Review of Fright Night (1985) by Paul L — 20 Aug 2011

A fantastic piece of 80's horror that I never got to see until now. Everything in this movie progresses naturally and logically and the main actors play off each other beautifully. Director Tom Holland knows how to balance the laughs and horror well and we empathize with the horror nerd played by Herman's Head, William Ragsdale in his quest to prove that his neighbor is a vampire.

Chris Sarandon brings in a very creepy performance as the main vampire and his cockiness makes you hate him even more. Roddy McDowall plays an actor who portrays a vampire hunter on tv is forced to play the role in real life and the nods to Vincent Price are priceless.

What makes this movie great is that it manages to reintroduce the vampire genre to the 80's generation and make it cool again (a slight reference to the audiences preference then towards slasher films was made).

This and the Lost Boys brought this genre to teens then by making the vampires more monsterous with advancements towards makeup effects and the hip "mtv-style" using a more rock-synthesizer soundtrack to up the horror ante (the score is a chiller and watch for the werewolf transformation sequence!).

Great use of practical effects like mirrors and prosthetics make this vampire more believable than what was brought forth before then. Definitely not a vampire flick to forget.