Fright Night

Overview

Give us a film to which we attach some pleasant nostalgia yet not enough critical status to warrant preciousness, and we may be up for the remake. Put this baby — here, 1985's Fright Night — in the good hands of screenwriter Marti Noxon (veteran of that other landmark vampire franchise, Buffy the Vampire Slayer) and Australian film director Craig Gillespie (Lars and the Real Girl, United States of Tara), who clearly has some affinity for the weird, and we'll be properly excited.

Fright Night (2011) has the great vampire-story setting of Las Vegas. The city is already otherworldly, comes alive at night, is normally populated by temporary workers and blow-ins, and contains the creepiest thing of all, manufactured suburban compounds in the middle of nowhere. Here, local teenager Charley Brewster (Anton Yelchin) has had the good fortune of moving up the social ladder when his skin cleared and high school alpha female Amy (Imogen Poots) showed interest. Now he's desperate to avoid the uncool antics of former best friend and terminal dweeb Ed (Chistopher Mintz-Plasse), who's trying to convince him that next door lives a murderous vampire, in the form of husky night construction worker Jerry (Colin Farrell).

By the time Charley realises the truth and barricades his house with garlic, Jerry has him in his ruthless, creatively barbaric sights. In an effort to save himself, his girl, his mother (Toni Collette) and scores more, Charley goes into battle, enlisting self-styled vampire hunter Peter Vincent (David Tennant), really a cowardly Vegas illusionist of a Russell Brand-esque disposition, to help.

The film's real drawcard is Farrell. He's fabulous to watch — creepy, predatory, reptilian, transformed, in every action just a little bit wrong. Seeing the 10th Doctor strut around swearing in naught but leather pants also provides many kicks. There are plenty of laughs; in fact, Fright Night hasn't really put the fear factor on its agenda, which is only a pity because Farrell is so grippingly scary in this, and it feels like the rest of the film should rise up to meet him. Instead, the story arc sometimes works to sabotage what could be chilling reveals and suspenseful build-ups.

It also doesn't help that other films out there are doing the knowingly B-grade thing (schlock violence, cinephile in-jokes) better. Other films are doing the geek-cool thing (the unlikely hero, the too-sharp banter, the interminable pop-culture references) better. What Fright Night can genuinely boast to be is a lot of fun (especially in 3-D, where staked vampires explode in your face) and a nice break from the "I'm just misunderstood" vamps that rule the current mythos. But more than an original film, a remake has to really mount an argument for its own existence, and without nailing every item on its brief, this one doesn't quite.