Fright Night (2011)
Directed by Craig Gillespie
Written by Marti Noxon
Starring Anton Yelchin, Colin Farrell, David Tennant, Imogen Poots, Toni Collette
Release Date August 19th, 2011
Published August 18th, 2011
"Fright Night" is a mixed bag of a remake. On the one hand there are a few very effective scares and moments of skin-crawling creepiness. On the other hand, the two leads, Colin Farrell as Jerry the Vampire and Anton Yelchin as Jerry's teen neighbor turned Vampire Hunter, are on such awesomely different wavelengths that you're left laughing at Farrell's arch, over the top vamping and yawning at Yelchin's vanilla good guy.
The population of the Las Vegas suburb that is home to the 2011 "Fright Night" is not a very observant group. Their ranks have grown smaller and smaller ever since that handsome overnight construction worker, Jerry (Farrell), moved into the neighborhood. In fact, people keep not returning from his house whenever they visit. Charlie (Anton Yelchin) is among those who don't catch on quickly. Jerry is Charlie's next door neighbor and yet Charlie is quick to deny there is anything odd about Jerry. Charlie's nerdy ex-pal Ed (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) however, is onto Jerry from the get go.
When Ed falls victim to Jerry it finally gets Charlie motivated to figure out what's going on with his unusual neighbor. "Fright Night" pits Farrell's Jerry against Yelchin's Charlie in a life and death battle in which Charlie must defend his mother, played by Toni Collette, and his hot girlfriend Amy, played by Imogen Poots, while trying not to tell them that Jerry is a Vampire. That notion lasts far too long and causes only a series of painfully awkward scenes where Charlie acts strange and then denies that he's acting strange.
Finally, Jerry puts an end to the awkwardness by flatly demonstrating his Vampire-ness in attempting to kill Charlie, Amy and Mom. This reveal leads to the best sequence of "Fright Night," a late night chase in which Farrell's Vampire chases down the trio in their minivan, gets dragged beneath said minivan, and is eventually stopped, for a few minutes anyway. It's a terrific sequence; unfortunately the rest of "Fright Night" lacks the energy and invention of this sequence and the film as a whole suffers.
The biggest problem with "Fright Night" is the complete lack of chemistry between Farrell and Yelchin, each of whom is playing a vibe that is completely at odds with the other. In "Fright Night" Colin Farrell chews the scenery so much that Bela Lugosi might advise him to take it down a notch. Anton Yelchin meanwhile, is so staid and low-key you wonder if he has forgotten what movie he's making. Yelchin's entire Vampire fighting comes off as perfunctory as a result of his laconic performance, as if he were only roused to action because the script requires it.
When Yelchin is later partnered with David Tennant, as Vampire expert Peter Vincent, the mismatch of energies becomes even more pronounced. Tennant, a fine actor, best remembered as Dr. Who, sadly comes off as a prancing, slightly more serious version of Russell Brand. You can decide for yourself whether you think that is a good thing or a bad thing; the main point is that Tennant, like Farrell, is more energetic and attention grabbing than Yelchin's dull hero.
Fright Night was directed by Craig Gillespie, whose best work, Lars and the Real Girl, was an oddly sweet movie about an oddball in love with a sex doll. Gillespie used the strange energies of his lead actor, Ryan Gosling, to craft a movie that was unlike any other movie you've ever seen. Gillespie may have been attempting to find something strange in Yelchin's performance but neither he nor Yelchin ever finds that point of uniqueness and the film suffers for it.
Gillespie also, quite unfortunately, is not above hoary clichés like people running upstairs when they should look for a door or a window, or employing a cheap yet popular theme with modern Vampire movies, making up rules for Vampire behavior that are vague enough that Jerry and his Vampire minions can break some rules while adhering to others at the convenience of the plot. I cannot deny that moments of "Fright Night" are honestly scary and creepy but those scenes can't make up for all the stuff that just doesn't work in "Fright Night."
