After an aborted attempt to sit through Conan the Barbarian, I cut my losses and settled for the “other” remake of the week, Fright Night. I’d seen the original film years ago and had vaguely positive memories of it, but I approached the new version with a certain ambivalence, a definite “meh” attitude.
As it turns out, the new Fright Night is a decent time-waster, a lively and action-filled B-movie with an entertaining cast and a few nice visuals and action sequences. The most surprising thing about Fright Night is the presence of Colin Farrell. Isn’t he supposed to be a “name” star? Wouldn’t he be above appearing in “this sort” of movie? Clearly, the answer is “no” (as if Horrible Bosses didn’t tip you off, although Farrell’s grotesque supporting role there felt like more of a prank or one of those oddball parts actors sometimes take simply for the hell of it). Fright Night seems to have merely been a quick payday for the actor, since he does little to develop a truly interesting or in-depth character. The lead vampire could have been played by almost anyone, with similar results; some of the fault lies in the superficial nature of the script, but it’s also true that Farrell doesn’t display much charisma or menace
The rest of the cast is satisfactory without being distinctive. Like Farrell, any one could have been replaced by any other performer in their general demographic. David Tennant is mildly interesting as Las Vegas “magician” Peter Vincent (in the original film, Roddy McDowall played Vincent as an aging horror movie star): originally introduced as a sort of Criss Angel-Russell Brand amalgam, Vincent sheds his makeup, wig, and other show-business accoutrements and winds up looking and sounding rather like Eric Idle instead.
The plot is relatively uncomplicated. Some deeper themes are only very peripherally glimpsed in passing, as the script seems determined to move along as efficiently as possible. Charley Brewster has “grown up”—he even has a hot girlfriend, Amy—and childhood buddy Ed has been left behind. Ed, more than a little weird, thinks a vampire is preying on their neighbourhood, and identifies Charley’s new neighbour Jerry as the monster. What do you know, he’s right! Charley asks hip-goth stage magician and “vampire expert” Peter Vincent for help in protecting his mother and girlfriend from Jerry; Vincent demurs but eventually relents and joins the hunt.
The production values of Fright Night are adequate. It’s difficult these days to judge a film’s budget by what appears on the screen, since formerly-expensive effects can now be accomplished digitally (CGI isn’t free but simple things such as explosions can be done quickly and cleanly). Unfortunately, the results are sometimes cartoonish rather than awesome. The vampires here are scary enough when they morph into shark-mouthed creatures (although the logic behind these occasional transformations is unclear—most of the time, Jerry and the others just sprout elongated canine teeth and bite people), but then the film pushes it too far and the illusion is shattered when it becomes obvious “it’s just CGI.” I’ll play that song again, sometimes the effect of using real special effects and makeup (or even a combination of physical effects and CGI) would be worth the trouble and expense.
Fright Night is nothing special, but it doesn’t bore the viewer. It doesn’t scare you or make you think or remain with you after you’ve left the cinema, but the time spent watching it passes painlessly enough.
[Trivia note: the five top-billed performers in this movie were all born outside the USA, for what it’s worth: Anton Yelchin (Russia), Colin Farrell (Ireland), Toni Collette (Australia), David Tennant (Scotland), and Imogen Poots (England). Yet only Tennant plays a “foreigner” and has an accent. The internationalisation of world cinema…]
