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Jerry the vampire (Colin Farrell) teaches Charley the teenager (Anton Yelchin) a lesson about crucifixes in the horror remake “Fright Night.” |
Craig Gillespie’s “Fright Night” isn’t just a clever and entertaining remake; it takes the nuts and lightning bolts of Tom Holland’s 1985 comically scary horror film and tweaks them into something fresh and bold.
Holland, who directed and wrote the original film — starring the late Roddy McDowall and Chris Sarandon — refurbished the storyline himself.
This, no doubt, is why the update works so well. (Holland also wrote the respectable sequel to Alfred Hitchcock’s classic “Psycho,” so the guy knows the genre.)
Plus, Gillespie has just the right off-kilter sensibility to pull off this remake, as evidenced by his quirky 2007 romance “Lars and the Real Girl,” in which Ryan Gosling takes up romance with a mannequin.
A third and major reason “Fright Night” is so watchable: Colin Farrell’s ingeniously engaging performance as Jerry the neighborhood vampire.
Chris Sarandon played the original Jerry (he has a cameo as Jay Dee here) with cool, GQ aplomb.
Farrell’s Jerry becomes a merry prankster who’s so amused by teenage Charley Brewster (Anton Yelchin, replacing William Ragsdale) and his pathetic attempts to stop him, he taunts and toys with the poor guy for a while.
Then things get nasty. (Read more…)