Fright Night review
Hello everyone and welcome to my blog. For those who know me you know about my love for horror films so once a month I’m going to review and discuss a scary flick. We’ll look at the classics, some new films, and I want your suggestions on what I should review. I’ll do my best to cover all the different genres within the genre – slashers, ghosts, monsters, etc.
SPOILER ALERT! – These will be reviews so if you haven’t seen the movie you’ll want to watch it first before you read this. Let’s do this.
fright night review
Vampire movies. SOOO many. Some good, some bad. You’ve read my other reviews on Let Me in and Bram Stoker’s Dracula (and if you haven’t, why…) Those are dark, serious, and great but Fright Night is just fun! Let’s be clear we are talking today about the original 1985 film and not the 2011 remake – which was well received. While I was watching this, I couldn’t help thinking this reminded me of another 80’s movie I love that I’ll mention later.
Charley is your average teenager dating a girl named Amy – played by Amanda Bearse whom I hope you remember as Marcy D’Arcy from Married… with Children! - and spending time with his buddy Evil Ed. He has a strange new neighbor named Jerry however and Charley believes him to be a vampire. He gets the cops to come over but is laughed away by Jerry’s roommate(?) Billy. He is then shocked to see Jerry at his house after his mother invited him over and we have vampire trope #1 – can’t come in unless invited! Well, Jerry really is a vampire and almost throws Charley out a window until Charley stabs him in the hand. No one believes Charley and so he turns to the host of one of his favorite TV shows, Peter Vincent of Fright Night. He speaks with Peter after his show and explains he needs him to kill the vampire who lives next door. Vincent blows him off. However, Amy pays him to participate, and they all meet up at Jerry’s home a few nights later. Peter brings holy water for Jerry to drink which of course it isn’t. Peter later pulls out his pocket mirror and notices Jerry gives no reflection. Now Peter is a little scared! Jerry bites and turns Ed and tracks down Charley and Amy at a club. He busts up the bouncers and as the chaos ensues, he takes Amy back to his house. Reminding him of a previous love, he bites and turns her – in a very well-done scene I’ll add with blood dripping down her naked back. Charley convinces Peter he really is a vampire killer and the two save the day. One of the best scenes in the film is when Ed shapeshifts into a wolf and attacks Peter who pierces him in the heart with a chair leg. Great transformation scene as the wolf turns back into human Ed and dies. The two then kill Jerry’s protector Billy in a great scene where they shoot him like 10 times, stab him in the heart, and watch him melt away in glorious green ooze. Jerry turns into a bat and flies down into the basement to his coffin. They find him and break out all the windows and Jerry is finally killed by the sunlight. Amy is safe and we return to being happy teenagers.
I’ll add this to the good vampire movie list. The film does a great job with all the classic tropes. We mentioned having to be invited in, no reflection in the mirror, fear of crosses, sleeping in coffins and aversion to sunlight. Well done in making them all believable. I love the name of Roddy McDowall’s character Peter Vincent which is a nod to Peter Cushing and Vincent Price. His TV show Fright Night is so great as a throwback to stations having those local horror themed programs and hosts so many years ago. Chris Sarandon is very good as the vampire Jerry. This was before he was in The Princess Bride and of course voicing Jack Skellington in The Nightmare Before Christmas. His character is maybe the most interesting part of the film. There are absolutely some sexuality aspects of the film. The relationship between Jerry and Billy on its own ambiguity, not to mention a scene where Billy is seen kneeling in front of Jerry leaving the door wide open for commentary on what that means. Of course, since he’s a vampire, we don’t know his true age, but he seems interested in young men and women. Clearly Amy is most likely not even 18 years old, but she is thrown into very adult sexual situations with Jerry that could have been viewed as inappropriate. The irresistible lure and lust for the vampire. Kudos to Director Tom Holland on this. He also did a few other horror flicks, and this has become a cult classic of sorts. I said it reminded me of another 80’s film. Guessed it yet? The ‘Burbs!! Just replace weirdo potentially killer neighbors with vampires. Love that movie.
Enjoy the trailer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMRH0RIEjnc