I Saw A Film Today… Fright Night

Whether I care to admit it, Vampires are (still) the hot trend at the moment. There are disappointing films about them. There are televisions programs multiplying every season. And the worst offender of them all is that it has crept into literature. And Americans have been eating it up. Really, I don’t know why. Is it because the vamp has gone from a cold-blooded killer to a sexed up dim-wit? Well another vampire film has decided to come out of the dark this week. Thankfully, Fright Night makes a bit of a return to the old form… but only a bit.

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Strange things are brewing in a tiny suburb outside of Las Vegas where Charley Brewster (Anton Yelchin) lives. For starters, Charley has a hot girlfriend (Imogen Poots). This wouldn’t be considered strange if Charley was not only a few years ago participating in live action role-playing games.

Also, some of Charley’s neighbors have gone MIA. And he is not the only one who has noticed either. An old friend Ed (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) has also been making these observations and has a strange conclusion to this phenomenon: that Charley’s neighbor Jerry (Colin Farrell) is a vampire.

Initially resistant to the idea, Charley ignores Ed’s warnings until Charley begins noticing his neighbors odd ways. Why does he have a ton of concrete in a dumpster outside his house yet nothing visually different about his home? Eventually Charley enlist the help of a Vegas magician and self-proclaimed vampire expert Peter Vincent (The Doctor himself, David Tennant).

But has Charley started a fight that he can’t win as Jerry begins terrorizing his family and girlfriend?

To be honest, Fright Night was not all that frightening but still a rather good watch. The neighborhood in which most of the film takes place is only a few blocks of houses set in the desert on the outside of Sin City. This sets up a tense feeling of isolation that is the only frightening thing about the movie. Well, that and Colin Farrell’s icy cold performance.

There is a wealth of issues with this. The plot is not very solid and for most of the time it is pretty weak. Some characters are presented as important but are never on the screen more than five minutes. The Mintz-Plasse and Tennant characters contribute very little to the film (even if they both do put in rather good and comedic performances.)

Another problem is that I saw this film in 3-D. And like most films that are presented in this “technology”,  it takes away from the true potential of the film. Unnecessary CGI squirts of blood at the screen are more of a distraction than a supplement. Also, this film is mostly filmed at night, which means that an already dark setting is even darker than originally filmed. This leads to murky scenes that are hard to tell what exactly is going on. If possible, avoid the hassle of 3-D.

Most of the cast is good, but nothing great. Anton Yelchin is a fine leading man, just maybe better in a different film. The only real performance that is noteworthy was Colin Farrell. He is a great embodiment of Jerry, a confident and slick vampire. Makes me wonder why Farrell has not received more roles in the last few years.

Fright Night is a pretty generic film, but many steps about the Twilight films.

Verdict: RENT IT!

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