Fright Night (2011) - Movie Review

Does this horror comedy remake stand up to the quality of the original?

Synopsis 

A teenager finds out that his new neighbour is a vampire responsible for a string of recent deaths. He enlists the help of a self proclaimed vampire killer and Las Vegas magician to help him take down the vampire.

Who's In It

Anton Yelchin - Our hero. Chekov in J.J. Abrams' Star Trek
Colin Farrell - To draw the ladies in I think
David Tennant! Dr. Who!
Toni Collete! Delivers the best acting in this film, though how they coaxed her in I don't know
Christopher Mintz-Plasse! Giving new meaning to the name Red Mist

What I Thought

How did Colin Farrell agree to do this? Well after his role as Bullseye in Daredevil I suppose anything could happen.

I wish I looked as cool as this in a vest

First off, be aware that Fright Night is a reboot of the 1985 original by the same name. The script for this is similar to the original but it comes off worse. It jumps right and gets going with the first vampire attack. But it feels disjointed, too fast and unexplained. The back story kicks in and it all switches to introducing the characters. The kids at the local high school also speak a language I don't understand anymore. I must be getting old as I didn't understand the slang. There's also some questionable fashion - puce hightops?!

It's not long before the hero's friend is bitten and disappears, that he begins to believe. He then goes snooping about the vampires house. To give you an idea of the poor script, why would a vampire leave a key to his own house in one of those fake plastic rocks outside his house?

The vampire is soon on to him and our hero requires the help of a certain TV show host, the infamous Peter Vincent played by David Tennant. This is where Fright Night actually picks up. Tennant seems to be doing his own version of Russell Brand, even though it's blatant plagiarism, it actually works really well. His character adds humour to the film and there were numerous one-liners I found myself sniggering at. The pair of them then embark on a quest to kill the vampire for good.

David Tennant's Russell Brand disguise

There are some pretty cool effects in this movie. When people who've been bitten are exposed to light, the explode in spectacular fashion. There are also some great effects for the vampire form that Farrell takes on in certain scenes. The iconic mouth full of teeth from the original shows itself again here, it's good to see something different again after Twilight's two fangs. There are also some humorous dismembements with Mintz-Plasse's character, who's role was surprisingly short. The finale in the basement ends things off with a bang, with a nice twist tie in on one of the characters back story.

Lastly, be sure to check out the cover version of Jay Z's "99 Problems" by Hugo during the blood splattered closing credits, its a clever country version which I've since added to my Spotify playlist.

Memorable Quotes

• "Did you find a genie lamp man, make a sacrifice to the hot ass gods. How do you get that?"
• "Hey what are you working on?"
  "Porn."
  "Oh good, I thought it was something creepy."
• "Come on people, what the fuck. She's supposed to be on fire people not dribbling fucking smoke."
• "You want a quote? That's a shit idea for an article."
• "Fuck you!"
  "I will fuck myself. Someone's got to do it."
• "If you're naked, I'm absolutely going to look."

Rating

2/5 - A poor start that picks up, and ends well

Trailer

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The original film is well worth checking out, even after all this time