Horror fans, rejoice! The vampire is scary again...at least, for the time being. Until the next Twilight movie comes along to mangle the monster's scare cred, the remake of 1985's Fright Night fills the fear void quite nicely. Like recent revisions of beloved creepshow franchises -- Friday the 13th, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, A Nightmare on Elm Street -- director Craig Gillespie takes the material and manipulates it into his own macabre homage. Retrofitted with new variations on familiar characters and contemporary enough to make a nasty neck biter loose in Vegas seem perfectly plausible, it continues August 2011's run of late Summer season savers.
Charlie Brewster (Anton Yelchin) has entered his senior year of high school minus his previous geek image and with a hot new gal pal, Amy (Imogen Poots). While his mom (Toni Collette)likes his new nerd-free adolescence, old D&D buddy "Evil" Ed Thompson (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) feels abandoned and friendless. Into their isolated suburban life comes Jerry Dandridge (Colin Farrell), a new neighbor with an intriguing job -- night construction along the strip -- and a killer smile.
Of course, once families from the surrounding cul-de-sac start disappearing one by one, suspicions start to center on the new guy. Ed believes he's a vampire. Charlie laughs off such a suggestion. When he becomes a believer, however, he turns to the only man he knows who can figure out how to handle a real life monster in their midst -- famed magician and folklore authority Peter Vincent (David Tennant). Unfortunately, even this man's expertise may not be enough.
A word of warning to all those who adore the terrific Tom Holland original -- this new Fright Night is its own eerie entity and should be approached as such. Sure, it borrows characters and complete riffs from the first film, but Gillespie and screenwriter Marti Noxon are out to explore their own version of a vampire in modern times, and they do so with a delicious amount of defiance. This time around, everyone gets clued in to who Jerry really is rather quickly. A half hour in and even Charlie's flirtatious Mom knows. So instead of a battle between the believers and the skeptics, this Fright Night becomes a war for survival. Set among the isolated (and often abandoned) homes of a downturn Nevada neighborhood, the sense of dread sweeps over us in solid, cinematic waves.
Farrell makes a fine fiend, his ability to be both sexy and sinister winning us over immediately. Similarly, this version of Jerry Dandridge is not really out to hide what he does. He has an agenda and plans on spilling as much blood as possible to see it through. Similarly, Charlie is no longer a social outcast, incapable of convincing his peers of the impending danger. He's more hands on, capable of carrying the hero portion of the narrative with ease. Even better, his former dork persona lends the movie a much needed source of levity. Even with McLovin as the enigmatic Evil Ed (sorry, remake, but Stephen Geoffreys will always own this character), the film needs that injection of irreverence.
Of course, turning Peter Vincent into a skittish Chris Angel wannabe works well too. It's all part of what makes this take on Fright Night so much fun. Even better, Gillespie gets how to ratchet up the suspense, and when Charlie must take on Jerry and his mysterious motives, the movie gives us the kind of F/X splatter fest we've been waiting for. So if you want to see sparkly monsters who brood while betraying every facet of their horror history, stick with Stephenie Meyer's melancholia. The new Fright Night has bite, and for vampire lovers, that's a very good thing indeed.
Charlie Brewster (Anton Yelchin) has entered his senior year of high school minus his previous geek image and with a hot new gal pal, Amy (Imogen Poots). While his mom (Toni Collette)likes his new nerd-free adolescence, old D&D buddy "Evil" Ed Thompson (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) feels abandoned and friendless. Into their isolated suburban life comes Jerry Dandridge (Colin Farrell), a new neighbor with an intriguing job -- night construction along the strip -- and a killer smile.
Of course, once families from the surrounding cul-de-sac start disappearing one by one, suspicions start to center on the new guy. Ed believes he's a vampire. Charlie laughs off such a suggestion. When he becomes a believer, however, he turns to the only man he knows who can figure out how to handle a real life monster in their midst -- famed magician and folklore authority Peter Vincent (David Tennant). Unfortunately, even this man's expertise may not be enough.
A word of warning to all those who adore the terrific Tom Holland original -- this new Fright Night is its own eerie entity and should be approached as such. Sure, it borrows characters and complete riffs from the first film, but Gillespie and screenwriter Marti Noxon are out to explore their own version of a vampire in modern times, and they do so with a delicious amount of defiance. This time around, everyone gets clued in to who Jerry really is rather quickly. A half hour in and even Charlie's flirtatious Mom knows. So instead of a battle between the believers and the skeptics, this Fright Night becomes a war for survival. Set among the isolated (and often abandoned) homes of a downturn Nevada neighborhood, the sense of dread sweeps over us in solid, cinematic waves.
Farrell makes a fine fiend, his ability to be both sexy and sinister winning us over immediately. Similarly, this version of Jerry Dandridge is not really out to hide what he does. He has an agenda and plans on spilling as much blood as possible to see it through. Similarly, Charlie is no longer a social outcast, incapable of convincing his peers of the impending danger. He's more hands on, capable of carrying the hero portion of the narrative with ease. Even better, his former dork persona lends the movie a much needed source of levity. Even with McLovin as the enigmatic Evil Ed (sorry, remake, but Stephen Geoffreys will always own this character), the film needs that injection of irreverence.
Of course, turning Peter Vincent into a skittish Chris Angel wannabe works well too. It's all part of what makes this take on Fright Night so much fun. Even better, Gillespie gets how to ratchet up the suspense, and when Charlie must take on Jerry and his mysterious motives, the movie gives us the kind of F/X splatter fest we've been waiting for. So if you want to see sparkly monsters who brood while betraying every facet of their horror history, stick with Stephenie Meyer's melancholia. The new Fright Night has bite, and for vampire lovers, that's a very good thing indeed.
