A remake done right, the film taps into real-life social dynamics while remaining scary and fun
Dreamworkds
Vampires have gotten a bad rap over the past few years, having been transformed from the stuff of nightmares to shy, sensitive pretty boys and the stuff of pre-teen obsession. Fright Night, a re-imagining of the 1985 blood-sucking horror flick of the same name, strikes a blow for the vampires of past decades with a cool, scary, and fun take on the nocturnal genre. The story of an unlikely geek hero, Fright Night is like Revenge of the Nerds, only this time the jocks are blood suckers, and the nerds have stakes. Lots of stakes.
Unlike the modern breed of teen horror, which more often than not is just a glorified, horror-fied depiction of social clique politics, Fright Night is a monster movie in the more classic vein. Colin Farrell plays Jerry Dandridge, the suave lothario who mysteriously move into town just as people start disappearing. We soon learn that Dandridge is a vampire, and a hungry one at that. Fortunately, he's a far cry from the soft, sensitive vampires of Twilight. Rather he's a stone-cold predator in the tradition of, as one character puts it, "the fucking shark from Jaws," whose preferred snack is the skimpy blonde bimbo.