Fright
Night
No vampire is sparkling in Fright Night. All is right with the
world.
Anton Yelchin stars as Charley - a high schooler in Las Vegas who used
to be a geek, but suddenly became a stud. Instead of hanging with his
less popular long time pal, Ed (Christopher "I dare you to call him
McLovin" Mintz-Plasse), Charley is dating the hottest gal in school,
Amy (Imogen "such a beautiful woman, such an ugly name" Poots). While
senior year should be awesome, Ed is worried about all of the people
who have been mysteriously disappearing around town.
After some cajoling, Charley joins Ed in the investigation, and starts
to believe his next door neighbor, Jerry (Colin Farrell), might be a
vampire. And, Jerry knows that Charley knows, so, now, he has to kill
the little bugger.
How can Charley stop the vampire next door?
Will Jerry eat him first?
While achieving a level of solid B-movie entertainment (with some equal
parts shocks and laughs), Fright Night misses out on an
opportunity to be awesome. Director Craig Gillespie and writer Marti
Noxon eschew the opportunity to make Fright Night into a taught
mystery where the audience is left to wonder if Jerry really is a
vampire. That bit of information gets revealed to us too early in the
movie, which is a shame, since it would have given the audience some
more fun guessing and looking for clues. The best scenes in Fright
Night are the ones where Charley is testing Jerry to see if he is
one of the undead, and more of that would have been welcome.
Also, Gillespie and Noxon give Fright Night a good, quick pace,
but, instead of ending at the natural climax, they have the movie go on
for another 45 minutes, which aren't as fun and thrilling as the first
part of the film. If they were planning to go that long, the audience
could have been given more details and close calls for the vampire
investigators, and those Jerry wants to "pursue". The last 45 minutes
feel like an entirely additional movie instead of a conclusion to the
one we were watching.
Most of all, I wish they didn't make the movie in 3D. While this isn't
completely because of the 3D presentation, the special effects stand
out too much. The phoniness of some of the action and crazy creatures
created by the CGI-team don't fit in with the rest of the movie. It's
not seamless in any sense of the word.
Gillespie gives the audience some great teases to get you squirming in
your seat, and you'll like Farrell as the very smooth, charming and
playful vampire. Plus, keep your eyes open for Sandra Vergara, the
sister of Sofia Vergara. She's a sexy, Colombian Pippa Middleton!
Fright Night is rated R for bloody horror
violence and language including some sexual references.
|
|
