***MINOR SPOILER ALERT***
Happy Halloween!
What do you when you’re off sick on Halloween? You snuggle up on the sofa and watch a film!
I’ve got quite a few horror films on the old Sky planner
but due to the reasons for which I was off sick, I didn’t want anything too
heavy so I chose Fright Night, the 2011 remake of the 1985 Fright Night, billed
as a horror-comedy.
Staring Colin Farrell, Anton Yelchin, David Tennant and
Toni Collette among others, I wasn’t sure about Fright Night (hence not
watching it until now) but I was very pleasantly surprised. When Charlie (Yelchin) discovers that his new
neighbour is a vampire named Jerry (Yelchin), he fights hard to protect his
girlfriend and mother (Collette), turning to vampire expert Peter Vincent
(Tennant) for help.
Fright
Night successfully pulls off a vampire movie that isn’t too scary but is
interesting and tense enough to not be boring.
Sure, it has romance and the vampires are fairly traditional – garlic,
crosses, holy water, etc – which does make it a little cliché in places and yet
the romance isn’t overbearing and the clichés are subtle enough to work harmoniously
with the characters and plot to make this a modern, fast paced vampire flick.
It may be considered that Colin Farrell would be a
strange choice for the vampire but he is actually brilliant. As all vampires should be, he is sexy and
suave but he also manages to pull off an original, dangerous aura with strange head
gestures and a dark confidence. In other
words, he is a believable vampire without being yet another clone straight from
the vampire mould.
The special effects were also good. Often less is more and this film keeps a lot
of the vampire effects until the climax which means that there is an build
up of tension throughout. While the
vampire effects were good and creepy, they were not particularly horrifying
although the squealing, animalistic noises and actions were brilliantly
original and spine tingling.
What is especially enjoyable is the seemingly painful
transition that the vampires experience between humanoid and monster and the
build up that the vampire has to go through before feeding, giving a new
insight into the monster that I haven’t seen in other vampire flicks.
David Tennant was a breath of fresh air and such a good
choice for the character of Peter Vincent when the casting people could have
easily chosen Russell Brand and completely ruined the character. At first Vincent is Russell Brand but Tennant
is able to add layer upon layer to Vincent to make him go from an arrogant
prick to bumbling, drunken vampire hunter, in order words you dislike him and
then you love him. Well...like him, well...emphasise with him.
Yelchin (Kyle Reese in Terminator Salvation and Chekov in
Star Trek, if you were wondering) was flawless. What was
especially interesting about his character is that he starts the film as a
bubbly teenager and towards the end he is pale and ruffled and has a look of
Twilight’s Edward - the vampire prey becomes the vampire of a poetic fashion. Whether the irony of
this was on purpose or not, it works wonders and helps to show the realistic
horror of what he is facing. This is
particularly important in modern vampire films in a world where vampires have
become so common place and almost boring.
While dubbed as a horror comedy, Fright Night is not
particularly funny. It is light hearted
in places and more creepy then scary but there were no laugh out loud
moments. I did, however, enjoy Charlie
attempting to break into Jerry’s house using his smart phone to get instructions
on picking locks. I enjoyed the fact
that it worked even more! Seriously, is
there an app for that?
Fright Night is a fast paced, modern vampire film which is
effectively creepy and light hearted at the same time. There is not one weak link in the cast and
there are even some original moments (bearing in mind I haven’t seen the 1985
film) which makes the whole experience refreshing. If one was to be picky, the weakest part
would be the romance but even this is done gently. There’s no slush to be found in this film, although
perhaps this could have been done without the strong emphasis on sex/the losing
of virginity but this again was a bit different.
Fright Night is definitely worth a watch. It isn’t amazing but
it is enjoyable with interesting characters.
Who’s ever heard of a vampire called Jerry, anyway?
“This is real. He's a real monster and he's not brooding, or lovesick,
or noble. He's the fucking shark from Jaws. He kills, he feeds, and he doesn't
stop until everybody around him is dead. And I seriously am so angry you think
I read Twilight.”