Fright Night

1980's "chiller" starring a Chris Sarandon and Roddy McDowell. Fright Night is one of the better attempts at a teen horror movie.

Look at that poster!

Just look at it. What has happened to posters these days? There's just no effort anymore.

Ahem,

Fright Night was released in August 1985 when it became hugely successful, one of the first films to successfully splice the genres of horror and comedy.

Charlie Brewster is your typical teenager, desperate to "do the deed" with his girlfriend and obsessed with late night horror movies. Charlie thinks all of his Christmases have come at once when he spies his neighbour undressing a prostitute next door. When his neighbour attempts to sink his curiously vampiric fangs into the girl's neck, Charlie's hormonal urges fade away rather quickly.

Convinced he has a vampire next door, Charlie teams up with Roddy McDowell who although he is supposedly an actor, seems able to blur the line between fantsay and reality very easily as he shifts to vampire killer mode. Why it never occured to Charlie that perhaps an "actor" may not be the best person to ask for help is beyond me, but luckily for him his hunch paid off!

Now while this would doubtless all have been good fun, what lifts Fright Night above the average teen movie is the performance of Chris Sarandon. Clearly convinced that he's starring in an utterly worthless movie, Sarandon proceeds to have as much fun as possible, hamming it up as the ruthless Jerry Dandridge (although the disco dancing was a mistake).

A word about the special effects. Back in good ol' 1985 if I remember correctly, these were absolutley state of the art. Never has a man melted into a puddle of green goo more convincingly. Now it looks like a 10 year old has put models together with papier-mache. I still prefer them to endless amounts of CGI however, because at least this stuff is actually there on screen.

Fright Night then, is hideously dated, has some horrible 1980s disco tunes and some pretty poor acting from "Evil" Ed (you'll know him when you see him).

It does however have a pair of wonderful performances from Sarandon & McDowell, a few genuinely creepy moments, a dash of sex and one of the great movie posters. Repeat after me "You poor dope! There's no such thing as vampires, fruitcake!"