Fright Night: Movie Review

Fright Night: Movie Review

Fright Night
Rating: 8/10
Cast: Anton Yelchin, Colin Farrell, Imogen Poots, David Tennant, Toni Collette, Christopher Mintz-Plasse
Director: Craig Gillespie
So it's a remake of the 1985 flick of the same name - and despite the fact you're probably rolling your eyes wondering if Hollywood's run out of ideas, this ain't half bad.
Yelchin is Charley Brewster, who lives in a small suburban settlement just outside Vegas; his mom (Collette) is an estate agent and he's just starting a new relationship with popular girl Amy (Poots) having graduated to the cool kids from a group of geeks he used to hang around with.
One of them, Ed (Mintz-Plasse) believes the third member of their former gang has been taken by a vampire named Jerry (Farrell) who just happens to be Charley's next door neighbour...
And when Ed goes missing and Charley begins to investigate, it transpires there may be a grain of truth in the accusations.
Fright Night is a whole bunch of bloody fangtastic fun.
A good horror these days needs several key ingredients in the mix; a dose of self knowing humour, some genuine scares, spooky atmosphere and some quality acting.
Thankfully, Fright Night has all of that and more.
Colin Farrell pulls a stunningly menacing turn out of the bag as the shifty and frightening neighbour who just wants to get to know his neighbours; Yelchin also impresses having enough presence to make you believe he's just graduated from the geeks to leading man status and David Tennant brings a lizard lounge swagger to the Vegas magician to give him enough charisma on the screen.
To be honest, the 3D format of this film is a little hit and miss - some of it's used to have blood splatter come out of the screen at you and that's a little disappointing. But the FX when the vampires burn up in the sun is stunningly good.

All in all, Fright Night represents a great piece of popcorn entertainment; it's a clever film whose easy mix of occasional tongue in cheek tone and masterfully eeked out tension ensure you're kept on the edge of your seat throughout.