Went out and saw the remake of Fright Night on Sunday, and unlike quite a few attempts to catch lightning in a bottle again, this was rather well done. I'd say part of the reason is that it was written by Tom Holland, who wrote and directed the original movie. If you haven't seen the original (aka "Cornelius and the Herman's Head guy versus Prince Humperdink and Marcy Rhodes in plain-jane 2D") then you might miss a few in-jokes, but otherwise it stands perfectly fine on its own. It's funny and terrifying at the same time with some good "gotcha" moments (which are definitely enhanced by the 3D), and if you're a Doctor Who fan, you have the added pleasure of watching David Tennant swear and drink and do lots of other un-Doctory things that will have you howling with laughter. Matter of fact, I'd say the twenty or so F-bombs they drop is what earned this movie an R rating, as there's no nudity (seductive moments, yes, but no T&A) and the gore is limited mainly to bloodsucking and the occasional contusion. I suggest taking a Twilight fan to it and blowing their little emo mind with what REAL vampires are like.
Most of all, I'm glad my husband enjoyed it. He loves the original Fright Night, and was very eager to see what they did with it. We even met the first Evil Ed, Stephen Geoffreys, at a horror con earlier this year, and Jamin was thrilled for about a week afterward. When the credits were still rolling on the remake last night, asked him, "What's the score here?"
"If there was something between an A- and a B+, that's what I'd give it," he said.
"And a comparative score to the original?"
Looking somewhat aghast, he replied, "How can you beat an A++?" I should have known he'd feel that way, as we do have a decent amount of Fright Night merchandise in our collection: both movies (original on DVD, sequel on VHS), the soundtrack on CD, the novelization (which isn't all that good, really: Jamin says it's "the best worst book I've ever read"), and a few issues of the NOW Comics series (which rates lower than the novelization). Aaaaand that's it, really. Unless you get the movie posters or other swag like that, no one has made anything Fright Night related. It's not a Freddy Krueger/Jason Voorhees money-making machine, honestly, and that's a shame, because it'd be great if NECA or someone would make toys of it, especially the original. C'mon, you know you want a Chris Sarandon action figure that says "Welcome to Fright Night...for real!" or a Roddy McDowall that comes with an in-scale "Peter Vincent: Vampire Killer" kit. Maybe if the box-office numbers go up (the flick ranked in 6th place for the weekend, despite good reviews) we'll get some toys later on. Until then, I shall have to be satisfied with pretending to make our 10th Doctor action figure swear his brains out as he fights invisible vampires.
No comments:
Post a Comment