The original "Fright Night" was one of my favorite horror movies when I was a kid. I wasn't allowed to watch it, but my brother and cousins and I would catch scenes from it every chance we got when the adults would watch it, or when it was on TV. "Fright Night" was one of the first horror movies my mom bought for my brother once she thought we were old enough to watch it, and we were ecstatic to finally get to see the whole thing. We wore out that ratty VHS tape, lemme tell you. I meant to watch the remake right after it came out, but I kept putting it off, and years went by, and now I'm way late to the party. I'm still excited to finally see this today. I hope it's as fun as it looks.
Anton Yelchin plays Charley, a high school senior, who's dating the hottest girl in school and suddenly finds himself part of the "in-crowd," leaving his old friends behind. Strange things start happening in his neighborhood, people start dying, and Charley concludes his new neighbor, Jerry, is a vampire. Of course nobody believes him, so he seeks advice from a "paranormal expert" named Peter Vincent (played by David Tennant!) Can they stop the creature of the undead before he chows down on the whole neighborhood?
The Charley in the original movie is less of a tool than this new version. I love Anton Yelchin, but his character in this movie is a douche. He totally tosses his old friends aside because he's part of the "cool crowd" now, and he goes off about how he doesn't need his former best friend, Eddie, because his life got better when they stopped hanging out. What an asshole. Yeah, Eddie is kinda being a pushy jerk, but I get why he's pissed that his best friend dumped him, and of course Eddie is the first one to suspect that Jerry is a vampire, and at first Charley blows him off, but then he learns that Eddie was right, and he can't get anyone to believe him, either. How's it feel, dickhead?
Colin Ferrell is AMAZING in this movie. I have to say that because I doubted him so much when I first heard about this remake. I grew up with Chris Sarandon being the quintessential evil vampire in the original "Fright Night," and I wasn't sure if Colin Ferrell could pull it off in this movie. He oozes this pure evil though, and his smug, chauvinistic sexiness really works for the role. Plus he's meaner than the original version, and his casual cruelty ramping up to full-blown psycho is actually kinda scary. He really did a great job (sorry Chris Sarandon, I still love you! And I see you have a cameo in this movie; I love it too!)
This movie goes for more horror than humor, not nearly as fun and campy as I remember the original being. David Tennant's performance is good for some comic relief, though. He's actually hilarious in this movie. I love how he plays an occult/ vampire expert who is all image and no substance, until he's confronted with a real vampire and he has to figure out what to do. We find out the real reason why he started collecting vampire lore, and why he's a cynical drunk now who shuns human connection. Good character development here. Reminded me that David Tennant is a good actor.
There are some cute nods to the original movie too, like how Jerry is always eating apples (guess an apple a day keeps death at bay) like Chris Sarandon did in the original movie. Apples help keep your teeth clean, so they have that sexy evil gleam all vampires want. And there's a scene that happens at a dance, too, though not as cheestastic 80s awesome as in the original. I also like Amy in this version of the movie. She has more of a personality and some fight to her, which was fun to watch. Charley has more fight to him too, once he stops being such a twat. When he says "I don't want to live until tomorrow if you're the kind of man I'm gonna be," that kicked all kinds of ass. Overall, I really loved this movie, and I'm glad I finally watched it.
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