Vampire horror film successfully remakes 1985 original
Remaking a movie from 1985, whose plot revolves around a vampire living next door, in order to capitalize on the waning blood-sucking craze by sounds like a fail-safe recipe for heinous molestation of film.
However, “Fright Night” manages to somehow avoid the looming cinematic catastrophe by having a taut and occasionally humorous plot that is supported by strong performances.
Directed by Craig Gillespie (“Mr. Woodcock”), “Fright Night” is no “Let the Right One In” (2008), but it still manages to be entertaining and much better than many of the recent vampire flops.
Charley Brewster (Anton Yelchin) is a high-schooler who is trying to leave his nerd past behind, and, so far, he is doing pretty well.
He has the girl and he has the popular friends, but his old best friend Ed (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) — a rather convincing nerd to the point of being obnoxious — can’t accept this new direction Charley has taken.
Threatening to expose Charley’s past via embarrassing videos uploaded on YouTube — how did kids bully before the Internet? — Ed forces Charley to come with him on an investigation of the current trend of reported missing people.
During the investigation, Ed confides in Charley that he believes Charley’s new neighbor Jerry (Colin Farrell) is a vampire. Naturally, Charley laughs at this and ridicules Ed, triggering a rift in the already faltering friendship.
However, once Ed goes missing, Charley becomes suspicious and starts to notice some very suspicious activity coming from Jerry’s house.
“Fright Night” is by no means a perfect film, but it manages to overcome its flaws with some formidable strengths — the main one being Colin Farrell’s performance of the icy yet charming vampire, Jerry. Rather than creating a mythical aura around Jerry, Farrell takes a much more humanistic approach crafting a character that is more serial killer than demon — granted he still is a serial killer that has fangs and fantastical powers.
Without the intrigue of Farrell’s character, “Fright Night” would lose most of its allure and turn into another mediocre horror film.
Almost equally impressive as Farrell’s performance was Yelchin’s ability to hang with the weathered actor, bringing a relaxed and likeable air to Charley.
He manages to have a vulnerability without seeming too weak, which in turn makes him very relatable in a movie that is otherwise lacking in that area.
“Fright Night” is not without its flaws, though. The dialogue at times is very sharp, but more often than not, will fall flat from weak jokes or lazy writing. Luckily, the film is full of tense moments that break up the drudgery of the screenplay.
Also, outside of the leads, the acting is atrocious.
Many of the supporters are shockingly inept, but none worse than Charley’s girlfriend, Amy (Imogen Poots), who if killed off immediately would have greatly increased the quality and watch-ability of the film.
But, this is Hollywood and he absolutely has to have a love interest or the audience will defecate themselves and start flinging it everywhere because of the traumatic change from the standard.
“Fright Night” is a film meant to satisfy the average human’s stimulus needs for two hours and nothing more.
It will not cause an emotional reaction or kick start any deep thought processes, but it knows that and manages its identity nicely.
Even with its flaws, it still has one major thing going for it: it’s not “Conan the Barbarian.”