Fright Night Review

Written by: Steve Lewis   

A Vampire Film You Could Sink Your Teeth Into! When Charlie witnesses his new neighbor have his way with a female guest by sticking his fangs into her neck, he starts to get nervous.  He tries to get his friend and girlfriend to listen. He even tries a vampire killer portrayor from tv, Peter Vincent.  Once his girlfriend becomes in jeporady, he takes matters into his own hands with the help of his newly found friend and slayer Peter Vincent.

A classical satire of old vampire films.  With Peter Vincent acting like the legendary Peter Cushing, we get this old movie feeling.  He plays a vampire killing actor that becomes an actual vampire killer.

Chris Saradon, a recognizable face in horror movies such as Child's Play, The Sentinel, and Bordello of Blood, plays at the suave, sophistical vampire who lores women with his charm of hypnotism.  His performance is amazing.  He does very well on screen.

This pertains to original vampire movies with sunlight equally good and dark equally evil.  Crosses and holy water work just as well plus the stakes through the heart.  Classical stuff put into a modern age vampire film.  With no hint of Gothicism at all.  No dark and gloomy castle or even better yet, a heroic Van Helsing!  It's the guy next door living the normal life (well sorta) with the rest of us.

Charley can be quite annoying sometimes.  He can be seen as a peeping tom always looking out his window for a glimpse.  He readily wants to spring in action and always wants to somehow piss the vampire off before actually waiting on some help.  His only defense is from what he sees on Vincent's late night tv shows.  Vincent is arrogant on televsion yet weak and afraid in once off camera.  We see a moral value change at the end where Vincent has more courage and selflessness.  This transition we see is usually not that common in films.  We don't really see scardy cats become heros and keep with that heroic mentality.  He carries it over to the sequel as well. 

The SF/X were absolutely outstanding.  It's nice to have animatronic bat-things with razor sharp teeth and a huge wing span.  I did like the goon.  He wasn't like Bram Stoker's Dracula's goon where he was silly and always eating insects every chance he got.  What a joke that was.  Instead, he was the muscle and the guy who did the dirty work.  He was quiet yet strong when needed to be. 

As for Evil, well, he lived up to his nickname.  He had that annoying yet evilish laugh that made him a quirky high-pitched bonechilling type of vampire.  You don't know if he is being coy with you or just setting you up. 

Check it out.  Worth a buy.