Fright Night (2011)

So how long has it been since I said I unequivocally enjoyed something????  The Fright Night remake is a good horror movie.  Not great, but not that far from it.

Much credit for this goes to the writing.  Much of the dialogue and sight gags manage to toe that line between being attractive to teenage moviegoers while also throwing bones to dedicated horror fanatics like myself.  That is to say, everything is very "fun" in this movie.  For example, there is the inevitable Twilight joke, but the reference is cleverly handled and quickly removed, while a lesser film would have not stopped going BOY THESE VAMPIRES SURE AREN'T LIKE THOSE SPARKLEPIRES HUH HURR HUR HURR.  Some things slowly fall apart by the end of the film (as in 50% of everything out of David Tennant's mouth, but more about that later), but by then you're impressed with the actually scary parts and everything sort of works out.

Most of the actors and actresses are terribad, but who cares?  I couldn't remember what almost anyone looked like in the original until I rewatched the trailer, but I certainly remember Jerry.  In both Fright Nights, it's a basic truth that while you maybe don't want to see the mortals die, you're way more interested in what this suave and very dangerous Nosferatu is all about.  And by gum, Colin Farrell pulls things off, wisely avoiding aping Chris Sarandon's portrayal and instead shooting for a sort of insular suburbia demon, feeding on people in between viewings of Jersey Shore.*  In some respects, it was probably a conscious decision to fill the movie with relative no-names (OH WAIT THAT GUY WAS CHEKHOV WOOPS), as then the audience will then rapturously await the next scene with Farrell, which are expertly spaced out so we aren't overloaded on his character.  The editor was also brilliant enough to severely limit McLovin's scenes.  I think I speak for everyone intelligent when I was initially timid about the film based on the trailer showing that dude all over the place, but really he's there for like 20 minutes so it's all cool.  Also, fun fact, when you try to make that dude look scary, he just sort of turns into Zoolander.

Unfortunately, no great writing nor editing can save us from perhaps the most unnecessary 3D additions ever conceived.  I'm echoing the choir, but why in fuck's sake would you do a 3D film where every important scene in in the dark?  I don't feel that the 3D effects really harm the film, as both me and my girlfriend ultimately had a grand time laughing at the movie's desperate attempts to justify the use (FREE TSHIRTS FLING), but it still seems weird, and probably says alot about the slow waning of this current horror age that the studio executives felt this movie wouldn't get enough box office sales without such a gimmick.  Shames, shames.  On the other hand, this probably means less torture horror, so hooray!

Really, my only complaint is about Tennant, and I realize it's kind of stupid.  KIDS THESE DAYS wouldn't understand or care about the concept of late-night horror shows, so I get that they had to change the role of the older vampire hunter helper.  But couldn't you have gotten someone better than a vague Criss Angel parody?  I can't think of anything better, but that's why I'm writing shitty blogs like this.  What I could suggest would maybe be a little less Han Solo bitchery.  Did Roddy McDowell complain this much in the original?  Probably not, but even if he did, I'm pretty sure he was less of a ponce about it.

Fright Night is a pretty good movie.  It occupies that same place as the Dawn of the Dead remake, not necessary in any sense of the word, but still fun and scary to watch and certainly heaps better than anything featuring girls crying into cameras as needles are pushed into their knees or whatever.  And it's certainly a more necessary remake than GODDAMNED STRAW DOGS WHY WOULD YOU REMAKE THAT WHY FUCK YOU AMERICA

...excuse me.



*In between amusing little details like that and the understated theme of the foreclosure crisis helping vampirekind, I confidently state that Fright Night is a hundred times more effective parody than Red State is going to be.