Fright Night Impressions

(Warning: Includes spoilers! Read after you've seen it.)

I was pleasantly blown away by the Fright Night re-make, just as I was pleasantly surprised by the fresh and silly excitement of the original back in the day.

The 1985 film, as I recall, came along during a time when there weren't any fun chillers of its ilk.

The new version, penned by Buffy showrunner Marti Noxon, sets a new tone of  zaniness tinged with chills and excitement and carves its own niche.

Colin Farrell's a great Jerry the vampire. David Tennant, formerly The Doctor, makes for a great update of Peter Vincent, a Vegas stage magician more relevant to these times than Roddy McDowell's late-show horror host that was a bit nostalgic even in the eighties.


Set pieces
It's a trio of set pieces that really provide the remake its own energy, however.

Charlie Brewster (Anton Yelchin) realizes fairly quickly in this outing his neighbor's a vampire. His attempt to rescue an imprisoned victim produces a surprising and dazzling result that also establishes some of the vampire ground rules that are in play.

In the original, Charlie's slightly smitten mom invites the vampire into the house. When Jerry fails to gain entry this time around, he takes matters in a new and explosive direction.

The final confrontation and how of killing Jerry provides some cool surprises. You can't just wrap a movie up with the staking of a vampire these days, and Fright Night doesn't. It's a blazing finale to be sure.

Conclusion
Those familiar with the original are still in for plenty of new fun. Those with a taste for horror who are coming to the material cold should really enjoy it, and as the new version of Evil Ed notes, it's not Twilight. Thumbs up from me anyway.

I saw the 3D version, and I do agree with the assessment many are making that, except for a a couple of spots, it's not that much of a plus for the extra bucks.

As I've said before, we need collectible, branded glasses instead of a new set to recycle at each show.