Movie Reviews
Fright Night
Starring:Anton Yelchin
Colin Farrell
David Tennant
Director:
Craig Gillespie
MPAA Rating:
R
Release Date:
19 August 2011
Genre:
Comedy | Horror
When we are young and have to deal with strangers, particularly neighbors, most grownups unknown to us can seem mysterious or even kind of scary. Most of the time unmarried neighbors just want to live alone in peace, even if some of their habits are a little weird. But what if that really charming guy next door is not just a recluse, what if he’s hiding something dangerous, even deadly? This is the basis for “Fright Night”, a remake of the 1985 vampire classic. Now most modern remakes are usually awful, but surprisingly this one is a good movie.
We open in a small suburb of Las Vegas, where there’s a housing community, desert sands, and not much else. Anton Yelchin (Alpha Dog, Star Trek) plays Charley, an awkward teen who only wants to fit in with his classmates. That’s a problem when his best friend Ed is played by mega-dweeb Christopher Mintz-Plasse (Superbad, Kick-Ass). On Charley’s little street, there’s a new neighbor with some weird habits. His name is Jerry, in an appropriate role for Colin Farrell (In Bruges, Horrible Bosses). Jerry seems harmless at first, and quite a catch for the ladies with rippling biceps. Still, the guy keeps some weird hours, only coming outside at night. At the same time, Ed is noticing that some of the homeowners are missing and their children too. It seems that there is a foul plot afoot, and it’s up to Charley to save his loved ones.
Try to forget this is a remake, and you can actually enjoy most of the movie. After a slow beginning, Charley starts breaking into Jerry’s house and finding victims in drywall prison cells. This slowly reveals the vampire’s intentions to be even more sinister. Mintz-Plasse adds a lot of adolescent humor, especially a funny story about Stretch-Armstrong. Yelchin has come a long way since playing Ensign Chekov and can hold his own as a leading man. Farrell is genuinely creepy, yet fun too. Even with Holy Water and a dozen wooden stakes you still can’t take this great villain down. As expected there are jokes about the “Twilight” movies, but this seems closer to “Cape Fear” or “Night of the Hunter” with a supernatural tone. Add the talented Toni Collette as Charley’s mother, a goofy David Blaine type, and even a cameo from Chris Sarandon himself to round out a great cast. While the humor does mostly work, some of the jokes are bland. The climax is sort of predictable too, though the cat-and-mouse game between Yelchin and Farrell is a lot of fun. What’s also cool is how in this setting the very existence of vampires seems real, and those who watch this in RealD 3D will enjoy some great effects especially in fire and blood on the screen.
“Fright Night” works in entertaining the audience while not forgetting to thrill them. Oddly enough there aren’t many scares, but it works all the same.