As a kid, teenager and young adult I never really liked vampire movies. The image of the vampire never captured my imagination. It never seemed exciting. Vampires, as a fictional creation never seemed to fit conviningly into contemporary horror. They always seemed to me to be mired in cliche, either as corny Hammer creations hiding in coffins or romatically cloaked fiends with upper class or royal bloodlines.
1987's Near Dark was the first to portray a contemporary vampire lifestyle convincingly...but the genre still seemed glued to the past (Near Dark is a western) than something that aknowledged modern culture. It wasn't until Channel Four's six part series Ultraviolet that a modern vision of vampires living amoung us was unveiled. I was convinced. THIS is how vampires would live and interact with modern society. More good re-imagingings soon followed with Blade and Buffy. I was converted. I am now a fan of all things vampire.
So when I go back and look at the comedy horror of 1987's Fright Night, I chuckle at the posh coffin dweller, the crappy make up and the use of crosses to ward off the undead (like Eddie Izzard observed, if you make your fingers into a cross shape...will it ward off a vampire?!).
Still not funny. Not very scary. Not much fun. Mid 80's vampire bollocks. Oh and the hero is a twat.
1 comment:
I like Fright Night. It's not great but I find it a fun little flick with a cool 'what if...?' central idea. I quite like Chris Sarandon as Jerry Dandridge and good ol' Roddy McDowell is on good form (as usual) as Peter Vincent: Fearless Vampire Killer. It's also always weird seeing Amanda Bearse as teenage Amy when she was actually about 30 and a couple of years later was playing Marcy Rhodes/Darcy in the legendary Married: With Children. I'll concede that William Ragsdale as Charlie is a bit of a cock, though. The film's Richard Edlund fx are variable. As always with Edlund the opticals and animation are much better than his rubbery creature fx. I also really like Brad Fiedel's very 80's synth score. Fright Night (despite the title) is not scary. But for those of us who were brought up on cheesy Hammer horror it works as kind of a goofy homage to the days of the mighty Cushing and Lee with Sarandon and McDowell in the respective roles (though neither ever coming anywhere near as close to being as awesome as those guys)
When you stack Fright Night up against some of the major vampire works of recent years - the likes of Near Dark, Bram Stoker's Dracula, Interview with the Vampire (watched that again on tv the other night. I always forget how awesome Kirsten Dunst is in it), Blade, Buffy then it doesn't stand up. It's too silly and lacking in any real 'bite'. But I still find it a perfectly enjoyable bit of fluff. And a lot more fun than Twilight!
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