Fright Night (2011)

Readers, Young and Olde,

This is going to be a standard post. I will introduce the film I saw tonight and say a few witty things about it. After the film has been introduced, I will probably mention who directed it and any notable cast members (for those of you playing at home, there is a better than good chance I will mention Colin Farrell) as well as mention that the lead actress is rather attractive (however her last name, according to IMDb, appears to be, and I quote, "Poots"). Then, I will give you, reader, young or olde, a taste of the plot but only a taste. I don't want to spoil the film for you. Interspersed with the taste will undoubtedly be displays of both my intelligence and wry sense of humor as I dryly observe various humorous...er...observations. Afterward, I'll probably talk about the metaphor of the vampire making a few smart-ass references to the Twilight Series along the way. If this interests you, please, by all means, read on. If it does not then piss off.

"Fright Night" is a remake of the 1985 "classic" by the same name. Apparently the original was so remarkable and groundbreaking that the studios thought it necessary to rehash the script and run it through the magical Hollywood mill again. The first time I saw the original "Fright Night" was a real where-were-you-when moments (sarcasm with a dash of wit). The film is directed by Craig Gillespie (no relation to Dizzie) who apparently also directed "Lars and the Real Girl." If you've never heard of this film before, you don't have the IFC network and you're probably lucky. It's weird. I'll sum "Lars" up with this: blow-up dolls can be a lot weirder if they aren't used for sexual purposes ("Oh, I'm going to marry a blow-up doll! Isn't that normal?" (My two line summary of "Lars and the Real Girl")). So, "Fright Night" stars Colin Farrell as the big bad vampire (Jerry), some kid as the main actor (apparently his name is Anton Yelchin), and Imogen Poots as the lovely main actress, Amy. A surprise sleeper character was a magician and vampire expert, Peter Vincent (an homage to the master of horror Vincent Price?), portrayed by David Tennant (he's one of the umpteen Dr. Who's on that British show no one in America has ever heard of) who is rather hilarious.

The plot is pretty straightforward. Guy moves into the neighborhood but is a little strange. What could possibly be up with him? He says he's a construction worker who works at night. Well that explains it! Everyone feels better now...except the main character's ex-best friend (Christopher Mintz-Plasse). He thinks the new guy, Jerry, is a vampire, and he's right, and he gets turned into a vampire because he knows too much. But before that, he tells the main character, ole whatshisface, that Jerry is a vampire. Whatshisface is not convinced until ex-best friend goes missing. The plot then turns into a no-one-believes-the-main-character-even-though-he's-right movie and then takes a quick left into an oh-shit-the-main-character-was-right-and-now-the-bad-guy-vampire-thing-is-chasing-the-shit-out-of-us movie. Pretty self-explanatory. Oh, the girlfriend (Poots) gets dragged along because she's at Whatshisface's house when the film converts from the first kind of film to the second. All predicatble, but all fun.

So, that's your taste. The movie is funny for some odd reason. It isn't laugh-out-loud hilarious, but it is funny in  the same way "Scream" was funny: it's a horror film that knows it's a film so it decides to ham it up hard. It's a cleverly disguised spoof if you will. I smiled the whole way through and you probably will too.

It's time for the metaphor of the vampire. That Meyer lady that wrote those Twilight books had enough common sense to realize the metaphor of the vampire: it's a man's sexual drive. But, Meyer decided that in her books (I have a sister that reads this shit and it's pretty obvious to figure out) the vampire would resist his hunger for blood because he loved his prey. This metaphor is almost screaming it's so not subtle. It's all about deflowering a gal. Think about it: men with an uncontrollable hunger to draw a woman's first blood. If you don't get it you're an idiot. Anyway, "Fright Night" takes a slightly different approach. Instead of resisting the temptation, the Jerr-ster feeds his need as much as he can. He will literally bite anything with a pulse. He doesn't control his desires, and that makes for a much more interesting story than whatever Twilight is supposed to be.

That's really all the analyzing I feel like doing right now. It's one in the damn morning. Go see the movie. You'll love it. Take a date. It's a great date movie. I saw it with a couple guys who are heading off to college next week. It was far from a date for me.

I need a date,

DG

Post Scriptum: One of the trailers was for Daniel Radcliffe's new film Harry Potter 9: The Woman in Black. Scratch that. It isn't a Harry Potter flick, but Radcliffe has been so type-cast (I suppose you would actually call it "character-cast") that I assume everything he's in is a Harry Potter installment (like the time he was in that play "Harry Potter as that Horse-Lovin' Boy in Equus"). Anyway, it looks pretty spooky.