Fright Night (1985)

Fright Night

1985

Starring: Roddy McDowall, William Ragsdale, Chris Sarandon, Amanda Bearse, Stephen Geoffreys

Directed By: Tom Holland

This has to be my favorite vampire film of all time, so I thought I'd give it a review. Having literally seen this film over 500 times, I can almost quote the entire film from beginning to end. It's kind of sad really, but sad in a dorky-this film kicks ass sort of way. I saw this film probably when I was about eight or nine years old (shortly after it came out) and I was completely hooked. Shortly after that, I met Chris Sarandon and completely went nuts on him telling him that I loved Fright Night and what it meant to me. His reply: "Aren't you a little young to be watching these kind of movies." I was about 10 at the time.

Having grown up on vampire cult cinema, Fright Night stands out to me as the best because of it's genre crossing efforts. Not only is it scary, but it's also funny and character driven, which is unlike any vampire movies since then.

The story is basic in theory, but enough to really get going within five minutes or so, and from that point on, it doesn't let go. Charlie Brewster (William Ragsdale) sees a new neighbor moving in late one night and it appears as if he's carrying a coffin into his house. This disturbs Charlie, but he dismisses it until he sees a beautiful girl going into the house the next day. The day after that, he sees on the news that she has been found decapitated and he starts to freak out a little. No one believes him when he tells them what he saw, not even his girlfriend Amy (Amanda Bearse) or best friend "Evil" Ed (Stephen Geoffreys).

After a while, Charlie begins to play detective himself and figures out that his new neighbor just might be a vampire. Trying to convince him otherwise, Amy and Ed hire local shock theater tv host Peter Vincent (Roddy McDowall) to take Charlie to his neighbors house to perform a series of tests to prove that the neighbor, Jerry Dandridge (Chris Sarandon), isn't a vampire.

I'm not going to go into more of the story, but that's the basic setup for probably one of the most intimate vampire stories ever. Because of the small, tight-knit cast, the film is character driven and focuses more on the characters than gore or action. I'm not saying it's lacking in gore or action, because it's got plenty of it for a 1985 film. To me though, the characters are the greatest selling point of the movie.

Roddy McDowall is nothing short of brilliant in this film, and his character of Peter Vincent "The great vampire killer" is a throwback to Peter Cushing and Vincent Price, hence the name: Peter Vincent. His cowardly portrayal does wonders for the character and totally gives credibility to the cast. Chris Sarandon is creepy as all Hell as the vampire, Jerry Dandridge, for what is probably one of the best vampiric performances in the last twenty years. William Ragsdale does great as Charlie and makes the audience sympathize with him as we believe him and everyone else doesn't. The rest of the supporting cast is excellent and the acting in this film is top notch for a horror film. In fact, I've seen non-horror films that blew up the box office with worse acting, so my hat's off to the casting director here.

The direction in Fright Night is excellent. With the right combination of small-town USA locations and tight editing, Tom Holland brings a true and "realistic" level of horror to the audience. I remember seeing this movie and wondering if my neighbors might be vampires. The fright level is off the hook for a 1985 film and the special fx and makeup, though dated now, were innovative and original for the time it was released. In fact, I can't think of another horror film in that timeframe that came close to meeting Fright Night's level of fright.

Overall, this is one damn good film. It does have it's noticable flaws, but they are forgiven because of the excellent acting and direction. The script is top-notch and the dialogue isn't hokey or stupid, unlike most vampire movies. After seeing Fright Night, I've compared every other vampire film since to it and none have matched the "movie magic" that this one produced for me.

Having mentioned the flaws briefly, I'll give a little more insight into what I was talking about. There are several plot holes that weren't filled in, but nothing to hurt the overall flow of the film. This is a smart vampire film that is steeped in vampire lore, so anyone who isn't familiar with vampire lore may get briefly lost in places, but that isn't a bad thing is it? To me it just means that the filmmakers knew what they were talking about, but they just didn't know how to translate their ideas 100o the screen.

All in all, like I said, this to me is the best vampire film I've ever seen. People constantly argue with me that the Gary Oldman Dracula or The Lost Boys were better movies, but I usually win every argument with this end all comment: "Did those films have Roddy McDowall?" That normally shuts people up and once you see this film, you'll know what I mean by that. Gary Oldman doesn't have shit on Chris Sarandon as a vampire. 'Nuff said.

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