Fright Night (1985)

I'm a sucker for cheesy 80s movies. I'm a sucker for cheesy 80s anything. If I had've been a teenager in the 80s, I would've been an awesome little Goth kid, like Winona Ryder's character in Beetlejuice. And, when it comes to classic 80s horror movies, you can't go wrong with the hammy, cheesy, totally great Fright Night. This weekend was my first time seeing it, and I only did so because the remake has just come out, and I wanted to form some sort of comparison prior to viewing it. 

I'm a total vampire nerd, but let's face it, vampires have been royally fucked with over the past few years, and not in a good way. In fact, the only decent vampire movies, which present the creatures as properly scary, of recent times, are 30 Days Of Night and the superb, Let The Right One In. Unfortunately, because of the pure tripe that is the Twilight series, vampires have become a bit cuddly and romantic (the hilariously cutting Vampire Money by My Chemical Romance says it perfectly). Everybody seems to have forgotten that they are bloodthirsty creatures of the night, who drink blood and dispose of carcasses like we would chicken bones. So it was interesting to see how my favourite creatures of the night were dealt with twenty years ago, before the Twilight generation stole them and made them sparkle.

Sparkle sparkle

Fright Night tells the story of cute, nerdy, everykid, Charlie Brewster (what an American name!). He lives in a typical suburban neighbourhood, with his mother, and has a cute girlfriend who wears dungarees pretty much constantly. Everything is going well for him in school and everywhere else, even despite the fact his best bud, who has major ADD, "Evil" Ed, keeps spouting nonsense non-stop. But then everything changes, when a suave, sophisticated, mysterious gentleman moves in next door and, all of a sudden, strange things start happening.


The whole vampire angle has been totally overdone at this stage, so it's interesting to see how it was handled back in the 80s. Jerry, the vampire (better vampire name than Emmett?), is handsome and charming in his human form, but transforms into a toothy, hideous, creature of the night in his vampire form, which is refreshing to see after all of the "sexy" vampires I've been rolling my eyes at lately (not Stuart Townsend as Lestat, he's exempt). I wasn't particularly afraid of him, but he was still an effective villain. The house he lives in is wonderfully gothic, and the way in which he lures women into his evil clutches is admirably skilled. One scene, in a nightclub, where he seduces Charlie's girlfriend, is very well played, and involves lots of cringy, lingering looks and vampire bum-grabbing.

He makes this face for most of the film, oddly enough

Of course, the best thing about this film is, without a doubt, the superb Roddy Mc Dowall, as vampire hunter and star of TV's "Fright Night", Peter Vincent. Although he dismisses Charlie's claims at first, when he does come around and turn up for the final battle in the end, it's difficult to not cheer him on. A truly gifted actor, with a stunning voice and presence, he steals centre stage from Charlie, or even Jerry, and is a delight to behold. When he snipes that nobody cares about vampires anymore because "All they want is madmen running around in ski masks, hacking up virgins", I wanted to worship at his feet - never were truer words spoken in a horror movie. 


The "Evil" Ed character is also fantastic. The best bud with all the answers, who of course nobody believes, he remains crazy-eyed and loud for the duration of the film. His cackle and taunts of "You think you're so cool, Brewster!" are hilarious, and I was really rooting for him to survive, even after he'd been turned. As for Jerry, he is so suave and fancy that he never really comes across as threatening, but there's something shining behind his eyes that lets the viewer know that not everything is as it seems, which is just as scary as in-your-face madness.

He is the MAN

Tension is ratched up with news reports of murders and missing persons, a blood-curdling scream followed by the lights shutting off, etc. It's simple, but effective. The effects are fairly impressive for the time, and the final struggle is not as predictable as I'd thought. All of the characters are likeable and easy to root for, while the situation, although it never feels dire, is just frightening enough to create a real sense of impending doom.

Fright Night has real charm in its silliness, and it's no surprise that it spawned sequels and a TV series (and, this year, a proper Hollywood remake). It hadn't occurred to me before, but the age-old tale of mysterious goings-on next door will always resonate, no matter how technologically advanced we are, or how safe we feel, shacked up in our rooms with the curtains closed and garlic hanging above our heads.