3 Short Paragraphs: Fright Night

2011, Craig Gillespie (United States of Tara) -- download

You saw the original, right?  Kid notices that the house next door (a big scary house, of course) has a vampire in it.  He's a horror movie buff who loves a horror movie weekly TV show, called Fright Night.  It is hosted by Peter Vincent, an Elvira analog that was a Van Helsing instead of a slutty vampire.  Personally, it would have been funnier if a sexy faux-vampire was conned into hunting a real vampire. The vampire turns the kid's best friend when he cannot be convinced to just forget what he knows and thus the kid is forced to become a real Van Helsing, along the now convinced TV show host.  It was classic 80s, somewhat funny, somewhat tense and fully entertaining.

This time we are in the suburbs and instead of a big scary house, we have a scarier cookie cutter bunch of houses.  Big empty cloned suburban houses may not be as soulless as the massive renovated McMansions of Toronto but they are a close second, third, fourth...  And really, who knows their neighbours let alone notices when some go missing?  And all the dissatisfied house wives and single moms are more than willing to ignore the creepiness of Colin Farrell if he flatters them a little.  But what kid next door is not going to be suspicious of him?  The best and most enjoyable update is (Doctor Who) David Tennant as a Criss Angel analog, a Las Vegas magician who has a vampire hunter background, not as  fabricated as he lets on.

The movie does a good job of keeping up the humor mixed with tense situations.  Farrell is a truly frightening vampire, dangerous and not at all sparkly.  The scene where he allows Charley (the kid) to attempt to help one of Jerry's (Farrell) victims is completely chilling.  Christopher Mintz-Plasse as the new Evil Ed is just perfect, the nerdy kid given vampire strength and vampire morals or lack thereof.  But really, I have to go back to how much fun I had watching David Tennant as Vincent, in his faux beard and faux leather and faux attitude, almost always drunk but armed by real knowledge of real vampires, for all the good it has done him.  He hides behind his own fabricated history doing terrible (but obviously successful) magic tricks with... well, slutty vampires.  So, there WERE fake slutty vampires afterall.