Fright Night đș
Happy Monday! I have a question for you: Do you remember the 21st night of September?
Todayâs movie is the 1985 vampire horror-comedy Fright Nightâstreaming on Prime Video. Like last week, Iâm including a full review with an added â10-second cutâ section for those of you that like shorter reviews. Hereâs the trailer.
â± 10-second cut: Fright Night is just about as eighties as a horror movie could be, complete with a vampire disco hypnosis scene and macabre late-night creature feature host. However, in embracing the inherent cheese and the genre tropes that weâre familiar with, director Tom Holland makes a creature feature that has both fangs sunk deep into both golden ages of horrorâthe 30s/40s and the 70s/80s.
đș Stream on Prime Video. Buy or rent on Apple TV, YouTube, or Prime Video.
Though I was born in the nineties, eighties horror will always have a special place in my heartâas it does with many horror fanatics. Until the sixties, which is when we started to make the gradual transition into modern horror, the template for the genre was largely based in the Universal Monsters franchise, which includes classics like Creature from the Black Lagoon, The Invisible Man, and, of course, Dracula. The fear was derived from the unknown of whatâs out there, which is exactly why Fright Night worked well then and now.
Fright Night feels so much in and of its time. For many movies, thatâs a detriment. However, its keen sense of nostalgia for the long-gone days where men dressed in questionable monster suits were considered terrifying coupled with its unapologetic embracement of the tropes that defined eighties movies make watching it today a joy. By combining both elements, it becomes something completely new. At the time, it was modern. Watching it now, itâs a time capsule.
Following the classic âmy neighbors might actually be monsters trope,â Fright Night follows 17-year-old Charley Brewster (William Ragsdale), an ardent horror fan and regular watcher of âFright Night,â a horror TV series hosted by former âvampire hunterâ Peter Vincent (Roddy McDowall). When Charley discovers that his new neighbor Jerry Dandridge (Chris Sarandon) is a vampire, he struggles to get anyoneâhis mother, the authorities, his friendsâto believe him.
So, he enlists the help of Peter Vincent, who at first writes him off as an obsessed fan. Worried about his well-being, Charleyâs girlfriend Amy (a pre-Married with Children Amanda Bearse), hires Vincent to prove to Charley that Jerry isnât a vampire. After the brilliant and iconic mirror scene, the trio band together to stop him.
Fright Night benefits from being one of the purest versions of horror-comedy. Both genres are equally represented without manipulation. The tropes of both combine to present real laughs with the terror and real terror with the laughs. Instead of relegating a single character to be the comedic relief, like in many horror movies that toe the line with comedy, the laughs are placed more deeply in the screenplay. Itâs all serious until you get a line like:
âHe has a live-in male carpenter. With my luck, heâs probably gay.''
â Judy Brewster
Conversely, unlike the horror-comedies that immediately try to cut through the tension of terror with a joke, Fright Night lets its scares marinate. And at some points, when there are laughs in the horror, theyâre playing with each other rather than against. In one scene, Charley and Vincent are sneaking up a set of stairs while unbeknownst to them a corpse reanimates behind them. Itâs ridiculous, especially when combined with the movieâs eighties cheese, but also as terrifying as any âlook behind youâ scene.
And the screenplay intelligently structures the movie so that youâre always dialed into the story from multiple perspectives. You learn early on that Charleyâs suspicions about Jerry are true while also exploring the lore behind Jerry and his minion Billy (Jonathan Stark). When Peter Vincent is added in you explore yet another layer of character. However, the movie never loses its charm or wit in its explorations. It is made to entertainâand that it does.
The famousâor notoriousâdisco hypnosis scene is a perfect example of everything Fright Night does well. Itâs campy, funny, genuinely terrifying, and, most importantly, furthers the plot. Unlike its fanged subject, the movie doesnât overstay its welcome. Itâs the perfect tone to kick off the spooky Halloween season. Happy Hauntings.
đ· Pair it with The Cabin in the Woods for a Halloween perfect double feature.
No new newsletter this Thursdayâmight make this a new thing. So please enjoy this beautiful fall week.
See you next week â
Karl (@karl_delo)