“Fright Night” is a remake of the beloved 1985 film that starred William Ragsdale, Chris Sarandon and Roddy McDowall.
The new remake follows the story pretty well, a vampire moves in next door to high school student, Charlie Brewster. Charlie discovers his next door neighbor secret passion for drinking the “red” stuff and (with the help of a self-proclaimed occultist) tries stop the evil next door and save his mom and girlfriend.
Although I am a huge fan of the original film, (did you know there was a sequel - Fright Night Part 2 in 1988?) this revisit is very well done and steps up the horror aspects quite a bit. The update works very well as Charlie (played by Anton Yelchin) and Jerry the Vampire (Colin Farrell) lock horns.
Both actors put in solid performances and neither goes over the top, which I really appreciated as this kind of film can be overplayed both in acting and special effects.
Caught somewhere in the middle is David Tennant as “Peter Vincent,” a Chris Angel-type Las Vegas magician who’s bio claims to be the world’s leading authority on the occult.
Tennant (as Vincent) is at his comic best as his on stage persona is not quite what he is in real life.
“Fright Night” is good comic horror.
It gets a B – and is rated R.
