My Review of Fright Night (1985)

 

Written And Directed by Tom Holland

Jerry (to Charley/Peter): "Welcome to ... Fright Night ... for real."

To add some more bite to this October month, I went back and decided to rewatch this movie from 1985. It's one of the best vampire movies of all time and nearly forty years later, it still holds up so well.

Premise wise, it's fairly simple stuff. Teenage boy Charley Brewster (William Ragsdale) is a fan of a horror show named Fright Night hosted by former movie vampire hunter Peter Vincent (Roddy McDowall). Then the lines of fiction and reality begin to blur for Charley.

The reality being that Charley and his mother, Judy (Dorothy Fielding) got themselves new neighbours in the enigmatic Jerry Dandrige (Chris Sarandon) and his manservant/boyfriend, Billy Cole (Jonathan Stark). It also didn't take long for a few deaths to tip Charley off that Jerry's a vampire.

It's just a pity for a large portion of the movie that no one believes Charley, including his girlfriend Amy (Amanda Bearse) and sort of friend, Evil Ed (Stephen Geoffrey's) - the latter who's fairly gay coded. It's also both Amy and Evil Ed who fall victim to Jerry as the latter goes out of his way to destroy Charley for being a nuisance.

It's also up to Charley to enlist the cynical Peter Vincent to work together in order to defeat Jerry and his acolytes, one by one. It's a tense enough battle with a subplot about Amy resembling a former lover of Jerry's being somewhat underdeveloped. Saying that, Amanda Bearse is more fun as a vampire than a human, even if it's reversed by the end.

Less fortunate are Evil Ed and Billy who provide the only meaningful casualties of the movie. In the end, Peter Vincent has his faith renewed while Charley defeats Jerry and gets back with Amy. However there's a new neighbour and who knows what they're going to provide for Charley.

- Peter Vincent is a not so subtle but fantastic nonetheless homage to horror icons Peter Cushing and Vincent Price.

- There's a sequel, remake and unrelated remake sequel I will get around to reviewing.

- Standout music: Nice use of Frank Sinatra's Strangers In The Night.

- Chronology: Set in Iowa during 1985. 

Fright Night remains one of the best vampire movies ever. It's silly, it's scary, it's a little bit sexy and it's endlessly fun from start to finish. What more could you want from a vampire movie?

Rating: 9 out of 10