Dark comedy “Fright Night” might have sailed by moviegoers when it premiered at the tail-end of the summer, but this remake of the 1985 Tom Holland film has made its way into living rooms on DVD. The R-rated 3D film packs a lot of language, gore and laughs, but fails to keep viewers interested from a lack of mystery and suspense. With comparisons to the similarly-plotted “Disturbia,” this movie centers on a young teenager named Charlie, played by “Terminator Salvation” star Anton Yelchin, who becomes convinced that his neighbor is a blood-sucking vampire.
The story takes place in a small dessert development just outside of Las Vegas, perfect for Colin Farrell’s Jerry to go on a secluded killing spree without being noticed. Farrell gives both a convincing and frightening performance as a slick, seductive four hundred year old vampire. However, the film didn’t know whether to be seriously scary or outrageously funny, which is proven when Charlie’s mom, played by Toni Collette, barely reacts to just escaping her house being blown up by her neighbor. This could have been a great film had it not been for the lack of thrill or seriousness in tone.
It’s obviously alright for a dark comedy to be a little out there, but this was by far ridiculous. What “Fright Night” got wrong was immediately telling the audience that their suspicions were in fact correct and Jerry is indeed a vampire about fifteen minutes into the movie. The whole reason why films like “Disturbia” and “The Lost Boys” were successful was because the audience was kept in the dark as much as the main character and part of them really wonders if whether what the main character is thinking is real or if it’s all in their head.
Each writer’s take on vampire anthology is always different and in this form, vampires can create other vampires by biting them, but their victims can return to human form if they themselves are killed. “Fright Night” opened at number six at the Box Office and grossed only eight million dollars while accumulating nearly forty million dollars globally against its thirty million dollar budget. Although there were obvious issues with the story and some really bad lines, the film was mostly fun to watch with great computer graphics and a dark music soundtrack, but viewers couldn’t help but ask where this story was going.
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