Fright Night [Review by Haus]

Remaking vampire/teen horror pictures 26 years after the fact is an interesting and somewhat risky proposition. But Fright Night, the new 3D, semi-tongue-in-cheek Colin Farrell vehicle, is actually a hoot.

Tom Holland (who wrote and directed the 1985 original) is credited here for the story — so the plot stays fairly close to its source material. The updates seem largely cosmetic: Farrell plays a vampire, Jerry, who moves into a tidy tract home in an isolated exurb of Las Vegas, right next door to Chekov Anton Yelchin and his mother, Toni Collette (Little Miss Sunshine, About a Boy). Imogen Poots plays Yelchin’s girlfriend, Dr. Who David Tennant plays a vampire-savvy Vegas showman, and McLovin/Red Mist and James Franco’s brother also feature.

It’s an interesting cast — Yelchin seems a little over his head at times carrying the lead, but he sticks with it and delivers a watchable if not commanding performance. Farrell continues his recent trend of strange roles, skulking about in the shadows with a pale, whole-hog, twitch-and-stare, lecherous sort of weirdness about him. He toes the high arch / camp line but in the end he’s kind of a treat to watch. I have no idea why he took this role, but after some precarious early scenes he won me over.

David Tennant is refreshingly excessive as well as Peter Vincent, a performer with a vampire-themed Vegas show and an interest in the occult. Channeling Russell Brand as Aldous Snow, Tennant lopes, curses, “hey mates,” and couldn’t-care-lesses through his scenes, mainlining Midori neat and looking vaguely sultry.

This film could so easily have been a throwaway picture, but it’s not. It’s nicely shot, crisp and lean, and the sameness and muted palette of the suburban housing development are used to good effect. If that sounds drab, Vegas is always off in the distance — and the film does dip occasionally into Sin City by night, though it stays far removed from the all-too-human bustle on the Strip by relying only on broad aerial sweeps of the city. The effect is nicely isolating, reinforcing the idea that Yelchin is sequestered in his own vampiric world. I also particularly enjoyed a long take with a rotating camera in a fleeing-by-car scene that evokes Children of Men and first-person shooters in roughly equal measure.

Fright Night is also visually satisfying. Jerry’s house is a nice mix of classic vampire-picture props — old Necronomicon-looking books, draped tapestries and sundry antiques — alongside the barren rooms so characteristic of suburban bachelor pads. (One friend of mine bought a house, and for some time had a room with only a single chair in it. We termed it “the chair room.”) Tennant’s Vegas man-cave and curio collection are a propmaster’s dream, and this set supplies some much-needed eye candy. (As, I should mention, does Tennant’s assistant Ginger, played by Sandra Vergara. She does a terrific job with some of the sharpest quips in the film and manages to outdo even Tennant here.) The vampire battles are pretty much as expected, and I liked the way the evil ones sometimes scurried about with a fast, twisted crab-walk. The special effects are updated, though the original wide-mouthed and overly-toothy vampire visage remains.

This is neither a particularly gory nor a particularly frightening picture — it’s low-risk horror, and plays a lot like the 80s movie it once was. Sure, it’s pretty stupid at times, but it’s always entertaining. And it’s just so pedal-to-the-floor weird.

So it’s hard not to like Fright Night. The previews looked absolutely wretched. It could so easily have been hateful trash. But against all odds it stands on its own feet, and Farrell clearly relishes his role. Best of all, Jerry isn’t some angst-ridden, conflicted and lovesick youth who shimmers in the sun — and it’s just so damned refreshing to stick it to those insufferable Twilight mopers with a bit of classic vampire fun.

HAUS VERDICT: Who would have thought? Fright Night is a vampire movie that doesn’t suck.

See what the other half thinks: Parsi’s view.