Fright Night (2011)

I will be the first to say that this movie looked ridiculous, but reviews don't lie. Especially when the critics review it so well. (75% on RT). They hate everything. Why would they tout over a remake? A remake of a horror film that stars Colin Farrell just doesn't sound that appetizing. Couple that with a film that was "made" for 3D. By that I mean, while watching it in 2D at home, the obvious shots coming toward the front of the camera being thrust into theater audiences faces just feel flat to at home DVD renters. It just seems pointless, but this review is not about my dislike for 3D. Though that hand full of shots did take away from a good film, it did not ruin it for me or my "I'll watch it, but it looks awful" wife. In the end she was more surprised than me of how much she liked it. As you know, I pretty much like anything. Her, not so much. She likes to hate things to throw it back in my face that I wasted her time. Not really, she is a good sport most of time. What is great about Fright Night is the lack of character development. When we have a short movie, in order for it to be good, we need what we crave. Action, blood, plot. Not anything about the players it necessary some time. In this film, we know all we need to know from the trailers. Unlike Disturbia, which kept us guessing, Fright Night is very cut and dry. Jerry (Farrell) is a vampire. He is not a shiny vampire, he is a killing, vampire making machine. He likes the hunt and the kill. Within 15 minutes we hear a kid talk about Jerry being a vampire, and within 20 minutes we know it's true. What I love about Vampire movies, especially in our current vampire heavy society is the myth and the lore of it all. Every vampire in film survives by a different set of rules and it always interests me to see what the film makers vampires are susceptible to. This is no different. Jerry is a run of the mill vamp. No sunlight, very fast, no reflection, yada yada yada. It does seem like the vampires in this film are a direct rip off of 30 Days of Night, but then I saw some images from the original 1985 Fright Night (Ya, I never saw it). Now that I have seen those images, I realize that so many movies rip it off. Jennifer's Body, 30 Days of Night....and so on. Our hero in this film is Charlie (Anton Yelchin). He realizes right quick to not have anything to do with Jerry, unfortunately Jerry wants to mess with him. The only person to help Charlie is the host of a stage show called Fright Night (clever), named Peter Vincent. This character is the comic relief of the film. The film is riddles with decent to great jokes in between the horror. Charlie must stop Jerry before his entire neighborhood is wiped out. He must protect his mom and his girlfriend...at all costs. The film is very entertaining to say the least and the fights between hero and villain are fantastic. I went from no hopes to thorough enjoyment.


NBM rates Fright Night (2011) - Aweso-nomenal