As a huge horror/vampire fan from a very young age (I must have been well under the age of 10 when I started watching Hammer Horrors with my mum) I couldn't wait to watch the original 1985 version of Fright Night when my mum deemed me old enough to watch it. I was around 15 when I did eventually see it and I wasn't impressed. So much so that I can barely remember the original now that another 15 years have passed since I saw it. I just remember not liking it very much.
So when I heard that Fright Night was being remade, I had a reaction I don't normally have to remakes, I was really looking forward to seeing it. Mainly to see if the original would be improved on. Then I heard who'd been cast. Colin Farrell as the deliciously arrogant vampire Jerry, Anton Yelchin as Charlie, the geeky neighbour turned vampire killer, and David Tennant as Peter Vincent, supposed vampire hunter who turns out to be all talk. A dream cast if ever there was one. But what about the finished film...
Fright Night, for those who haven't seen the original, is a story of Charlie (Anton Yelchin), who lives in Las Vegas with his mom Jane (Toni Collette). A new neighbour has just moved in next door to them who they never see and who seems to be remodelising his house, he's blacked out his windows and seems to be removing a lot of concrete from inside. At school Charlie is faced with the reality that a growing number of students are not turning up for class and then disappearing altogether. He goes to investigate this with his one time childhood friend Ed (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), who has now become an embarrassment to Charlie now that Charlie's made it into the 'in' crowd and has a hot girlfriend, Amy (Imogen Poots). Ed soon meets a sticky end at the hands of Charlie's neighbour Jerry (Colin Farrell) who we discover pretty early on is indeed a vampire. When Charlie realises that Ed was telling the truth all along, he enlists the help of vegas showman Peter Vincent (David Tennant) to help him save his mom and his girlfriend from the neighbour from hell.
As I mentioned earlier, I don't really remember what the original was like, I just remember not liking it. And as much as One Day made me want to read the book on which the film was based, Fright Night has made me want to re-watch the original just to see if I like it better now that I'm a bit older? However, rather than this reflecting badly on the remake, I think this speaks volumes about how good the remake is. To make me willing to give a second chance to a film I wrote off 15 years ago is no mean feat.
But anyway, back to the remake. As I mentioned, the cast is a dream. Farrell clearly relishes playing a role like Jerry. And it does feel like he was perfectly chosen for the part with his womanising past and cocksure attitude. He has beefed up for the role and feels both intimidating and sexy in equal measure. It is also obvious how much fun Tennant had with his role. Effectively playing two parts, one of Peter Vincent, confident Las Vegas showman with more swagger than you could shake a stick at, then the real Peter, terrified of vampires which he knows are real. Finally Anton Yelchin, who is always an absolute pleasure to watch, as the geeky but endlessly brave Charlie. He is the perfect nemesis to Farrell's Jerry as you'd never think him capable of putting up a fight.
While we're on the subject of casting I would like to add that there is a cameo from a cast member of the original Fright Night. I won't say who it is but look out for it as it's a real treat for fans of the original film.
As far as I remember, the new film sticks pretty close to the plot of the original and I would say that for me, the only thing that lets the new film down are the CGI effects, as I actually don't think they're as good as the original effects from '85. This is one of the reasons I'm quite looking forward to another 80s film remake 'The Thing' as I've heard that they're not going down the CGI route, preferring instead to use the same methods adopted to make the original film. I don't know if that would have worked here, using old school make up and prosthetics but I remember being impressed with the effects in the original Fright Night (one of the only things I was impressed with) and the facial effects in this were just a little too fake.
That said, I would still recommend Fright Night, not only to fans of the original, but also to those who didn't like it, as you might be pleasantly surprised! 8 out of 10.
Viewing Date - 2nd September 2011
UK Release Date - 2nd September 2011
Cast Overview
Anton Yelchin ~ Charley Brewster
Colin Farrell ~ Jerry
Toni Collette ~ Jane Brewster
David Tennant ~ Peter Vincent
Imogen Poots ~ Amy
Christopher Mintz-Plasse ~ Ed
Director ~ Craig Gillespie
Writer(s) ~ Marti Noxon (Screenplay) and Tom Holland (Story)
I actually thought the CGI effects were brilliant - did you see it in 2D or 3D? Because in 3D things like the burning up/exploding vampires looked wicked cool.
ReplyDeleteWhy hello lady! Long time no comment! ;0P I saw it in 3D and did think the exploding was way cool. It was more when the faces changed/mouths got bigger etc, I thought that was done better in the original. Did you like it overall? And have you seen the original?
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