Fright Night

This week I saw a film I've keen to see since I'd heard it was getting made: the remake of the classic 1985 comedy/horror, Fright Night. I liked the original, which starred William Ragsdale, Chris Sarandon and the delightful Roddy McDowal. But it was the fact that the Roddy McDowal part (well, sort of) would, in this version, be played by ex-Dr Who David Tennant that really drove me to go see it.

So, it's about a guy (Anton Yelchin) who discovers his neighbour (Colin Farrell) is a vampire, and with his mother (Toni Collette), his girlfriend (Imogen Poots) and an eccentric stage magician/vampire expert (David Tennant channeling Criss Angel), tries to defeat him.

I probably have to rewatch the original to make a proper comparison, but I think this one had a higher horror/action: comedy ratio. But it was still enjoyable – turns out the screenplay was by Marti Noxon, who wrote more than a few early Buffy episodes.

The 3D was, as it tends to be, mostly unneccessary – though there were a few clever uses of it. There were a few issues with the plot; Clusterfer (who saw it with me) pointed out that one scene establishing character would have worked better had it appeared earlier.

I also had some problems with what I referred to in my post about Twilight as 'Vampirisms' – the 'rules' for what powers – and limitations – vampires have. In Fright Night the writers have gone with some of the 'traditional' ideas, specifically the one about not being able to enter a house uninvited, and the one about not showing up in mirrors or on video.

Both of these annoy me, for different reasons: the invitation thing because because of how inconsistently it seems to apply – is it only when someone is home? If so, is it only when someone who lives in the house is home? What about overnight visitors? What about renters? Squatters? I mean, I'm okay with the use of magic in fiction, but it still needs to follow rules.

The mirror/video thing also falls short: fine, while I don't like the idea of the vampire not showing up, I could cope with it – but that doesn't change the fact they're wearing (presumably) human clothes; how is that supposed to work? But these were more irritations than major stumbling blocks – and they're both used consistently and are factor into the plot.

On plot: it is fairly predictable and formulaic – though, given the genre, that's not much of a shock. And it's not really a disappointment either; after all, it's meant to be a comedy/horror, not a think piece.

I did enjoy it, particularly because it meant seeing David Tennant on the big screen again; however, given this film hasn't been a huge success, I don't know if it'll help with his breaking into Hollywood – presuming, of course, that's his goal. As good as he was, though, he was outshone by Colin Farrell in every scene they were both in.

There were some other good performances from Toni Collette, Imogen Poots¹ and Christopher Mintz-Plasse. And there was also a great cameo from one of the cast of the original film – but I won't ruin the surprise.

At this point, though, you're almost certainly going to have to wait for dvd/download; it hasn't done so well at the box office, and seems to be disappearing from the big screen.


¹I have to take this opportunity to point out she has one of the most unfortunate names in showbiz.