About:
Charlie Brewster has reason to believe that his mysterious new neighbor is actually a murderous vampire. After his worst fears are confirmed he sets out to slay the monster before it kills him and everyone he loves.
Review:
I first saw this a few years ago and thought, “Wow, what a fun horror movie. This is truly a classic.” A couple of years later I saw the remake and thought it was also good, but nowhere near as great as the irreplaceable original I saw first. Then last night I watched the original again for the purpose of writing this review, and, well, I just didn’t know what to believe anymore. It was ok – I liked it. But it wasn’t the same movie I remember being better than the remake. As blasphemous as it sounds, it was actually much worse.
First of all, the leading lady in the remake is played by the adorable albeit unfortunately named Imogen Poots, whereas her character in the original is played by some chick who looked like Blanche from Golden Girls.
Not even close
And yea, I get it – a lot of people didn’t like the remake because everyone’s least favorite actor Colin Farrell got to star in it. Now I don’t know what he ever did to deserve this shit storm of malice people seem to have for him, but remember that man was the balls in Minority Report, so lets all cut him a little slack.
I had to watch the remake again to confirm that I liked it better. I knew they had it at the public library here because that’s where I got it five years ago when it first came out. Sure enough they still had like 10 copies sitting there, but because I had racked up such an intimidating amount of overdue fees on Twilight books over the years I was not allowed to rent it until I paid that tab back down to 0. This now makes three libraries where my hefty fines prevent me from taking anything out.
After a couple of unsuccessful stops at RedBoxes, I decided that the purpose of this blog isn’t to compare original films to their remakes anyways, or at least not until I can get my hands on the newer Fright Night.
Back to the original: I loved the special effects in this. There were three vampire deaths, which doesn’t seem like much, until you consider that the way each died was more fantastic and horrifying that the last. I don’t know who decided CGI looked better, but nothing compares to the creative SFX that go into animating a vampire turning into skeleton soup.
Charlie Brewster is the main character in this movie, but we don’t know anything about him other than he lives next door to a vampire and goes out with a girl who looks like his mom. What’s his story? How do I know I don’t want this guy getting gobbled up by a vampire? His little buddy Evil Ed, on the other hand, is quite the character, and I can’t quite determine if his shrill portrayal is tantamount to idiocy or brilliance.
When he realizes he is living next to a vampire Charlie enlists the help of TV star Peter Vincent the Vampire Killer, host of the show Fright Night, who luckily happens to live in town. At this point Vincent is on his ass and out of a job, but he cleans up nicely and puts together with a cubic briefcase crammed with vampire killing accoutrements to help Charlie do the deed.
Unfortunately he left it in the car
The main vampire is Jerry Dandridge, which is perhaps the least intimidating Vampire name ever thought up. Don’t let the name fool you though – this guy is one smooth operator. Guy has a killer hair cut and an equally cool duster jacket to match. All told, he’s not too far off from Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt on the vampire coolness scale. Although it is a little concerning that he lives with a hetero life mate/man-servant.
Bro-ing out hard
Jerry is pissed at Charlie because he keeps hassling him for being a vampire, and their feuding evolves when Jerry realizes that Charlie’s girlfriend Amy looks just like his old vampire girlfriend. Thankfully this never goes beyond that to the Maury Povich level, but it does kind of teeter on the brink when Amy gets bitten and turns into evil Steven Tyler.
Eh…still not doing anything for me
Overall: 6
a reliable flame, good for marshmallows and telling ghost stories, but nothing that gonna singe your eyebrows off
So I’ve been thinking that ranking these movies solely on a 1-10 scale is pretty boring. In going with the theme of this blog, (in which Camp is a double entendre for both the style of these movies and also the setting for a great deal of them – get it??) I’ve decided to accompany the traditional numeric ranking with a strength of campfire – or at least something camp-related.
I was a little disappointed in Fright Night, to be honest, because I remembered it being so much better. Don’t get me wrong – it was the cheesy kind of horror movie I like, the kind that doesn’t take itself to seriously but also has a plot that is easy to follow and isn’t confounded by glaring holes. It did seem to drag at times, though; the movie is an hour and a half and Charlie first voices his fears over his neighbor in the very first scene. I don’t know why it took another 90 minutes for him to gather his buddies up for the final showdown. Maybe when I finally see the remake again it will be so much worse than I remember that it’ll make the original a lot better.
CAMP GORE 