Fright Night
Fright Night, 2011, USA/India
I have to admit that I’ve never seen the original Fright Night, so I can’t compare the two movies. But on its own merit, Fright Night is a good movie. It’s very funny, lots of fun, and only a little scary.
Charley (Anton Yelchin) is a high school student who is desperately trying to fit in now that he’s dating the attractive and popular Amy (Imogen Poots). Because of this, he’s abandoned his childhood best friend, Ed (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), who has been spying on Charley’s neighbor, Jerry (Colin Farrell). When Ed reveals that Jerry is a vampire, Charley seeks the help of Peter Vincent (David Tennant) a well-known vampire expert and Las Vegas performer.
Tenant and Farrell were awesome. Farrell was charming and strangely unsettling as Jerry. Tenant really stole the show, though. His part wasn’t particularly big, but he was excellent in every scene he was in. He was delightfully over-the-top. It’s a shame his part wasn’t larger. Yelchin did a good job, as well, but his character wasn’t particularly likable. I got the sense that having a slightly unlikable protagonist was intentional. I can appreciate a character that is flawed in some ways and Charley was a bit of a jerk – especially at the beginning of the film.
I’m surprised this movie didn’t do better at the box office. Vampires seem to be a pop culture phenomenon right now (along with zombies), and I thought movie goers would be more into it. Did people reject it because it was a remake? Or is this a sign that people are getting sick of vampires? I thought it was a fun movie – and well worth the rental. I regret missing it in theatres because I imagine it would have been a lot of fun to see it in the theatre.
Vampires have been quite popular for a few years now. But I can’t help but wonder if the tide has shifted a bit. Have franchises like Twilight ruined vampires for society? Do we see brooding teenage vampires where we once saw monsters? Farrell’s Jerry was most certainly a monster, but I thought he did a good job portraying a more “traditional” vampire. Vampires are inherently sexual creatures due to the “drinking blood” aspect of their being. They’re monsters, but they can also be seen as sympathetic tortured creatures. The Twilight franchise mangled vampires and I can’t help but wonder if that’s part of the reason for the failure of this movie.
The Visual Effects
I really liked the make-up effects throughout the film. They were well done, but they weren’t too gory. There were parts of the film that were done with CGI and I didn’t care much for those effects. I thought they looked a little bit fake and awkward. I would have preferred if the filmmakers had stuck with the make up effects. They looked far more realistic.