Fright Night 2011 Review!

Fright Night is a remake of the original 1985 film starring William Ragsdale, Chris Sarandon and the great Roddy Mcdowall. The 2011 version stars Anton Yelchin as Charlie, Colin Farrell as Jerry the vampire neighbor and David Tennant as Peter Vincent the vampire hunter. If you want to know up front what I thought about this movie then it is totally a go. I had a great time watching it and only minor gripes overall which I will discuss later in the review. If your looking for an alternative to Twilight and something more along the lines of 30 Days of Night then this film is for you. If your interested in the original and I highly recommend you watch it, you can check out the original trailer here.

Like I stated before. This is a remake. It's pretty consistent to the original overall but tends to lean on it's own here and there. This time around the story takes place in Las Vegas. I was a little skeptical about it being in Vegas but it actually fit very well to the story. We meet Charlie, played by Anton, and his best friend Ed, played by Christopher Mintz-Plasse AKA Mclovin from Superbad. Charlie has been distant with Ed because he wants to impress his current girlfriend Amy played by Imogen Poots. Ed is a nerd and into vampires and science fiction unlike the rest of the kids. Various students at school begin to mysteriously not show up in class. Ed is convinced it's because of the apparent vampire that lives next to Charlie is killing the kids in his neighborhood. The supposed vampire is Jerry played by Colin Farrell.

It's pretty apparent and doesn't leave much to the imagination once Ed goes missing and Charlie finds out that Jerry really is a blood sucking lustful vampire.  Through the simple works of his own via breaking into Jerry's house that Charlie is defenseless against Jerry so he enlists the help of the great Peter Vincent.  Peter is a Criss Angel of sorts that has his own show at the Hard Rock Casino where he performs magic and fights off fake vampires.  The big question from here is does Peter help Charlie or does he think he is a punk kid looking for attention?  Can they defeat Jerry and save Vegas from the wrath of the vampires?

I really liked this movie.  It is hard to beat an original with any remake but this comes pretty damn close. Being a remake the story was more or less the same but the original story was good so it wasn't like this had to be much different.  Vegas played out good with Peter Vincent working at the Hard Rock tied in nicely.  The vampires looked good but not exactly original.  Jerry looked like he came from the clan in 30 Days of Night.  Imogen Poots did a great job as Charlie's girlfriend and not just the side character we didn't really care about.  Christopher Mintz-Plasse was fine as Ed but never really added that much to the character.  If you liked Mclovin then you will love him in this movie.  The biggest and most pleasant surprise was David Tennant as Peter Vincent.  I really never heard of him before but he was awesome and I hope they spawn a sequel with his character!

We watched this film in 3D.  It was ok.  Not the best but I have seen worse in 3D.  This is a dark film mostly being at night or inside dark houses so it seemed harder to watch the movie because of this.  I think it would almost be better to see it in 2D.  I was expecting to see more of Evil Ed and Peter Vincent.  Ed was really only in it at the start and then back at the end of the film.  Peter Vincent is introduced about half way through the film and then is only in a few key scenes at the end also.  I would have loved to see him through out the whole film.  These are only minor things and really don't drag down the film as a whole.

This was a great film and an alternative for the vampire fan.  I am disappointed to hear that it came in something like fifth place at the box office this weekend.  I really hope we can see an original sequel and especially David Tennant in more films! I totally recommend this film for anyone looking for a scare and a good time at the end of the summer!