Review of Fright Night (1985) by James S — 17 Oct 2011

Taking a more suburban like approach to vampire movies, Fright Night stands out as one of the triumphs of the 80s horror genre and another superb fang bearer flick.

Charlie Brewster puts off losing his virginity when he spies a coffin being taken into his new neighbours house. It's not long before he's being awoken by screams in the night and becomes convinced that his new neighbour, Jerry Dandridge, is a creature of the night as the missing persons reports start to mount up.

We, like Charlie, know he's right but the film is a load of fun as he tries to convince everyone around him with little success, while Dandridge promises to make good on his claim that Charlie won't ever get to tell anyone.

Chris Sarandon as Jerry Dandridge provides one of the most memorable 80s vampires. He is pure Dracula, charming and deadly in equal measure and definitely someone we can be afraid of. William Ragsdale meanwhile has great chemistry with him as Charlie and plays his desperate teen really well. Roddy McDowell's TV vampire slayer Peter Vincent seems like he might threaten to derail the nice, suburban element to the movie but thankfully plays it in a more down beat manner.

Fright Night has to be credited with having a bit more intelligence than some horrors. Charlie does what any normal person would do and goes to the Police who naturally don't believe him anymore than anyone else. The whole film makes sense through out so we aren't ever wondering why that character did that. There's one or two moments that could have done with a little more explaining but that's a minor quibble and the viewer doesn't really dwell on these as you're having too much fun just watching the movie.

The final act delivers a decent amount of bonkers gore and excitement and a finish which is satisfying. There's nothing apart from a few creepy moments to really rank this a scary scary movie but it fits nicely into the same category that The Lost Boys inhabits as a massively enjoyable, horror-themed film that could be watched many times over.