FRIGHT NIGHT
Yup, it's still my favorite vampire movie.
Nobody knows what I'm talking about anymore when I say "Oh, you're so COOL, Brewster!"
I first saw this when I was about fourteen, taped it off of late night TV on the ol' Beta, long before I saw any of the movies it was spoofing. Must have watched this movie a hundred times back then. One time even with dear ol' Grampa, who was almost as amused by it as I was. It's easily the most I've ever enjoyed a vampire movie, and I've long considered it my favorite, even though I scarcely watch it at all these days. Watching it again tonight, I have to say I'm very pleasantly surprised by how well it's held up for me.
Fright Night tries to do for vampire movies what The Return Of The Living Dead did for zombie movies, and isn't quite as successful. Yes, this is a really great spoof of vampire movies, probably the best of them. No, it doesn't work as a horror movie in its own right, however. But then, I don't think I've ever been frightened by a vampire movie. And what it adds up to is a very fun movie with enough laughs, excitement and effects for any half-dozen vampire films.
William Ragsdale (Herman from "Herman's Head") plays Charlie Brewster, a teenager with an impossibly boyish-looking girlfriend (Amanda Bearse) (yeah, that one) who starts to suspect his neighbor, Jerry Dandridge (Chris Sarandon) is a vampire. Not just any vampire, but the vampire responsible for a number of recent killings in the community (at one victim a night, you'd think a vampire would stick to the big city). When he no longer has any doubt, he enlists the services of recently unemployed movie vampire-hunter Peter Vincent (Roddy McDowell, who gets the movie's best line about what today's kids are looking for in horror movies).
Sarandon is terrific, obviously having a lot of fun with the role as the apple-munching (!) vampire who's seen all the movies and finds them "very amusing", bursting into hearty laughter at the sight of a cross when most other actors would try to burst into "evil" laughter. McDowell is also excellent, putting everything he's got into his performance as the actor who finds that he's got to play the role for real. Most everybody else is fine, but not too exceptional (although I found myself repeatedly transfixed by Charlie's mom - that is, Dorothy Fielding - and her piercing blue eyes).
But the most memorable performance has to be Stephen Geoffreys as Evil Ed, who delivers all his lines in such a weird, maniacal way-off manner that even the most mundane utterings become hilarious. There's nary a note of subtlety here - he doesn't speak so much as screech and cackle, with exaggerated movements that make Jar-Jar Binks look like Jabba The Hutt. This guy's gotta be from another planet. Who else would look at a script, ANY script, and think that this is how it's gotta be performed? He?s gotta be seen to be believed.
There's a lot of gay subtext here that's impossible not to look for when you remember that one star's a lesbian, and another reportedly sucks more men than any vampire could hope to in his new career as a gay porn star. And there's a lot of it here, really. The human thrall that lives with Dandridge seems to have some kind of crypto-homosexual relationship with him, and the scene where Dandridge "seduces" Evil Ed has gay overtones all over the place, even with fairly obvious suggestions that Ed may be gay himself. I dunno what all this adds up to; not being one to find much interesting in queer theory in literature, I'm not the guy to try to sum it up.
It all moves like a bullet, with excellent effects near the end (courtesy of Richard Edlund), laughs all over the place and actors who are all fun to watch. The music dates it horribly, though, and there's a few awkward scenes (like the death of the first vampire, which is drawn out over a period of what feels like an hour and a half). A couple nagging plot problems also manage to irritate - just why did Dandridge not react to the holy water, after all? (he did, however, seem uncomfortable after drinking it) And why would this vampire-movie fan need to go to his friend's house to ask HIM just what vampires' weaknesses are, other than obviously to give the audience the obligatory "this is what kills vampires" scene? Ah, well. None of it's too serious, and neither is the movie. Which is still, after all these years, my favorite vampire movie.
Written and directed by Tom Holland, who has most certainly had his moments but most recently gave us a couple of pretty lackluster Stephen King adaptations. Gave rise to one sequel, which I now want to have another look at.