Fright Night (2011)

You’d think that from latest year’s rather incendiary and hate filled review of the “Nightmare on Elm Street” remake that I have a deep and passionate hatred for horror remakes in general, especially lately with nearly every horror movie that comes out these days being a remake, but don’t take that to mean that I hate remakes in general. That said there are things that I feel a remake should be held to. For starters, a good remake should start off with the same idea as the original, but then use that premise to do its own thing. The original “Fright Night” was a cheesy and fun vampire movie from 1985, and it was a basic boy who cried wolf story. Charlie Brewster starts to suspect his new neighbor is actually a vampire and when no one believes him he goes to the TV horror host Peter Vincent (played wonderfully by the late great Roddy McDowall) to take care of the problem, but in the midst of this, the vampire Jerry Danridge (Chris Sarandon) is in hot pursuit. It’s a solid flick but not without it’s flaws and it’s very of it’s time. So how is the remake? It’s actually really good. The movie takes the same basic premise and goes another direction with it. In the original Charlie’s played as a bit more of a nerd, which works fine but there were things to him that still felt a little odd like how he goes to Vincent thinking he’s a real vampire hunter, fine if he was like 11 or 12, but this kid’s in high school. In the new movie Anton Yelchin play’s Charlie is much more like, well, any character Shia LeBeouf has ever played. But what makes Charlie in the new Fright Night work is that Yelchin can play him with a little more charisma than LeBeouf tends to bring to his parts. He’s mostly a FORMER nerd that’s started to break into the cooler cliques thanks to his hot girl friend Amy played by Imogen Poots. Most of the nerdiness and early suspicion of Danridge actually comes from his friend Ed played by Christopher Mintz-Plasse who is also good and has basically perfected playing these kinds of characters at this point. But the real stars are the vampire and vampire hunter. I’ve never been a huge fan of Colin Farrell but I’ve also never really hated him save for parts that were just very poorly written anyway, but here he’s great. He adds just the right amount of malice, charm, and sheer insanity, not to mention he’s yet another vampire that actually ACTS like a vampire (suck it “Twilight”!) A lot of the movie’s suspense really comes from the fact that Farrell is just really damn intimidating. All this said, he’s totally blown away by David Tennant as the new Peter Vincent, who plays the character as pretty much a spoiled play boy/occult scholar/vampire hunter/ Vegas night club act and when he’s on screen you just can’t help but love this guy. He is really funny and you can tell Tennant is having a hell of a lot of fun with the part. However though Tennant steals the show with the part that added attention does drag up pretty much the only flaw I have with the movie which is that with all the things to make Vincent work in a time where TV horror hosts don’t exist anymore it does seem a bit like this is reaching, and while it is a little bothersome, it never becomes a deal breaker as the rest of the script is well written and the movie keeps a solid pace and I actually feel it does a lot better job tension with it than the original did. The director Craig Gillespie really seems to get that this movie works better if you have a gradual mixing of the horror and comedy, the film opens in a manner that’s indicative of a horror movie, but when the movie’s in its down time the characters get to be quirky and fun and it makes the audience actually give a damn what happens to them. Which is how a horror film should work, though these days rarely does. Final verdict is that “Fright Night” is the first truly good horror remake to come out in a long while. It’s atmospheric and well paced with a solid cast that all really bring their A game and if no other reason you should see it to be reassured that while “Twilight” is pretty much the worst thing to happen to vampires as far as pop culture, at least there are people that still know how it’s done and what really makes it work. Hell, even if you like “Twilight” Farrell’s sex appeal as a vampire should have gotten you in the seats already anyway, just don’t expect him to sparkle. (And no, I don't care what your reason is Stephanie Meyer, you will never ever convince me that was a good idea.)\

4.5 fangs out of 5.

 Next up Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning.