Dir. Craig Gillespie, US, 2011, 106 mins
Cast: Colin Farrell, Anton Yelchin, David Tennant
Review by Carol Allen
The most intriguing thing about Craig Gillespie’s remake of the 1985 comedy horror film Fright Night is its A list cast. Yelchin as the teenage hero, who realises his next door neighbour Jerry (Farrell) is a vampire. Toni Collette as his mother, Imogen Poots as his girlfriend and Tennant as Peter Vincent, the television horror show host, who is reluctantly drawn into the teenager versus vampire battle. The original also had a strong cast – Chris Sarandon as the vampire and Roddy McDowell (also a Brit) as Vincent. That original, I gather, was also as intentionally cheesy as this remake certainly is.
I’m sure the actors had a lot of fun making the film and if cheesy horror movies are your thing, you will probably enjoy it. If however it pains you to see good actors wasting their talent on rubbish, this is not for you. It’s not particularly scary, it is only occasionally funny and the fact that it is in 3D is a total waste of time and adds absolutely nothing to the film.
Yelchin, who first captured our attention as Charlie Bartlett, is perfectly competent as the very standard teenage hero – though weirdly here, as in so many other contemporary movies, high school life in America appears to have not changed at jot since the fifties and the movie hey day of Sandra Dee. Poots is appealing and has some good moments as his girlfriend, though her character too is a standard, old fashioned high school teenager. Farrell snarls nicely as Jerry, but doesn’t really have to stretch his thespian skills in the role and the most diverting moments come predictably from Tennant, camping it up as Vincent and at one point giving a creditable imitation of Russell Brand. But he arrives too late in the film to save it and anyway, it’s not a role worthy of his talents.
To be fair, many audiences, particularly horror fans, will love the film. Personally I prefer my horror with a bit more class and depth – Rosemary’s Baby, The Hunger etc, so I am not keen. It does though fill the “Saturday night date movie” requirement just fine, so if this is your thing, then go for it.
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