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‘Fright Night’ (2011) Retro Review

Fright Night 2011 movie poster

Starring:  Anton Yelchin, Colin Farrell, Toni Collette, David Tennant, Imogen Poots, Christopher Mintz-Plasse

Directed by:  Craig Gillespie

Written by:  Marti Noxon (Screenplay), Tom Holland (Story)

Running time:  106 minutes

Rated:  R (bloody horror violence, and language including some sexual references)

 

Hollywood has a penchant for remaking films, we all know that.  Is it because there are no more good ideas floating around or is it that there are no more good writers?  Regardless, the industry falls back on the old tried and true process of mining old films, old ideas that have already been done, usually better the first time around.  Case in point with Fright Night, itself a remake of the 1985 film of the same name directed by Tom Holland.  This time around Craig Gillespie brings the vampire flick to the big-screen with mixed results.

A new construction subdivision of Las Vegas provides the backdrop for this adaptation.  Sin City, a town where people Fright Night 2011 imageregularly are up all night and sleep all day would be the perfect town for what else, a vampire.  A vampire would fit in nicely here, a not even be noticed.  Charley Brewster (Anton Yelchin-Star Trek) a 17 year-old who lives with his single mom Jane Brewster (Toni Collette-The Sixth Sense) in a new construction subdivision of rural Las Vegas.  Charley is your typical 17 year-old, he’s trying to fit in at school, but happens to have somehow scored a hottie of a girlfriend, Amy (Imogen Poots-28 Weeks Later).  Charley is an ex-geek trying to forget his former life, having a hot girlfriend has him running in new social circles these days.  Since his upgraded social status, Charley has left his former best friend Ed (Christopher Mintz-Plasse-Superbad) behind to run with the new crowd.

Fright Night 2011 image 2Ed believes that Charley’s new next door neighbor Jerry (Colin Farrell-Horrible Bosses) happens to be a vampire and that he’s responsible for the recent rash of murders in the city lately.  Ed tries to persuade Charley of this, but Charley will not believe him and has nothing to do with the matter.  One day Ed is suspiciously missing and not in school so Charley beginning to wonder whether there was any truth to Ed’s ramblings about his next door neighbor, begins to do a little investigating on his own.  To his disbelief, Charley uncovers the truth that his neighbor Jerry is in fact a vampire and that Ed was right the whole time.  He discovers that Jerry doesn’t show up in pictures or mirror images.   Realizing that he needs some help, Charley tries to enlist the help of a Vegas occult magician, Peter Vincent (David Tennant-Doctor Who).   Charley visits Peter Vincent hoping to persuade him to help on his crusade to destroy the vampire next door, but Peter just laughs at him.  Charley vows to go it on his own to destroy Jerry.  Charley comes up with a plan to destroy Jerry and decides to carry it out.  The cowardly Peter Vincent has a change of heart and decides to help Charley in his horrific quest to kill the vampire.  Together, Charley and Peter must gain the strength and courage to take on Jerry and end the vampire’s supernatural reign of murder.

As I stated before, this film remake is brought to the screen with mixed results.  Colin Farrell’s performance as Jerry is Fright Night 2011 image 3completely uninspired and was such a bad casting choice.  It’s as if Farrell was only there to look good.  Farrell’s acting is wooden and misses in most scenes; he hardly has any screen presence whatsoever.  Farrell’s vampire is a traditional one and he plays it like a badass, monster vamp, completely different than Chris Sarandon’s suave and charming portrayal of Jerry in the original. Anton Yelchin and Imogen Poots are both fine in their roles as the young couple in love.  The standout performance for me was that of David Tennant’s Peter Vincent character.  His almost cowardly Vincent performance was really the only one worth watching in this film.  His was the only performance with any spark in it, and it really showed in almost every scene he was in.  The biggest issue with this film is downsizing the Peter Vincent character, whereas in the original he was an integral part of the cast, not so here, if his character was allowed more screen time and fleshed out better, it would’ve helped the movie out immensely.

The choice to remake Fright Night was purely a wrong one; this remake didn’t bring anything new to the table at all, nothing to elevate it above or for that matter equal the original film.   The studio was hoping to bring the story to a new generation of filmgoers and that they would love it and flock to see it.  Adding a sexy Collin Farrell as the lead vampire was a desperate move to bring in the young crowds.  Well, the film was a disappointment at the box office, so I think the general public would agree this film was not worth seeing.  Personally, I’m not a fan of remakes, especially ones of almost classic films like the original Fright Night is.  The only thing this remake has going for it is in this world of Twilight vampires, there’s no sparkling going on here and there’s no shortness of CGI blood (I can’t stand CGI blood, it looks so fake and more and more films are using it these days) and gore, it’s refreshing to have a vampire film that isn’t watered down for the tween crowd.  For me, this film falls into the category of “unnecessary” remakes and is a waste of time.  If you want to see a great vampire film, watch the original instead.

 

Watch the trailer for Fright Night here:

Michael Juvinall

I am a Horror journalist, producer, ravenous Horror fiend, aficionado of the classic Universal Monsters, Hammer Horror, Werewolves, and all things Horror.

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