Fright Night

            First off, I’d like to admit that I have not finished watching the original.  I started it and was genuinely interested, but it was too late at night and I just couldn’t soldier on.  I hope to finish it someday so I can do a comparison of the two films.  I highly doubt there are more than a few scenes in common, but I’d like to see how they both stack up as horrors, action films and vampire movies.

            On to the review!

            FrightNight (2011 edition) is a perfectly capable vampire movie that doesn’t spend too long developing…well, much of anything, really.  Considering how absolutely beloved the original is, often cited as much for its charm and goofiness as for its take on vampire neighbors, the new movie seemed to want to distance itself and avoid direct comparison.  But by doing so, they made it easy to compare it to every other stalker horror movie made in the last decade.

            For good or for ill, this is all the new Fright Night is: a horror movie in which a family is terrorized by a crazed stalker.  Sure, the stalker is a vampire with super powers, but nothing else is particularly special.

Neighborhood kid Charley (Anton Yelchin) finally stopped being a nerd, leaving his best friend Ed (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) behind in favor of ‘cool’ friends and a hot girlfriend in Amy (Imogen Poots).  He lives in a half-empty residential district outside Las Vegas with his divorced mother Jane (Toni Collette).  Basically, he’s your typical High School senior. 

            That is, until Ed tries to convince him that his neighbor Jerry (Colin Farrell) is a vampire.  Then things take a turn for the slightly more dangerous.  Charley is eventually convinced, but not until after Ed goes missing.  Once he starts to truly believe that Jerry is a creature of the night, Charley tries to enlist the help of ‘famed’ vampire expert and resident Vegas act Peter Vincent, played by an initially unrecognizable David Tennant.  Of course, Peter doesn’t take him seriously until it’s almost too late. 

            The last two paragraphs only describe first half of the movie.  The second half is almost entirely made up of fight and chase scenes.  Nothing…but…action.

            What’s strange about this new, updated Fright Night is that while everything individually is either satisfactory or downright impressive, the whole thing just doesn’t add up to awesome. 

            David Tennant and Anton Yelchin are great in their roles.  Toni Collette and Imogen Poots go above and beyond what is asked of them, becoming actual, fleshed-out female characters rather than simple damsels in distress.  Colin Farrell plays the creepy, rapey-vibe vampire perfectly.  The plot is fine, the special effects are seamless, and the action sequences are fun and inventive.  Yet, put it all together and the whole thing was just mostly okay.

            Maybe it’s because I was hoping for another super-awesome-cheese-fest like Deadand Breakfast? 

            I don’t know, but I can say that if you’re a fan of vampires and explosions, you’ll still enjoy the 2011 version of Fright Night.  It just may not blow your mind.