Fright Night

Love Collin Ferrel, the entire cast was perfect. Another movie I watch every Halloween

Great movie came in brand new still in rapper with no scratches on the DVD

Saw this last night in the theater. Don't let the fact that it's a remake scare you into not watching it (as most remakes are infamously horrid). Overall I found the movie entertaining and fun to watch. I LOVED the original Fright Night and it's sequel but it is so dated now it's hard to watch without cringing at the cheesy '80s hairdos, clothing, and lack of technology. I loved this new version because it poked fun at everything we take for granted today, everything that is silly about our society, and even gets in a few digs at the original movie with some well-placed tongue-in-cheek lines from the original.The story line is different from the original but I liked the changes a lot. Colin Farrell makes a good, and pretty sexy, vamp! He plays the role of Jerry well and is very creepy. I don't like the fact that the writers kept the whole "face-morphs-into-a-demon" thingie, though. It's just weird and not very original (and definitely not sexy). Also, there wasn't as much romance in the film as there was in the original. In the original, the Amy character is the spitting image of Jerry's long-lost love so when he goes after her the story kind of makes more sense. In the new version Amy is all about Charlie. There's no portrait of her previous incarnation in Jerry's house and Jerry just goes after her to increase his "tribe."From the trailer one got the sense that Jerry was really out to get Charlie in some way but the whole destruction of Charlie's life seems to be more incidental in the new film, like it could have been any high-school kid Jerry chose to pick on.I have to say, I LOVED the new Peter Vincent! 1. Hot, with and without the "Vincent persona." 2. Not an old fogey like in the original (sorry Roddy McDowall). 3. Still makes the same change from coward to courageous as in the old version. Sigh. And tight leather pants do help! Mmm. The writers also gave Peter more of a reason to be a vampire hunter in this film but you almost don't connect him with the opening scene until the very end. The connection could have been made earlier. Also, no explanation as to why Jerry didn't kill Peter when Peter was younger. Weird.I liked the actor chosen to play Charlie's buddy Ed/Evil but you don't really get to see him too much in this version of the story. The friends' back-story is fuller than in the original movie though and you really get a feeling that Ed wants revenge on Charlie for slighting him.Special effects: Ok. Nothing spectacular except the fangs which, when not mega-demony looked exactly how I picture vampire fangs to be, sharp as all hell and retractable but not ginormous, kinda catlike. I did not see this in 3-D so take that into account.Some silly continuity problems that made me go duh! 1. Midway through the film Charlie learns that these kinds of vampires make their nests underground, yet when he busts into Jerry's house for the final showdown, Charlie wastes all this time checking out the top two floors of the house before going down to the basement.... Burning that kind of daylight when you're hunting a vamp is kinda stupid. 2. Closer to the beginning of the film, Ed/Evil is being chased by Jerry and he decides to run UPSTAIRS to escape... sigh. When the heck are movie-writers going to stop using this daft "go-upstairs-to-get-away-from-the-bad-guy" routine. You would think the escapee would want to remain on the ground floor! Gah! And, Ed falls into a pool (a pool) and is cornered there by Jerry. Don't get me wrong, it makes for a pretty cool underwater bite scene, but you can't get out of a pool and run? God! It's not quicksand!Car-chase scene: kinda lame. I think it would have been better in 3-D. In the original, Jerry could fly, so why the heck do they have him chasing Charlie and friends in a truck this time?I do love how they made Jerry just randomly go around biting all of Charlie's friends though. He doesn't even bother to cover up some of his kills. His inhumanity rally gives him the jollies and makes his character much more slick and vampire-like. He acts like a true predator. The Jerry in the original film was more cautious and had a Renfield-like buddy to help him out during the day. I'm not sure why this helper character was done away with in this film but I think it was a pretty good choice. He always seemed extraneous in the original.So, not the best vampire film ever made but highly entertaining and worth going to see in the theater. I'm hoping they make a sequel like they did with the original. That was a very sexy film and has a lot of potential as a remake.

I loved the original Fright Night (1985) and owned it for years. Saw it for the first time in the early nineties. I wound up inadvertently giving the DVD away not that long ago, but it definitely held up over the years. I also found it scary as hell, Chris Sarandon was effortlessly sexy, and I really liked Charley, Amy, Evil Ed and even Charley's mom (played by the oft neglected Dorothy Fielding). The nightclub scene is classic.Now, on to the remake. I was really excited about seeing it because I loved the original story so much. Tom Holland is one of my favorite screenwriters and I always keep an eye out for anything of his. And I ended up loving the remake. I've gone back 5 times to see it in theaters, and I've never done that before in my life.There are some spoilers in the remainder of my review, so please don't read further if you haven't yet seen this film...____________________________________________________________________________________________I find this Fright Night incredibly funny and also scary at the same time. Maybe I scare easily, but so many scenes had me at the edge of my seat, starting with the beginning when Evil Ed visits Adam's house and we see Jerry lurking outside the door. The subsequent chase and Jerry turning Ed into a vampire scared the crap out of me. As did so many scenes thereafter - Charley's rescue of Doris, their escape from Jerry's house, the car chase scene (this one had me at the edge of my seat, clutching my friend who had gone with me to see it the 1st time!) - and I loved Chris Sarandon's cameo. That was awesome - one Jerry sinking his fangs into his predecessor. If only William Ragsdale had shown up in some capacity as well - as a disbelieving neighbor or policeman. Ah, well.I thought the scene between Jerry and Charley when Charley isn't inviting Jerry in (and Jerry's realization that Charley is deliberately stonewalling him) was incredible. Both Colin and Anton did a fantastic job. The analogous scene in the original (Jerry being invited in by Charley's mother) was also clever. But I enjoyed this scene more.I really enjoyed the comedic aspects. Colin mixed humor and menace very effectively. I loved the way he paid homage to Chris's Jerry by angrily biting into an apple the first time when Charley goes off to meet Ed at Adam's house, and amusingly biting into an apple a second time when Charley and Doris escape his house. My favorite line: when Charley says "Jerry? That's a TERRIBLE vampire name - JERRY?", Ed counters: "I didn't name him, man. I'm just reporting the FACTS." Christopher Mintz-Plasse delivered that line perfectly. It's a priceless moment.I found Colin Farrell incredibly sexy and I've become a fan of his for life. No one else could've pulled off the role of Jerry the vampire the way he did. He is truly in his element. Perhaps best of all, the entire cast seems to having a riotously good time here. Overall - as a true lover of the original Fright Night (one of my favorite movies ever!) - I loved, loved, loved the remake. Every time I watch it, I discover another subtlety that I didn't catch earlier. I like this version of Fright Night better, but for emotional reasons that I can't fully verbalize. I can't wait for the DVD to come out!