Movie Review: Fright Night (2011)

Synopsis: A remake of the 1985 original, teenager Charley Brewster (Anton Yelchin) guesses that his new neighbor Jerry Dandrige (Colin Farrell) is a vampire responsible for a string of recent deaths. When no one he knows believes him, he enlists Peter Vincent (David Tennant), a self proclaimed vampire killer and Las Vegas magician, to help him take down Jerry.

Put me down as yet another one who is a fan of the original and thought a remake was pretty much totally unnecessary so I skipped it in the theaters. But now that I've seen it in the quiet luxury of my living room theater, I say it's really not that bad.

It definitely benefits from great performances by Colin Farrell and David Tennant, but I can't say I was too impressed by anyone else in the cast. Farrell is especially good in my opinion and just perfect for the role. Never over-the-top with his role but pretty creepy and evil when it calls for it and sort of suave and sexy when needed as well too. He plays the part cool and collected with sort of a calculated badassness to it.

Warning... there are a couple of small spoilers below...

It's got a bit of funny going on and is stylishly gory enough with some solid effects. They've modernized it of course and I'm not sure the whole generic suburb thing worked for me. I like my blood-suckers to be in creepy old dark homes, not perfect little suburbs. And I think if a certain cool vampire does move into one of these areas he should at least not be so obvious with things as to slaughter a couple of kids in broad daylight in the middle or the road or pick neighbors as victims. Think somebody might catch on pretty quick? And he also just explodes the hell out of a house and there were no neighbors out to check it out or cops for that matter. Strange. Another scene has him chow on a girl's neck in a crowded club and then apparently carry her out (or at least lead her out) and nobody seems to care really.

But as I said, I had low expectations but was pleasantly surprised for the most part and enjoyed it just as a fun, playful teen horror flick. Certainly not awful, but no classic either. Worth a watch.

6.5/10