My Review Of "Fright Night" 2011

Admittedly I was one of the many fans super-excited about the remake of “Fright Night”. It is one of my all time favorite films to sit back on a chilly day when I am feeling blah and just enjoy based on pure nostalgia. I also remember setting in the theatre at 13 and being scared shitless of Jerry Dandrige. I think I held my breath through most of the picture terrified of what would happen next. So yeah I am still just a little disappointed when I watch the remake with Colin Farrell in the role of the seductive older man new in the neighborhood who just wants to be left alone to feed.


I do like the fact that the story was so different that there was very little to compare to the original. Other than the names and a few key moments that were more like nods to the 1985 film than mirror images there was little to go on with this film. The story was simple but smart, the characters were just a little too one dimensional and left the story feeling flat. It seemed that at pivotal moments when the characters should have been more animated they came off seeming unsure of who they were in relation to the story. Maybe the actors listened to all the hype or bad press buzzing around the net while filming “Fright Night” or maybe they just saw it as a paycheck. Either way the only character that seemed to care at all about her role in the film was Toni Collette as Ms. Brewster. She had a very limited role so that is saying something there. The characters I wanted to see really play out on screen was that of Peter Vincent and Jerry Dandrige. Those should have been the roles that pushed this film beyond re-animation and placed it into a reboot category. Instead they came off almost dead inside and pointless to the story-Like an after thought.

Now it pains me to say bad things about any film that is part of a genre I love but I really am slightly sad about this film being so under whelming. The effects seemed a little SyFy channel to me and at key moments when the scares could have really sold me on this film they seemed contrived. As if there was some check list off stage and the director just went through each kill and gore moment repetitiously then said “okay, cut!” The original had so much more wow and shock factor than this remake. Which I know you can’t really compare the two stories because there was enough of a variation to keep this newer version individual except by today's standards and abilities in film making there is so much more that a film can utilize in order to scare the shit out of us and this film just didn’t do that.

I am still on the fence about adding this film to my collection. On one hand it has Collin Farrell in it and I have a nice collection of his stuff on my shelves. I have to say though there are so many things that disappointed me in this film that I just don’t know if his hotness is enough for me to embrace this movie. I may just hold out for “Total Recall” to come out and prey they don’t fuck that film up as well.