Finally, a vampire flick with bite.
The H-Bomb: Something strange has been going on in a Las Vegas suburb, as local residents have been mysteriously disappearing at an alarming rate. High school senior Charley (Anton Yelchin) hasn’t really been paying attention to this, since he’s much more focused on his hot new girlfriend, Amy (Imogen Poots), and hanging out with the “cool kids” at school. Then his former best friend, mega nerd “Evil” Ed (McLovin), comes to him with his theory, that a vampire is behind the disappearances. Not only that, but that the vampire is none other than Charley’s neighbor, Jerry (Colin Farrell), who just moved in next door.
Charley, of course, is rather skeptical of this crackpot theory, and who can blame him? Seriously, Jerry? What kind of name is that for a vampire? So despite Ed’s urgent warnings, Charley understandably blows him off and goes home, intending to forget the whole thing. But when Ed himself vanishes the next day, Charley becomes suspicious and decides to take a closer look at his new neighbor. It’s then that he realizes there are some things about Jerry that are not quite right.
The windows in his house are blacked out, he only comes out at night, he can’t be seen on video, he casts no reflection in the mirror, he has holding cells in his house, and he just had the stripper who lives down the street as a snack. After taking all this in, Charley comes to the conclusion that if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck… it must be a vampire! What’s worse, Jerry the vampire has been putting the moves on Charley’s mother (Toni Collette), who is single and very interested.
At a loss as to how to deal with this blood sucking freak himself, Charley seeks out Vegas performer and self-proclaimed vampire slayer Peter Vincent (David Tennant). Charley soon finds himself back at square one when he sees that his one hope is little more than a loutish, alcoholic charlatan, and to make matters worse, Jerry now knows that he’s on to him.
Traveling as I do amongst various internet horror geek circles, I am fully aware that there is a great deal of grumbling leading up to the release of “Fright Night”, being that it is a remake of the much loved and respected 80’s vampire flick. I for one can’t blame them, since this movie does continue the depressing and never ending trend of remaking classic horror films, and since most of these remakes just totally ass fuck the beloved originals from which they are based. Public cynicism regarding remakes is not only understandable, it’s justified.
Now, I have only seen the original “Fright Night” once, many, many moons ago, when I was a teenager, and I don’t really remember it at all. This, no doubt, works in favor of the remake, since I was able to watch it without comparing it to its 1985 counterpart. However, even if I were a die hard, groveling fan boy of the original, I think that I would still look upon this updated version as being the immensely entertaining, carnage ridden horror flick that it is.
In this age of de-fanged, “Twilight” bullshit, it really was a great pleasure to see an all out, gushy, blood soaked vampire movie with a set of fangs. There are no sparkly skinned emos agonizing over their love lives here, this is about a real fucking vampire, who is fucking evil to the core, and thirsts for human fucking blood. Period. Even though I don’t entirely hate “Twilight”, I am glad to see a vampire film that isn’t just made for swooning teeny-boppers, though I hear Farrell is popular amongst the ladies.
No, from the blood spilling, to the limb severing, to the profanely humorous attitude, this is one for the seventeen and over crowd, who like to have actual horror in their horror movies. The movie starts up with a slow but steady build, with Charley snooping on Jerry, and Jerry stalking and taunting him, then finally explodes with showdown after showdown; on a stretch of desert road, in a tricked out Vegas penthouse, and finally the vamp’s underground lair, once this bitch on wheels gets rolling, it doesn’t let up.
The cast is just fucking awesome across the board. Farrell is far creepier than I ever thought he could be. He’s seductive, menacing, and just totally fucking owns as Jerry. If this fuckin’ guy moved in next door to me, I’d be reluctant to welcome him to the neighborhood, too. I sure as hell wouldn’t invite him over for a drink. Yelchin is solid as our young hero, Charley. He’s likeable and has that “everyman” feel to him that makes you scared for him. He’s totally in over his head going toe-to-toe with a vampire, and that makes us invest in him all the more.
Tennant is a hoot as the pompous, asshole British celeb/chicken shit “vampire expert.” When the shit hits the fan, he hits the bottle, then hides in his panic room… very nice. McLovin (okay, Christopher Mintz-Plasse) plays a geek, which is no big stretch for him, but he does it well and brings in the laughs. I even felt sorry for his character, to an extent. Collette rounds out the cast as Charley’s Mom, and it goes without saying that she brings her A-game and aces it.
The director, Craig Gillespie, handles the material almost perfectly, coming up with some sweet camera shots, a couple of nicely suspenseful sequences, and a few effective jolt scares. If I had any problems, it’s that the film felt a little drawn out, with a false ending or two. Had he shaved a good ten minutes off the movie, he would have had a better, tighter film. The CGI was also a little shoddy in places, but I guess that’s just something we have to live with these days.
But, those mild gripes aside, I’d say that “Fright Night” is a funny, gory ass horror flick that’s never quite scary, per se (mind you, horror movies almost never scare me), but that’s always enjoyable nonetheless. Yes, most horror remakes suck major ass, but this one is a refreshing exception to that unfortunate norm. If you’re a rabid fan of the original, you might be a little harder on it, but if you watch it and judge it on its own merits, I think you’ll get more than enough bite for your buck.
