesn’t diverge significantly from the ’85 version. Now set in the suburbs of Las Vegas, Fright Night follows high school senior Charley Brewster (Anton Yelchin, who is only adding to the geek cred he built with roles in Star Trek and Terminator Salvation), a former ‘dweeb’ and LARPer, who has recently upped his social status by dating ridiculously attractive exchange student Amy Peterson (Imogen Poots). Thanks to his newfound popularity, Charley has gained a new cadre of dickish friends and left behind his brotherhood of geeks, including awkward fledgling vampire hunter Ed (Christopher Mintz-Plasse, McLovin himself, who is also building a solid repertoire of geek-targeted roles). When some of Charley’s classmates go missing, Ed reaches out to his former friend and blackmails him into investigating a trail of strange disappearances that lead to Charley’s new next door neighbor Jerry Dandridge (a slimier than usual Colin Farrell), who just might be a bonafide bloodsucker. Soon after, Ed goes missing and Charley starts connecting the dots, even turning to Criss Angel-knockoff Peter Vincent (the former Doctor Who, David Tennant), a goth illusionist who dabbles in vampire slaying, for advice. All the while, the ever insatiable Jerry, who is in fact a vicious vampire, has set his sights on Charley’s mom (Toni Collette) and Amy as his next meal. With his mother and girl in danger, Charley must use all he knows about vamps to kill one of toughest, unrelenting vampires to stalk the outskirts of Vegas.
There’s no way around it. Fright Night is pure fun, and it really has no reason to be as good as it is. A clear sense of humor and willingness to embrace camp combined with a truly frightening vampire action and some clever, cheeky performances make this a real late summer treat. Probably the most endearing of Fright Night’s myriad good qualities is its how the flick fails to take its self too seriously. In the wake of the Twilight saga, there have been campy twists on vampires on TV—the waning True Blood, of course—but everything on the big screen has been needlessly sullen and pretentious. Director Craig Gillespie smartly embraced the camp and ridiculousness of the Fright Night premise to make something that never stops to be maudlin, yet is never afraid to bear its teeth. And, boy, does this thing bear its teeth. There’s no shortage of bloodletting, explosions and forceful limb removal in Fright Night. In fact, this is probably the most visceral vampire action moviegoers have seen since 30 Days of Night. The only difference is where it took a tribe of vamps in 30 Days to decimate a city, it only takes one oddly-named vamp in Fright Night to unleash a river of blood. Colin Farrell’s Jerry the Vampire is a wonderful bastard, constantly acting like a lion playing with its food. He slinks around using a disarming charm to lure in his victims then turning unrepentantly vicious when challenged by Yelchin’s Charley. Yelchin may anchor the film with a wry, courageous turn as Charley—who, come to think of it, isn’t much different from Kyle Reese—but Colin Farrell unquestionably runs away with the show until David Tennant arrives as the wonderfully wacky Peter Vincent. While Farrell may run away with the show in the early acts with his slithery Jerry, Tennant straight up jacks it after the midway point. Tennant’s Vincent quickly evolves beyond overblown Criss Angel impersonation to a cleverly irreverent goofball who is far more useful than he appears. Toni Collette and Imogen Poots make a little headway with their roles as they play Charley’s mother and girlfriend, respectively as too smart to become pure damsels in distress. However, Collette fares better than Poots by showing some of the grounded cleverness and sly wit that marked her turn on United States of Tara.
Fright Night rarely stumbles, mostly because it moves at a steady clip and only gets boring when jaded anticipation comes into play. There is a faint sense in the beginning that Gillespie was being a bit too tentative in building to the confrontation between Charley and Jerry, but, mostly, he’s just doing a solid job of developing palpable tension. On a similar note, the ending is—to use an overly misused term—epic considering the scale of the movie. At least the last half hour is dedicated to a multi-locale chase between Jerry and Charley, along with his mother and Amy. It’s a solid and lengthy segment that includes a welcome, if not surprising, cameo. Admittedly, that cameo is an appeal to the geek crowd, which may or may not play well to the mainstream, but judging by this film’s tone and welcome embrace of all its inherent geekiness, the crowd who gets it will love it, others be damned. Unfortunately, Fright Night is being pushed as a 3D release, which means a dimmer visual experience and a disgustingly higher ticket price. On the up, Gillespie and his crew did manage to do a few cool tricks with the 3D that help Fright Night bypass the glorified diorama effect, but this flick is just as watchable in 2D.
Fright Night continues a subtle trend of late summer movies proving far more entertaining than any of the big draws released in May, June and early July. Personally, I’m starting to prefer late summer releases to early summer releases because it at least appears like studios and filmmakers are offering modestly budgeted fare with more personality and creativity than the glut of fantasy, superhero and toy movies can deliver. Hopefully, this mini-trend continues and audiences can continue to be rewarded for surviving blockbuster season with more gems like Fright Night that come in under the radar and surprise as they enliven the dying days of summer.
With the odds overwhelmingly in its favor, Fright Night has to do something special to capture an audience that would sooner roll its eyes at it than give it an honest look. But, Fright Night does work, and excels, by eschewing pretension, ridiculous rules and overwrought teen melodrama in favor of campy, bloody fun with a skewed sense of humor.
I’ll admit I went into Fright Night as a virgin. I was four years old when the original was released and somehow I’ve managed to avoid ever seeing it. But, I did my homework and the new remake doesn’t diverge significantly from the ’85 version. Now set in the suburbs of Las Vegas, Fright Night follows high school senior Charley Brewster (Anton Yelchin, who is only adding to the geek cred he built with roles in Star Trek and Terminator Salvation), a former ‘dweeb’ and LARPer, who has recently upped his social status by dating ridiculously attractive exchange student Amy Peterson (Imogen Poots). Thanks to his newfound popularity, Charley has gained a new cadre of dickish friends and left behind his brotherhood of geeks, including awkward fledgling vampire hunter Ed (Christopher Mintz-Plasse, McLovin himself, who is also building a solid repertoire of geek-targeted roles). When some of Charley’s classmates go missing, Ed reaches out to his former friend and blackmails him into investigating a trail of strange disappearances that lead to Charley’s new next door neighbor Jerry Dandridge (a slimier than usual Colin Farrell), who just might be a bonafide bloodsucker. Soon after, Ed goes missing and Charley starts connecting the dots, even turning to Criss Angel-knockoff Peter Vincent (the former Doctor Who, David Tennant), a goth illusionist who dabbles in vampire slaying, for advice. All the while, the ever insatiable Jerry, who is in fact a vicious vampire, has set his sights on Charley’s mom (Toni Collette) and Amy as his next meal. With his mother and girl in danger, Charley must use all he knows about vamps to kill one of toughest, unrelenting vampires to stalk the outskirts of Vegas.
There’s no way around it. Fright Night is pure fun, and it really has no reason to be as good as it is. A clear sense of humor and willingness to embrace camp combined with a truly frightening vampire action and some clever, cheeky performances make this a real late summer treat. Probably the most endearing of Fright Night’s myriad good qualities is its how the flick fails to take its self too seriously. In the wake of the Twilight saga, there have been campy twists on vampires on TV—the waning True Blood, of course—but everything on the big screen has been needlessly sullen and pretentious. Director Craig Gillespie smartly embraced the camp and ridiculousness of the Fright Night premise to make something that never stops to be maudlin, yet is never afraid to bear its teeth. And, boy, does this thing bear its teeth. There’s no shortage of bloodletting, explosions and forceful limb removal in Fright Night. In fact, this is probably the most visceral vampire action moviegoers have seen since 30 Days of Night. The only difference is where it took a tribe of vamps in 30 Days to decimate a city, it only takes one oddly-named vamp in Fright Night to unleash a river of blood. Colin Farrell’s Jerry the Vampire is a wonderful bastard, constantly acting like a lion playing with its food. He slinks around using a disarming charm to lure in his victims then turning unrepentantly vicious when challenged by Yelchin’s Charley. Yelchin may anchor the film with a wry, courageous turn as Charley—who, come to think of it, isn’t much different from Kyle Reese—but Colin Farrell unquestionably runs away with the show until David Tennant arrives as the wonderfully wacky Peter Vincent. While Farrell may run away with the show in the early acts with his slithery Jerry, Tennant straight up jacks it after the midway point. Tennant’s Vincent quickly evolves beyond overblown Criss Angel impersonation to a cleverly irreverent goofball who is far more useful than he appears. Toni Collette and Imogen Poots make a little headway with their roles as they play Charley’s mother and girlfriend, respectively as too smart to become pure damsels in distress. However, Collette fares better than Poots by showing some of the grounded cleverness and sly wit that marked her turn on United States of Tara.
Fright Night rarely stumbles, mostly because it moves at a steady clip and only gets boring when jaded anticipation comes into play. There is a faint sense in the beginning that Gillespie was being a bit too tentative in building to the confrontation between Charley and Jerry, but, mostly, he’s just doing a solid job of developing palpable tension. On a similar note, the ending is—to use an overly misused term—epic considering the scale of the movie. At least the last half hour is dedicated to a multi-locale chase between Jerry and Charley, along with his mother and Amy. It’s a solid and lengthy segment that includes a welcome, if not surprising, cameo. Admittedly, that cameo is an appeal to the geek crowd, which may or may not play well to the mainstream, but judging by this film’s tone and welcome embrace of all its inherent geekiness, the crowd who gets it will love it, others be damned. Unfortunately, Fright Night is being pushed as a 3D release, which means a dimmer visual experience and a disgustingly higher ticket price. On the up, Gillespie and his crew did manage to do a few cool tricks with the 3D that help Fright Night bypass the glorified diorama effect, but this flick is just as watchable in 2D.
Fright Night continues a subtle trend of late summer movies proving far more entertaining than any of the big draws released in May, June and early July. Personally, I’m starting to prefer late summer releases to early summer releases because it at least appears like studios and filmmakers are offering modestly budgeted fare with more personality and creativity than the glut of fantasy, superhero and toy movies can deliver. Hopefully, this mini-trend continues and audiences can continue to be rewarded for surviving blockbuster season with more gems like Fright Night that come in under the radar and surprise as they enliven the dying days of summer.
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