Now that it has had it’s full theatrical run and any money spent to see it isn’t exactly feeding the remake machine, I finally decided to drink in Fright Night. This updated version of the 80’s classic drops the location in a suburb of Las Vegas explaining the work habits of the strip’s employees as a perfect cover for Jerry, the vampire next door. Jerry moves in next door to Charlie Brewster a boy in his late teens who has ditched his best friend, Evil Ed, for the popular click at school. In order to curb embarrassment from his past and keep his new girlfriend Amy from learning anything about it, Brewster avoids Evil Ed who is acting even stranger than normal. Evil has constructed a conspiracy theory after students absences increase in numbers and he has begun stalking Jerry, documenting his encounters. Once Evil joins the absences at school Brewster decides to keep a closer eye on Jerry in case Evil was onto something. Jerry notices the tests he’s being put through and goes from looking eccentric to acting completely abnormal for a supposed human. After failing to save a victim of Jerry’s, Charlie pushes away Amy and heads for the strip to see Peter Vincent, who this time is a Chris Angel type magician who is known as a vampire expert. Vincent shrugs him off telling him to beat it, and our hero is back to stage one until Jerry finally makes a huge game move that completely demolishes any question in both the Brewster family, and Amy’s eyes of his true identity. Everyone does well in the roles they were handed; The Evil Ed/McLovin cross isn’t a bad combination, and Colin Farrell’s performance plays towards a less suave Jerry for a new twitchy and bizarre Jerry. It’s quite obvious Fright Night isn’t going to live up to the original in anyway, but I did have a good time with this remake. The movie successfully mixes new concepts and scenarios with the old making it different enough to bring something new to the table while still staying true to the hugely popular original.
