Fright Night

Starring: Anton Yelchin, Colin Farrell, David Tennant, Amanda Poots, Toni Collette

Synopsis:

Senior Charlie Brewster finally has it all going on: he's running with the popular crowd and dating the most coveted girl in his high school. In fact, he's so cool he's even dissing his best friend. But trouble arrives when Jerry moves in next door. He seems like a great guy at first, but there's something not quite right -- but everyone, including Charlie's mom, doesn't notice. After observing some very strange activity, Charlie comes to an unmistakable conclusion: Jerry is a vampire preying on the neighbourhood. Unable to convince anyone, Charlie has to find a way to get rid of the monster himself.

I’ve been surprised by the quality of remakes before, using Dawn of the Dead as an example of how the movie makers went for a different tone and pace. Fright Night 2011 is just such a movie.

If you love the original, this version will not sully its memory. The filmmakers have gone for more of a black comedy meets action horror vibe and it works well. The comedy, I must add, doesn’t overwhelm the story and is based more on the situations the characters are in. It feels natural as opposed to forced one-liners that sometimes ruin movies. The emphasis is on tension.

One particular scene was butt clenching tense and didn’t end up quite how I expected it to. Here’s the problem; you are far better off going into the film knowing little or nothing about the movie. In fact, don’t watch the trailer if you even have the slightest interest in the movie and know that you’re going to watch it. Fright Night works best if you go in fresh.

Anton Yelchin (Star Trek) shows once again what a good actor he is. He plays the nerdy Charlie with believability. Amanda Poots (28 Weeks Later) shows a more seductive side in this film and she can also give a good butt-kicking when required. Toni Collette (The Sixth Sense) doesn’t seem old enough to play Charlie’s mum but thankfully she isn’t relegated to some background part and participates in the action scenes. Charlie’s best friend, Ed, is played by Christopher Mintz-Plasse who was great in Kick-Ass. He plays the hapless Ed who happens to have known about the neighbourhood vampire problem for some time but had been dismissed as a fantasist. Colin Farrell looks like he is enjoying his role, strutting about, snarling at the other characters and charming them in equal measure. As for David Tennant (you might know him from some small British sci-fi show), he plays Russell Brand better than Russell Brand would play Russell Brand. Tennant borders on high camp for most of his initial screen time but does so with an edge of cynicism. For all the grandiose performance there is a real subtlety to some of his performance that captures the character’s background perfectly. Anyone who thought there wouldn’t be a genre role for Tennant post that show was massively mistaken.

Gillespie handles both the action and suspense scenes equally as well, along with the character scenes. I can hear the fanboys crying out “He’s one of them directors that’s only directed commercials”. Well, his experience counted for something and it shows on screen. After Fright Night, he should be a sought after director for action horror movie projects. His has the ability to generate suspense during the quieter moments and thrills during the bigger set pieces.The movie has energy and confidence. For some bizarre reason, I was reminded of The Terminator. It’s not the plot as such, although Jerry the vampire does share some of the Terminator’s single-minded purpose at times, it’s more the pace of the movie that made me recall the 1984 movie. At times, the pace of Fright Night is relentless. Even during the “quiet” scenes, there’s a beat to the movie.

To its credit, the movie doesn’t follow the formulaic pattern I was expecting and veers off the road (in a good way) half way through. As promised, I won’t reveal too much, but I do refer to the film, after an event in the second act. This event reminded me of the stunts that Joss Whedon used to pull on his TV shows; Buffy, Angel, Firefly and Dollhouse. It’s a game changer in the story. It’s no surprise as Marti Noxon wrote the screenplay based upon Tom Holland’s story. She worked as producer on both Buffy and Angel and Fright Night has that quality about it.

The make-up and special effects are excellent, not too over the top and not overly reminiscent of other vampire flicks and TV shows. I’m glad the vampire make-up wasn’t too “bumpy” using a Buffy term. The make-up in the original was fine for it’s time but the understated vamp make-up works well when used.

As for the subject of 3D: The only time I found that the 3D worked was during the scenes with vampire kill effects. Other than that, and the creative title sequence, the movie would have been just as good in 2D.

Summary

I will not compare this new exciting Fright Night with the old. Plenty of film news sites, blogs, forums will already have had people doing that and post-release, even more so will air their opinion. That’s fine. That’s natural. Both movies share a common thread; young guy figures out there’s a vampire in his neighbourhood and seeks the help of an “expert” to get rid of it before it can harm him and his family. All the characters are there from the original but the execution of the story is far different. There’s room for both movies. If you’re a fan of the original, you shouldn’t see this movie as an anathema. If you haven’t seen the original, and love the vampire genre but gravitate towards the True Blood style vamps instead of the Twilight vamps then this is for you. It’s fun, it’s frantic. Go see it.

9 out of 10 (Wayfarer)

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