Fright Night 2011 – Review

A remake of the 1985 original, teenager Charley Brewster (Yelchin) guesses that his new neighbor Jerry Dandrige (Farrell) is a vampire responsible for a string of recent deaths. When no one he knows believes him, he enlists Peter Vincent (Tennant), a self proclaimed vampire killer and Las Vegas magician, to help him take down Jerry.

Luckily I saw Fright Night 2011 on its opening weekend. Unfortunately according to box office results, this movie bare pulled in $7 million on its opening weekend.  Despite the dismal opening weekend, I quite enjoy this adaptation.

In this version, Charley is a popular high school student with a “hot” girlfriend (Poots). His life-long friend Ed (Plasse) is still seen as an outsider and even Charley is trying hard to distance himself from the “geek.” But despite his distance, Ed still manages to draw Charley into his bizarre world where he believes vampires are real and living in Nevada; and even tells Charley that his new neighbor, Jerry, is a vampire. Charley dismisses Ed’s claim, leaving him alone to face the long and dark walk home.

When Ed fails to show up at school the next day, Charley becomes suspicious of his mysterious disappearance. Charley goes to Ed’s house where he discovers his room covered in supernatural lore. Later that night, Jerry shows up on Charley’s doorstep asking to borrow some beer but when Charley goes to get them, Jerry is left standing outside. Charley notices that Jerry is standing at the threshold and makes a point not to invite him in. Meanwhile Amy is waiting upstairs, patiently, for Charley. When Charley goes to his room, he is very distracted by the his neighbor’s activities, blowing off Amy’s attempts to consummate their relationship.

Now I could go on and retell the rest of the story, but I’d rather not because the story is the same as the original. However, that does not mean this is “your grandpa’s horror story.” There are some very different plot differences between the original and remake. For instance, in the original, Charley is the supernatural “nerd” and a huge fan of Peter Vincent. And it is Charley who suspects that his neighbor is a vampire. In the remake, Ed is the character who shoulders this burden. He is the one who has followed Peter Vincent’s career and the one who believes in vampires and the one who is stalking Jerry.

And while the original Jerry eats an enormous amount of apple during the course of the original movie, this Jerry is seen eating apples but the gag or joke is just not effective in the remake.

And how about that problem with not being able to enter Charley’s house without an invitation. The new Jerry has a solution for that as well. He simply blows up the house.  As he puts it, you don’t need an invitation if there’s not a house.

Bottom line, while the story has remained intact, how the the two movies get from point A to point B has some striking differences. But just like the remake of Halloween and the remake of The Shinning, I think the remake of Fright Night is just as good as the original. The key to enjoying the remake is not to go into it with any expectations. Just let the story unfold because it is the same.