Review of Fright Night (1985) by Luke B — 25 Aug 2011

Fright Night is simply 80's vampire movies at their greatest. It goes along with The Lost Boys in terms of horror, gore, and fun. No depressing, sparkly, romantic crap here. Here we see Ragsdale discover his neighbor is a vampire.

Of course nobody believes him and he's soon driven mad. Luckily he forms an alliance with a reluctant TV vampire hunter. As I said, Fright Night is a fun movie, which always raises a chuckle, but it also has some disgusting effects.

I'm talking real practical stuff, with some of the most painful deaths and transformations you can imagine. This stuff is so much more creative with prosthetics and the like. Computers can easily make a body melt, or turn a wolf into a man, here some truly creative visuals make these things a reality.

Sarandon is excellent as the charming vampire, and it's nice to see him go along with trying to prove he isn't a vampire. It shows him as a man that would rather keep his secret than enter a battle to the death.

Ragsdale does the usual not-believed-kid routine, but he makes it work. McDowall stole the movie for me. He plays an out of date TV star given a chance to live out his pretend life. The threats are real, and the climax steadily grows.

You do have to suspend some belief in terms of how the characters respond, but if you love the 80's, vampires, and movies that knew how to be fun no matter what their subject, you need to see Fright Night.