Well, just last night I sat down with my wife and we watched the original Fright Night. I am very happy to say that it lives up to my expectations of a good vampire story. And on top of that, it is a really well made film to boot. And it manages to bring the genre of the very classical vampire film into connecting with modern (80s at least) film making.
The story follows Charlie Brewster, a quirky and somewhat awkward teenage boy. (And a classical character trope from the 80s) He is a big fan of old horror movies and always seems to have on the TV in his room. It sometimes even becomes a distraction from his girlfriend Amy. But when he looks outside and sees his new neighbors moving in with a coffin he becomes greatly distracted. This makes Amy angry with him as she quickly leaves the house.
Charlie hardly seems to notice and goes on with his investigation of his neighbor. The next evening he sits at his window and watches as a beautiful woman removes her top. He gets excited until he sees the new neighbor loom over her, fangs at the ready, in order to take a bite. His neighbor is a vampire and sees him watching.
He goes to find Peter Vincent--a TV actor who plays the best vampire hunter alive. First Peter blows him off as nuts. But with some pleading from Charlie's friends, and a little money, they convince the down-and-out actor to play along. But, they quickly find out that this new neighbor is a real vampire.
The vampire kidnaps Amy, turns Charlie's other friend "evil" in a vampire, and lures Charlie and Peter to his lair. There, they must fight off the monster in a tense and epic battle in order to see the morning again.
All of the actors performances were well done. No performance is flawless of course but for a campy 80s horror flick it definitely has some better acting than other films of the same type. Also, something else that was very impressive about the movie, was its use of cinematography and music. The lyrics of the music matched every shot in the film very well. It makes much of the movie more of an artful experience. The mixture of music and image and sound is what film is all about. So many movies get this aspect wrong and therefore ruin the entire movie. Fright Night takes these elements and exemplifies them.
But the most impressive part of this whole film is the use of vampire lore. They take some of the very classical horror elements from old Hammer films and Universal films (Just the name Peter Vincent speaks of old classic horror films) and have them meet the new modern genre head on. We are greeted with true demonic horror of a vampire while still keeping the cheese and charm of classic horror.
Now, it would be nice to see if filmmakers could make a similarly charming meet up of 80s horror with the vampire of the twenty first century. (Such as vampires from the Underworld franchise or 30 Days of Night.)
Summing it Up
Deaths: 2
Language: 4
Gore Factor: 3
Sex Factor: 3
Scare Factor: 3
Fun Factor: 4
Overall Rating: 4