Sexy, Scary Fun

Movie: Fright Night (2011)

My Rating: 5 stars

This is a pretty awesome movie.  I never saw the original, so I don’t know how well it tracks the old story.  But, this new version is pretty exciting.  It’s a very simple vampire story, with relatively few twists or turns in the plot.  Anton Yelchin plays a high school kid who starts to notice a lot of fishy things going on in his town.  He puts the pieces together and realizes that his new neighbor (Colin Farrell) is a vampire.  They live in Las Vegas, which is a perfect place for a vampire to live undetected.  He can pose as one of those casino workers who works all nights, then needs to black out his windows to sleep all day.  Farrell has already picked off a few of Yelchin’s friends, and now he’s coming after his mom and girlfriend.    This has to stop.  So our plucky protagonist seeks the help of Las Vegas’ resident vampire slayer (David Tennant).  Tennant plays a sleazy, drunk, lounge lizard, who stars in an over-the-top, sexy, vampire stage show, that serves as a cover for his real activities.  And, those activities would be kicking demon butt, of course.

This movie is really quick paced and exciting.  It doesn’t take too long for the action to get started, so the story never drags.  And, it stars tons of the sexiest, young actors and actresses in the business.  That sort of thing never hurts—unless you have these gorgeous creatures doing ridiculously unrealistic things.  It’s never believable when you have some waify starlet suddenly becoming a master of Kung Fu.  But, director Craig Gillespie keeps things as plausible as you can get for a supernatural horror film.  The best part of all, though, is that everyone’s got a really good sense of humor about the whole project.  It’s not a goofy, silly movie.  But, Gillespie does bring a fair amount of cheekiness to the film.  My favorite line?  Yelchin: "I'm going to kill a vampire."  Shopkeeper: "Good for you, son."  This sauciness is probably a little wink to all the fans of the original movie.

You should definitely see this movie if you’re into horror films at all.  This isn’t one of those hard-core, carnage-fests.  It’s very tame as far as these things go.  You do see a fair amount of blood in this movie.  We are dealing with vampires after all.  But, it’s mainly in the form of splatter that flies into the shot from out of frame.  And, there’s pretty much no gore at all.  The movie does contain plenty of suspenseful and startling moments, but I’m pretty sure this movie is ok for wimpy people.  Perfect for a Halloween party or date.  I really enjoyed this one a lot.  It’s the perfect blend of, light, sexy, scary fun.