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Fright Night
At first glance, Fright Night (2011) would appear to possess a pedigree for success. Buffy scribe, Marti Noxon, wrote it from a story by the writer/director of the popular Fright Night (1985), Tom Holland, but something is seriously amiss. The new film attempts to modernise the story on several fronts and, one by one, each attempt misfires.
By far the most interesting character in Fright Night is that of Evil Ed, the downtrodden geek who we can't help but empathise with even though he really does seem to be, and eventually is, touched by evil. Christopher 'McLovin' Mintz-Plasse has his work cut out for him upstaging Stephen Geoffreys' notable performance in the '85 flick and predictably struggles to do anything unique with it. Geoffreys is a lovable freak, Mclovin a whiny loser. Our heart goes out to Geoffreys as he's staked through the heart; McLovin's death is applauded.
The updated thespian vampire killer, Peter Vincent, is bizarrely terrible despite a rousing performance from David Tennant. The role seems clearly intended for Russell Brand, but instead of casting Brand, Tennant has been cast to impersonate him. While it's admirable that Tom Holland has tried to push the Vincent character in a new direction, the fact that the new character merely mimics a pre-existing and well-known personality ironically robs the role of the freshness it is striving for. This is unfortunate for Tennant because his performance is very good - his impersonation of Russell Brand is near indistinguishable from Russell Brand. Colin Farrell, on the other hand, overacts his butt off as the vampire villain and is barely worth a mention. I have no idea why Toni Collette is in this.
The enduring charm of the '85 film is its cheese factor. The acting is terrible in a fun, hammy kind of way and the story is based on a silly, fun premise. But the 80's were a unique decade notable for its penchant for cheese and its ability to get away with it. Now in the Tweenies, films have to be dark and serious and so it is that the 2011 Fright Night attempts to grow up and try to be cool rather than silly. But a silly story trying to be cool is even sillier and without the incumbent cheese, it simply doesn't work.
Stuart Jamieson
www.welcometofrightnight.com
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