In Review: Fright Night (2011)

Fright Night (2011), Craig Gillespie

The Gist

An action-dark-comedy movie with some thriller and suspense elements along the way does not make a horror movie scary, but whatever, this movie contains an amazing performance from Colin Farrell that more than makes up for the lack of the much expected spook.

The Good

• good acting, particularly from Farrell
• great effects
• has some comic moments in it that makes it more appealing to non-horror movie fans

The Bad

• not scary enough
• does not deviate much from the 1985 film in terms of resolution

Synopsis

Charlie Brewster (Anton Yelchin) is having the time of his high school life. He's with the prettiest girl in school and has since forsaken his nerdy ways and friend, Evil Ed Lee (Christopher Mintz-Plasse). However, things change when a new guy named Jerry (Colin Farrell) moves into their neighborhood and the disappearance of his classmates (and soon even Evil Ed) soon becomes too apparent to ignore. Upon Evil Ed's goading and help, Charlie soon finds out that Jerry is a vampire who is out to eat his mom and the whole neighborhood and that with him as the next target, it might be too little too late to take matters into his own hands.

Scary Movie

What went wrong? I really don't know. I don't expect myself to get frightened when I watch scary movies, but this one just didn't give me any. I wanna be like at the edge of my seat frightened the way I was with Insidious, but that didn't happen. There was not much scare after scare after scare affair. And it probably is also for the good. Else it would have been something less of a veritable and credible film. Then again, a credible film does not have a douchy resolution. Also, probably because I've been watching too many True Blood that vampires like this one on the movie does not call to mind much need to be scared. I'm used to them in TV and also, the possible lack of gore on this one did not help either. The scariness did feel like a 1985 affair and so as the ending that I can't help but feel that I did watch the 1985 version (although they differ in a lot of ways).

Turn off the Lights

Not much notable acting going on besides Farrell and David Tennant. But mind you, Farrell owns this one. He was so detestable in the movie, just like how most of the vampires are in True Blood. I mean, why can't you just die, dude, you've been staked by a mile post. And each time he gets back up, you just know trouble is gonna happen and you can't help but root for Yelchin and hi girlfriend. And that's the role of the villain, to be hated and make you root for the heroes, who are thankfully not hate-able (cause some heroes in movies are just begging to be hated).

David Tennant on the other hand lends some comic relief and "character that badly needs redemption" feel to the movie and he did those roles very well. At some point you will be annoyed at him and at some point you will wish him well even if you know he's a total douche.

Pacing was a bit fast and you won't know an hour and 40 has elapsed when the credits start rolling. The effects are also very well done and lends a proper feel for the movie. Character development is also well done, which helped make rooting for Yelchin easy. The script is fine but not as noteworthy as you would like. But still none of these can hide the fact that this is a horror movie without much horror and with that, how easily forgettable it is. It is not a bad movie, just one you won't remember for long.

My verdict:

A passing mark of 3.5/5.