Fright Night (1985)

Sex :
Violence :
Director Tom Holland Reviewer :
Writers Tom Holland
Starring Chris Sarandon, William Ragsdale, Amanda Bearse, Stephen Geoffreys, Roddy McDowall
Genre Vampire
Tagline There are some very good reasons to be afraid of the dark
15 second cap Charlie Brewster has to deal with school, an older girlfriend pretending to be a teen, oh and vampires who have moved in next door
Country

Review

“You’re so cool, Brewster” – Evil Ed.

Charlie Brewster is a typical teen; he’s failing trigonometry, wants to go all the way with his girlfriend, and loves a horror show called “Fright Night” hosted by Peter Vincent. If Dad was still around and the family had a dog, this movie could have gone in an entirely different direction.

The new next door neighbours immediately raise Charlie’s horrordar as they have all the hallmarks of being vampires. There’s the coffin in the basement, the bodies being dragged away in the middle of the night, and an outbreak of murders in the city recently. Unable to get the authorities to believe him, Charlie enlists the add of his girlfriend Amy, school acquaintance Evil Ed, and the vampire slayer Peter Vincent. Unfortunately for Charlie, everyone is humouring him except of course for the real-life vampire Jerry.

Can Charlie convince everyone in time that there’s a vampire in town, or will Jerry have some red on tap for the coming nights? One of the 1980s most beloved vampire flicks ensues. Ready to plunge a stake into this one?

This review comes to you courtesy of the office I share with Mrs J being tidied up in preparation to being painted. I decided, after being given two storage bins by Mrs J, that I had better pack up all the movies I have reviewed and only leave out the ones waiting to get the treatment. Unfortunately this has surprisingly been most of them, dear God am I ever behind on the reviewing queue. We discovered, after the dick who cracked us a couple of years ago and ensured we would have warm and fuzzies over Vietnam (MacArthur was right about that place), that we hadn’t backed up quite a number of reviews. Hence they got lost in the reshuffle and hence I have over a hundred movies that I thought had been reviewed which haven’t. Add in all the additional films that tend to percolate to the review queue each week and I’m pretty much covered for the next six months in terms of stuff to talk about. Well enough of my trials and tribulations, let’s get Fright Night under the microscope.

You have to give it to the script writer, naming a Vamp Jerry took some balls
In the wash-up, the movie is classic 1980s vampire fare without the requisite aging well to really excite modern audiences who dug on into the likes of 30 Days of Night or Twilight. Yes I know the two more recent vamp flicks appeal to entirely different audiences, but my point is that neither audience are likely to want to hang out at Brewster’s place. Tom Holland decks out his movie in traditional vampire lore, adds in enough cheese to have us all smiling, and gets down and nasty when required, though without the gore content a modern remake would splash about.

I’m always up for a vampire flick, regardless of release era, if it at least retains traditional vampire lore. And here when I say “traditional” I mean movie lore ala the Hammer's, yo don’t hurt them, body of work. Holland ticked all the right boxes for me so we can be safe in the knowledge the Director/Writer knows his genre requirements. Vampires don’t cast reflections in mirrors, they have an aversion to holy water, sunlight will kill them, and a good staking is apt to resolve any blood sucking troubles you might have. Added sauce here is Holland being fully aware of the sexual nature of vampires, and more importantly putting that to good use. Anyone else think Amy was only one step away from doing the wild thing while under Jerry’s power? The sort of love you have to clean up with a mop and bucket, folks. The only downside to this I picked up on was a subplot where Amy is the exact duplicate of someone from Jerry’s past. The idea gets raised then sort of drops out of sight after signing on for a plot point. Either this sub plot should have hit the editing floor or should have been more fully endorsed by subsequent events in Fright Night. Did Holland simply forget about the idea or did he decide it simply wasn’t that interesting and didn’t really fit with his vampire Jerry?

There’s no denying Fright Night isn’t exactly dealing from the serious end of the tarot pack; Holland laces his movie with humour (most forced and not overly funny), and you are left with the feeling that you shouldn’t be taking the film seriously. The movie within a movie motif had me grinning, mainly due to the inept and amateur nature of Brewster’s apparently favourite show. The name “Peter Vincent”, if you haven’t worked that one out then stick to the comedy aisle at your local DVD outlet. And of course the whole character of “Evil Ed”. Even the fanged horror of Jerry is more like one of your more creepy uncles than a symbol for ultimate evil.

Director Holland does surprise on occasion with a few shock moments, mainly due to the makeup department, and isn’t above throwing on some horror tropes to keep everyone on their toes. My what big teeth you have could have been applied to the two “other” vampires on show, and that whole wolf thing came out of left field, brought to mind An American Werewolf in London, and was effective. Less effective was the dry ice used to add some atmosphere to Jerry’s house; what, none of the other neighbours noticed the old gloomy place that looked like it might have a wiring issue?

Chris Sarandon (Jerry) headlines here and makes for one effective vampire, all about those jerseys folks. Sarandon is clearly having fun with the role and turns in an absolutely great performance. Okay it’s not worth an Oscar, got carried away there. William Ragsdale (Charlie) is also on the ball, hits all the emotional stuff right, and has us believing. Amanda Bearse (Amy) was a poor casting choice. She simply had too many miles on the clock to play a teen, and quite frankly those hair clips didn’t fool anyone. And Roddy McDowall (Peter Vincent) is cashing a pay cheque, yeah he’s good here but we have seen the character before and since.

Surprisingly Holland manages to sneak some T&A in under the radar, well okay the ladies are just going to have to make do with Chris Sarandon turning it on. Dudes get a boob shot through a bedroom window and Amanda Bearse clearly not wearing a bra late in the show. I was happy enough with that content considering I thought Holland would keep it about as chaste as an old ladies tea party.

Brad Fiedel delivered a score that pretty much fitted the movie without having to reach any new levels of excellence. We also get plenty of that 1980s soft rock that no one remembers and no one at the time cared about. A Hollywood Exec’s version of what the kids were listening to in the disco in other words.

Tom Holland delivered a pretty good vamp movie without trying to make it a classic. I was happy enough with what went down on my screen to think about maybe hunting out the sequel, which I can’t remember if I have seen or not. This is end of day pretty good film making on a limited budget, with no attempt to punch above weight. I was pretty happy with the time spent on Fright Night and that’s about all I’m after in a movie to be honest.

You know how there are curses associated with a whole bunch of movies, The Exorcist and the original The Amityville Horror immediately come to mind. Well Fright Night did have a documented curse associated with it. Both William Ragsdale and Amanda Bearse came out of the closet soon after this movie finished production. Chris Sarandon fans were concerned that he might fall under the influence of designer clothes and Broadway musical soundtracks as well, but thankfully a crack team of priests managed to keep the forces of gayness away. Or so the story goes. Did Timmy Cruise have a cameo in this movie by the way?

If you are after a night of 1980s horror kitsch then dial right into Fright Night, you can’t get a movie with a better burnt orange veneer kitchen top. This one was made when horror was going through one of its regular semi-humorous phases and is all the better for it. I can’t promise you anything like a fright from this movie, but it remains highly entertaining regardless.

ScaryMinds Rates this movie as ...

  A classic vampire flick, though showing it's age, still manages to remain entertaining.