Tuesday, July 6, 2010

How will 'Fright Night' remake stack up against '85 original?

I scratched another Saturn Award winner for Best Horror Film off my list earlier today when I re-watched 1985 winner, “Fright Night.” I’d seen this movie before, and about half way through, I began to wonder if I even actually had a copy of it here at the house somewhere.
For those of you who’ve never seen this movie, it’s about a teenager named Charlie Brewster, who comes to believe that a vampire has moved into the house next door. None of his family or friends – and later the police – believe him, so he takes it upon himself to rid the neighborhood of this creature of the night. He enlists the help of a late night character actor who plays a vampire hunter on television, and they end up having to save Brewster’s girlfriend, who’s fallen under the vampire’s spell.
This movie is very entertaining and very funny in parts. In many ways, its humor reminded me of 1981 Saturn winner, “A American Werewolf in London.”
“Fright Night” was released in August 1985 and was a surprise box office hit. Its domestic gross was almost $25 million, making it the second-highest grossing film of 1985 behind “A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge.” (Hmmm. I wonder why that movie didn’t win the Saturn that year.)
According to Wikipedia, it was announced last year that DreamWorks is remaking “Fright Night,” and this remake should appear in theatres in October 2011. Colin Farrell will play the vampire, and Anton Yelchin will play Charlie Brewster. It will be interesting to see how the remake stacks up against the original. I doubt that it will be as funny, but we’ll see.
In the end, I enjoyed rewatching “Fright Night,” and I’m now looking forward to seeing 1986 winner, “The Fly,” which starred Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis.

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