Fright Night (2011) Dir. by Craig Gillespie
After several people start disappearing in a small suburb of Las Vegas, including his former best friend, Charley Brewster fights for his life to protect his mother and his girlfriend from the vampire next door.
A few months ago... if you would have told me that Craig Gillespie was going to make a horror movie remake... let alone horror movie at all, I probably would have laughed at you. This is the guy who made the mildly funny and entertaining Lars and The Real Girl starring Ryan Gosling, followed up with the horrendous Mr. Woodcock. Gillespie is hardly the first choice I would go to when making a horror film, but I guess they assumed that Mr. Woodcock scared enough people that he might be able to follow that up with something really scary. Did he make anything really scary though?... No he didn't, but he did make a mildly entertaining remake of an extremely good 80's film. He's what I'm going to do though. I'm going to review it with the same mindset that I went in to watching it. From this sentence forward I will not be comparing it to the original.
With that being said... Let's dive in to the characters. Might as well start with Jerry since he is pretty much the focus point of the film. Colin Farrell one again shows his diversity with his ability to play a bad guy. I think he seems to be someone who generally gets a bad wrap, but I truly feel like he is one of the more talented actors out there and shows great range in his films. With Fright Night... I really just felt like he was having fun with his character and it worked really well. Jerry is a badass. Charlie, however, is not a badass, and at times he doesn't really seem to be much of a character at all. Aside from being a douche in the first 20 minutes of the film, I found it difficult to connect with him at times, but there were several occasions where I did manage to cheer for him. David Tennant continues to surprise me with his acting ability, while I'm still pretty sure that Christopher Mintz-Plasse has little to no acting ability what so ever. Still... he stretches what little range he has playing Evil Ed, and does get to explore a bit of a dark side for a while. Then there is the always beautiful Imogen Poots who manages to play a convincing hot girl who actually loves geeks. It gives hope to nerds everywhere. The rest of the supporting cast is filled with recognizable people and almost recognizable people including Toni Collette, James Franco's little brother(Dave Franco), Sofia Vergara's little sister(Sandra Vergara) and a clever little cameo from the original Jerry, Chris Surandon, who also happens to be another favorite character of mine multiple times as Jack Skellington in The Nightmare Before Christmas. Sorry... had to plug it.
The film itself is fairly predictable, but the acting for the most part keeps everything interesting. There were some plot twists that I really thought could have been avoided, and the biggest downfall was probably the CGI, although when done it was done pretty well. I don't know if they will make a sequel to this one, but I'm assuming they will... I just hope they clean it up a bit and focus more on the story. That being said... there were some really cool moments that got me to smile, like when the family decides to not let Jerry in the house... to which he responds by grabbing his shovel and digging up the gas line in the back yard. It was good stuff. Overall I enjoyed it, but I won't be purchasing the DVD any time soon unless I win the lottery.
Entertainment Value: 7/10 Pointless Illusionist Story Arcs
Cinematic Value: 6/10 Pointless Illusionist Story Arcs
