Fright Night - Film Review

I continued my horror movie marathon by going back to a 1980s' classic. I'm ashamed to say that I had not seen this one before, so I was ecstatic when I got everything I wanted and more with this one. I first heard of this movie when the remake was coming out (haven't seen that one either), but what really drew me to this film was its beautiful movie poster. I know I'm not supposed to judge a book by its cover (or a film by its poster), but damn, does this poster look good! 

*

Where You Can Find It: I checked this one out on Amazon Video where it is currently free to view for those with an Amazon Prime account.

General Information 
Fright Night is a horror film that was released on 2 August 1985. It was written and directed by Tom Holland (no, not the kid that plays Spider-Man). It was distributed by Vistar Films, and marks as Holland's directorial debut. The film holds a Metascore of 62, which is a little middling, however it has a massive 92% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The film was nominated for five categories, of which it won three of, at the Saturn Awards. Lastly, it was the second-highest grossing horror film of 1985, which might seem insignificant, but viewers should remember that this was when teen-horror was at its peak with the unholy trinity (Halloween, Friday the 13th, and A Nightmare on Elm Street) dominating the market.

Fright Night saw a remake in 2011 with stars Anton Yelchin and Colin Farrell. Critically, it was received similarly to the original, however more than a few critics declared the film as "unnecessary." I'll agree with those sentiments to an extent as I haven't seen the remake yet. After examining the cast and crew that worked on the remake, it looks like it has potential, but there was nothing I noticed in this original version that felt like it needed a remake.

**
But does it have sexy dancing vampires in it?

The Story
Charley Brewster (played by William Ragsdale) is a regular high schooler who just wants to make out with his girlfriend and watch cheesy horror movies, when the creepy Jerry Dandridge (played by impeccable Chris Sarandon) moves in next-door. It doesn't take long before Charley surmises that Dandridge is a vampire when people around town start to show up dead. Of course, no one's going to believe a teenager that vampires are real, so it's up to him and his friends (with an old horror movie actor) to stop Jerry before night falls.

I really love the simple premise of this movie as Holland mixes classic stories like Salem's Lot and Dracula with an after-school special vibe that just works better than it probably should. I recalled reading the synopsis of this film and wondering how this movie could be as long as it is (only 106 minutes) as it seems pretty straight-forward. One of the things I love most about the story is that the characters are not remotely heroic. They make fools of themselves on more than one occasion, with one specific sequence involving the most "heroic" of the lot fleeing in terror and completely abandoning others to their fate.

***
Peter Vincent earned that $500 bearer bond by the end of the night

There's plenty of 1980s' cheese to go with the horror in this, which makes it somewhat of a comedy. Some of the dialogue had me cracking up as Jerry openly threatens a clearly distressed Charley in front of  Charley's mother and she completely ignores that it's happening. There's another scene in a nightclub (of course) where Jerry decides to get his groove on, but something happens where he gets in an altercation with some bouncers and completely decimates them. I still laugh at that one as all subtlety kind of goes out the window for poor old Mr. Dandridge when he literally throws a 300+ lbs. man across a dance floor.

Special Effects/Atmosphere
The use of prosthetics and practical special effects is arguably this movie's greatest quality. The vampires transform and become grotesque when they're hurt or angry, which is really cool to see when it's happening. One of the smaller effects I loved was that Jerry's fingers are elongated, which makes him even creepier when you see him interacting with a victim. I did a little research on the overall transformation cosmetics and saw that it sometimes took nearly 12 hours for Sarandon and Stephen Geoffreys (plays Evil Ed) to get fully into costume for certain scenes!

****
Evil Ed was certain this wig would make for the perfect disguise

From a musical score perspective, this movie boasts having Brad Fiedel as its composer. If you're like me, you probably haven't heard of Fiedel before, but he's the composer behind the first two Terminator movies as well as James Cameron's True Lies! The soundtrack of this movie is pretty impressive and hosts tons of that bubbly pop that was so big back in the 1980s.

The Acting
Something I thought was interesting was that the character of Peter Vincent was clearly created with actor icon, Vincent Price. It was unfortunate that Price's health caused him to decline in being in this as he would've been perfect for the role. With that being said, Roddy McDowall does a phenomenal job playing the washed up late-night TV host.

The star of this movie is clearly Chris Sarandon, despite that he's the antagonist. Sarandon just oozes charisma and sex appeal throughout this film. He makes eating an orange look so damn cool! Seriously though, I loved that he could seamlessly transition from suave and charming to maniacal and dastardly within seconds and make it all look good under prosthetics.  

Unfortunately, I did have an issue with one actor. Stephen Geoffreys (who plays Evil Ed) is clearly having a grand time in this film, but I just felt that this performance gelled poorly with the others. The first few scenes he's in are somewhat jarring although I will say that I think he redeems himself by the end.

The Best of the Best: Chris Sarandon doing a sexy dance with a teenage girl in a nightclub.

The Worst of the Worst: Evil Ed grew on me, but Stephen Geoffrey's acting was not the best.

Calhooey Score: 8/10 - Great

Would I Recommend?
*****
It's a scream!

Fright Night was a blast to watch and I highly recommend it as a popcorn flick for those that like a little 1980s' cheese mixed with their horror. This one deserves to be on the same level as others like A Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th. It might be underrated, but it's a frightfully good time!

-------------------------------------------------Spoiler Comments-----------------------------------------------------
  • For someone who watches horror movies all the time, Charley totally got ripped off for those eight bucks he paid Evil Ed.
  • It was really serendipitous that Peter Vincent's show is based in the same small town that Charley lives in.
  • I think one of the best aspects of this movie's characters is that they all just assume that if they do what actors do in vampire movies, they'll be fine in real life.
  • So, I get that the cops don't believe Charley when he accuses Jerry of being a vampire, so that kind of takes the police off the board. What I don't understand though is why they didn't call the boys in blue when Jerry abducted Amy. They wouldn't even have to say that Jerry was a vampire at that point. 
  • I laughed really hard when Peter Vincent headshot Billy Cole.
    • Speaking of our friendly neighborhood vampire caretaker, what exactly was Billy? I figured he was like Dracula's Renfield, where he's just a crazy man that looks after Jerry. I didn't expect him to turn into a smoke-emitting zombie!
  • Mrs. Brewster is gonna be pissed when she gets home from her night-shift.
    • Also, I think we can all agree that Peter Vincent was going to jail for killing a child, right?
----------------------------------------------------References--------------------------------------------------

*IMDB. (n.d.). Fright Night film cover image. Retrieved from: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089175/.    
**Amazon. (n.d.). Fright Night 2011 film cover image. Retrieved from: https://www.amazon.com/Fright-Night-Advance-Rolled-Poster/dp/B07RK4LXXP.
***Real Human Bean. (2017, October 9). Peter Vincent image. Carbon Costume. Retrieved from: https://carboncostume.com/peter-vincent-fright-night-1985/.
****Farrell, P. (2018, October 23). Evil Ed in disguise image. Scriptophobic. Retrieved from: https://scriptophobic.ca/2018/10/23/goodnight-evil-ed-fright-night-1985/.
*****Wifles. (n.d.). Evil Ed in a jeep gif. WiffleGif. Retrieved from: https://wifflegif.com/gifs/541629-noche-de-miedo-fright-night-gif.

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