Fright Night
Director: Craig Gillespie
Cast: Anton Yelchin,Colin Farrell and David Tennant
Running time: 106 minutes
Age restriction: 16 LV
Fright Night, a cult classic horror remade in 3D. This continues the long line of remakes and reboots seen in the last few years but where others may have failed, this horror re-envisioning gets it just right.
Charlie Brewster (Anton Yelchin) is one of the “cool kids” at his Las Vegas high school. But not so long ago, Charlie was a nerd of the tight wearing superhero variety. Mysterious disappearances at Charlie’s school bring Ed (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), an old friend from his nerd days to Charlie and subsequently blackmails him into investigating these strange occurrences. The conclusion: Vampires are present in this quietLas Vegassuburbia. Failing to believe his old ally, Charlie tries to put the notion out of his mind but is thrust back into the fray when his new neighbour suddenly appears. As it turns out that Jerry the nondescript next-door neighbour is in fact Jerry the blood-sucking vampire. It’s up to Charlie to protect his mother and girlfriend from the ancient foe.
Yelchin delivers a performance oddly reminiscent of a young Michael J Fox – there is something about the naïve school boy that he plays that really touches a soft spot especially for those who grew up on the Back To The Future films of the 1980’s. Collin Farrell of course takes top billing. A menacing presence can be felt within his soft spoken character that holds back as much energy as he can and then unleashes it relentlessly in the most malicious of methods when the opportunity strikes. Rounding out the cast his The Doctor himself, David Tennant whose quirky performance as a stage magician Peter Vincent specialising in the occult is countered by his off stage presence of a spineless booze-hound.
The plot plays along nicely and while seasoned horror fans won’t find many scares here, the scenes ooze with intensity and suspense. Director Craig Gillespie made sure that there was a good balance of genuine horror with a touch of camp to liven the mood. The story is also particularly well adapted with a pacing that should keep rears on the edge of their seats and never bored. As far as visuals go, there’s plenty of authentic blood to compliment Jerry’s lust, just don’t expects huge spurts of red stuff – they kept it in the real world…sort of. Overall, the story reinvigorates the long stagnating vampire genre.
The 3D effects are seamless which proves that no matter how good a conversion can be (Captain America for instance), filming with a 3D camera setup is the only way to make a believable 3D film. Unfortunately, that’s where the praise ends. Execution aside, the stereoscopy is rendered ineffective due to the film mostly taking place at night or dusk.
Fright Night may not have needed a remake but regardless of that fact, it’s a great popcorn film and even better vampire movie that sticks out amongst the sparkly ones that crop up annually. While the 3D effects are pleasant, they lack efficacy so give that element a miss if you wish but book your tickets, if nothing else, for the fantastic performances by the cast lead by Farrell.
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Does this latest remake live up to the original’s cult status or is it not worthy of sharing the title? Let me know your opinion in the comments!
That’s it for this weeks reviews. I just want to say thank to all you loyal and new readers that have visit my blog, I do this for you and seeing huge spikes in traffic lets me know that my work is worth reading. Thanks again and have a fantastic weekend.