Part of the reason I do these October reviews is to give
movies I dismissed originally a second chance. The 2011 remake of Fright Night, directed by
Craig Gillespie, was an easy movie to miss at the time. This was a redundant and
unwanted remake of a beloved horror movie, that being 1985’s Fright Night,
directed by Tom Holland. It was released in 3D, which is now once again a dead gimmick. Every shot is color-corrected,
and indeed, over-corrected like many movies of this era. (Try to spot colors other than blue and orange.) They replaced the classic practical monster effects
with fairly generic CG. Fright Night (2011) was everything I didn't want in horror movies a decade ago.
I’m ten years older now and theoretically ten years wiser.
Maybe now I can put aside my largely shallow complaints and give this Fright Night a
fair shake.
...fine. That's "fine" said with a high note. It’s okay. I love this cast. I like some of the moments. There's clever moves here or there. There's an attempt at more teen drama. But Fright Night (2011) is a bit less than the sum of its good parts. It isn't a travesty, it isn't a hidden gem.
Let’s talk about that original for a second, why don’t we? I
accidentally rented both versions from Amazon Prime, so I’m getting my $2.99's worth here. Fright Night (1985) is very possibly my favorite vampire movie of all time. It is a solid fusion of classic Universal/Hammer vampire stories with modern Eighties effects and teenager sex anxieties. The make-up effects are awesome, a vampire gets a cross stamped onto his forehand and the scarring looks incredible even now. I still load up Youtube every so often to watch Chris Sarandon seduce Amanda Bearse to some sultry Eighties dance music. So much of the old movie rules hard.
The remake is largely the same kind of movie with the same
concerns, a vampire invades the normy suburbs. It is less interested in playing homage to old Draculas, but that's fine. Kids in 2011 did not need reverence for their grandpa's vampires. The biggest shift in new
Fright Night now involves the high school politics. The new Charlie Brewster
(Anton Yelchin, RIP) has decided to jump a level of popularity, leaving behind
his old best friend, Evil Ed (Christopher Mintz-Plasse). Now he’s
dating Amy (scream queen Imogen Poots) and is too cool to be seen doing nerdy
stuff like, going to cons and watching Star Wars. There's something here with this concept. But it really does not matter because Evil Ed is eaten by our
new Jerry (Colin Farrell) in twenty minutes. The high school drama is largely
forgotten after that, everybody is too busy running for their lives to worry
about the year book.
Also, the whole nerd vs jock dynamic
feels more stuck in the Eighties than even the original. By 2011 nerdy shit ruled pop culture to an
enormous degree. Superheroes already were the dominant blockbuster genre. My high school
didn’t even have well-defined cliques of "nerd" or "jock" like sitcoms promised. I
got punched in the face in school because I was an obnoxious little shit, not
because I played Final Fantasy XII.
The other major change is with the character of Peter Vincent.
Rather than a horror host, since Elvira-like figures were long-gone by 2011,
Vincent (David Tennant) is now a Criss Angel-style edgy magician in Las Vegas. (Our second such figure this month, there was a similar character in Lord of Illusions.) Rather
than the old "bachelor" - i.e. gay - character played by Roddy McDowall, this Peter Vincent is way hetero. He has shirtless models who tend to his hedonistic
lifestyle. Charlie goes to Vincent for help, and he winds up playing the same role as reluctant skeptic turned vampire slayer.
I guess if anything is disappointing about Fright Night (2011), it
is how straight it is. Where Jerry was coded bisexual in 1985, the new one has
no male partner. There’s a change here where Amy is the more sexually
aggressive figure in the relationship. Charlie, being an adolescent boy, has no culturally acceptable way
to be timid about sex, so there’s a bit of an awkward moment here that I like. It's again, undercooked and by the end of the movie he's doing his straight duty of sowing wild oats. However, where the original Fright Night’s
camera was utterly in love with Chris Sarandon, this one does less with its
guys. David Tennant and Colin Farrell are very far from unattractive men, but
this new version is not a movie that wants a long seduction scene. It just wants
to get to the action fast.
There is some very good action in this Fright Night, admittedly. Jerry very cleverly gets around the "need an invitation" rule by setting blowing Charlie's house up.
There’s a Children of Men-style long-shot chase sequence as Charlie, his mom (Toni
Collette, hello again), and Amy drive away from a pursuing Jerry. There’s a cool fight in Peter Vincent’s
Vegas loft and a decent one in Jerry’s house. But was action what we wanted from Fright Night? This movie
is less sensual, less scary, less transgressive, an all-around safer version. But
Charlie does use a fire suit in a clever way.
I cannot help but sound ambivalent about this movie. I come away from Fright Night (2011) thinking this is a decent movie that isn't for me. The cast is too good to fail, even if I wish we got more out
of nearly all of them, especially Toni Collette, who is utterly wasted in this
movie. Anton Yelchin is a great lead and this is another reminder that we lost him too soon. Yelchin and Imogen Poots would reunite in a few years to make Green
Room, a much more intense and better movie. This Fright Night certainly isn't not fun. But why watch this over the original? The remake never quite justifies its existence.
Next time we travel to 2012, the year of a Hurricane named Sandy, some Games called Hunger, and our next movie, V/H/S.
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