Fright Night

Vampires, those bloodsucking creatures of the night, don't grow old, so it's fitting that the very concept of vampires is still looking pretty spry, as well. These classic monsters have entered a more gentle and adolescently romantic phase of late, but along comes Jerry Dandridge (Colin Farrell), updated from the 1985 cult classic Fright Night, to resurrect the vicious and remorseless killer side of the vampire mythos. Jerry arrives in a repackaged version of the story that focuses on a resourceful teenager who learns his next-door neighbour is a vampire. It's a great narrative hook that worked wonders in the original movie and the conceit still has enough juicy blood surging through its veins to stay alive for another late night romp.

Tom Holland's delightful original flick didn't exactly require a remake to stay relevant or interesting and it certainly didn't miss its mark in any manner that would suggest a contemporary redo could be an improvement, but this new Fright Night makes the most of an unnecessary situation and offers a healthy dose of fun. This version doesn't break new ground, but it does unveil a rather respectable remake recipe that takes all of the original's ingredients and tries, somewhat imaginatively, to rearrange and reinterpret them.

The success of these changes varies, with some making perfect sense and others committing strenuous stretches of logic for no better reason than to craft a nod to the original movie. But the changes are intriguing and they do allow for a new spin on the original movie, which at least keeps things fresh enough to somewhat justify the remake plan. Screenwriter Marti Noxon and director Craig Gillespie approach the material as a puzzle that needs to be broken down and reshaped to create something new that still manages to resemble the original. Their update is a bit self-conscious at times, but it's also pretty crafty in its refashioning of the various pieces.

Beginning with the geographical setting, the changes take instant effect as the action moves to a Las Vegas suburb (the original was quite vague regarding its location). Vegas is chosen both by Noxon and by vampire Jerry because the city's population is like a series of revolving doors. Fresh meat keeps showing up and others keep leaving, so the occasional disappearance of an innocent person (aka a vampire meal) is not so quickly noticeable. This is a fine update, especially since the reason for the change can be traced back to the antagonist.

From there, the changes continue as protagonist Charley (Anton Yelchin) sort of swaps roles with ex-best friend "Evil" Ed (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), at least in the beginning. Whereas Charley automatically suspects that his neighbour is a bad guy in the original, this version has "Evil" Ed figuring it out early on and trying to warn Charley, who has turned his back on his geeky friend in favour of cooler friends and a gorgeous girlfriend (Imogen Poots). Charley is skeptical at first and makes no effort to accept Ed's vampire theory, but when Ed goes missing, Charley starts to clue in and everything begins to fall into place.

Like the setting change, this isn't a massive alteration to the story, but it does illustrate how this new Fright Night is essentially an exercise in remake planning. That may sound inorganic and even a little stilted, but I can't help but admire such effort being put into a well-intentioned genre update. Swapping the initial roles of Charley and Ed (at least in terms of vampire discovery) isn't a necessary modification, but it does allow Noxon and Gillespie to approach the conflict from a different angle. By adopting a slightly fresh way of looking at the story, this portion of the plot opens the doors to more changes (some small, some big enough to greatly reorder the series of events), while also paying homage to the original.

It seems as though almost everything has been tweaked for the sake of trying something just new enough to stand out from the original. In addition to all of the script alterations, the cast goes in a different direction and it's here that this Fright Night is a bit of a letdown. Yelchin has proven to have charisma in the past and he's certainly watchable in the lead role, but his performance as Charley is just so forgettable that it's never as rewarding to cheer him on as it should be. And this version of Charley is forced to make some pretty stupid mistakes in order to facilitate either plot progression or a quick tip of the hat to the original.

Mintz-Plasse is a great choice for the role of "Evil" Ed, but the character, so crazed and oddly funny in the original movie, is certainly more toned down here. That may not be a bad thing (okay, it probably is), but it means Mintz-Plasse has little to work with. Both Charley's mom (Toni Collette) and girlfriend (Poots) are strong-willed women with personality, so they aren't completely wasted. Then again, they're basically just there to stand by Charley's side and assure him that he's on the right path, so there's not a lot to get excited about here, either.

Only Farrell manages to take a big chomp out of his role. His grim grin sparkles as it startles and he plays up the vampiric qualities of his character with just enough panache to be fun and not ridiculously obvious. He slowly reveals his true nature at first, but soon starts ramping up the madness before mounting an aggressive assault on Charley and his loved ones. Farrell's Jerry is a monster all the way through and all he wants to do is kill and then drink some blood. When Charley tries to outsmart him, Jerry is quick to improvise and these moments lead to a few of the remake's finest sequences, one of which includes a car chase down a desert highway where a rotating camera captures real-time action in what appears to be a single shot.

This Fright Night update has many enjoyable moments and it benefits from an often old-fashioned, gleefully gothic score by Ramin Djawadi. The changes are plenty and even when they don't work (enlisted vampire expert Peter Vincent, played here by David Tennant, is nowhere near as successful or meaningful a character as the original's version), the missteps still avoid being complete disasters. Noxon and Gillespie have taken the task of remaking a cult classic very seriously and their faithful, original approach impresses overall. The cast is where the movie stumbles, but at least Farrell is both refreshing and memorable, which is quite far beyond any of the other performances in the movie. There's no shortage of ups and downs throughout this Night, but it emerges a decently successful update that knows how to have fun with its tasty premise. This flick's still got fangs, even though its bite is only skin deep.