Review of Fright Night (2011) by Slider1983 — 31 Oct 2018

There are so many things within this movie that stretch credibility or make no sense. Why does nobody leave their house after hearing an exploding building? Why does it take so long for Tennant’s character to suss security is gone? Who in the hell would think it was a good idea to have sex on the floor in the middle of an apartment building people are entering and leaving from? Interruptions? You can forget simple logic with this movie.

Sure it does a couple of new things like blowing up Charlie’s house or the slow cornering of Ed by Jerry but in trying to remake it loses vital ingredients that made the original so good. Not only that but damning of all Gillespie has replaced the camp but enjoyably fun of the original with a psychological horror/thriller.

The original was made as a loving homage to Christopher Lee and Vincent Price horror movies. It loved all of that. In remaking the film and trying to modernise it, in getting rid of the 80s camp value and replacing it with a gritty atmosphere (a common mistake of remakes) the writer and director end up showing a complete disinterest and hatred of the source material and B-horror movies.

It just lacks soul. In fact the only good thing about Chris Sarandon’s cameo in this film is to see him finally get a taste of his own medicine which is fun…for about ten seconds. It all adds up to yet another pointless remake in a long list of pointless remakes Hollywood continues to push.

Not only that but the presumption a modern day Fright Night movie should jettison everything that tapped into it’s homage filled roots and made it fun because it would be dated today is insulting. Yikes, talk about being uncool Brewster.