Review: Fright Night (2011)

Fright Night

IMDB rate: 6,4

Genre: Vampire

Fright Night, a movie that I did not have seen before. Hell, I haven't even seen the original yet. I saw this movie while looking through Netflix' horror movies (there are only 15 or so in The Netherlands, at the moment) and this was the only one that I haven't seen yet. 

I never really cared about watching this movie because it seemed a bit boring and standard to me, but I actually enjoyed it quite a lot. 

A remake of the 1985 original, teenager Charley Brewster guesses that his new neighbor Jerry Dandrige is a vampire responsible for a string of recent deaths. When no one he knows believes him, he enlists Peter Vincent, a self proclaimed vampire killer and Las Vegas magician, to help him take down Jerry.

I really liked watching this movie, it was funny and it looked amazing. The vampires were not overdone, and of course, they were not sparkling! Like I said, I have not seen the original movie yet, but I would love to watch it soon so I can compare the two movies. I know that many people dislike remakes, but I THINK this one did quite well.

The story is quite basic, perhaps a bit cliche, but I didn't really mind because somehow it felt refreshing. Normally there is a 1 hour build up before anything finally happens, but with this movie that wasn't the case.

What I also liked was the fact that no one was annoying. In every horror movie there is always one person who answers the door when there is specifically asked to not answer the door. There's always some annoying person that refuses to listen to things. Or when the kids try to tell their parents and they don't believe them, and when they try to show it nothing happens. Well, none of this happened in Fright Night. They never answered the door and something actually happened when the kid tried to show what he meant.

I think the special effects looked really cool. But the changing faces of the vampire Jerry were a bit confusing to me, it became more and more demonic, or sometimes it didn't change at all. A bit confusing. What I did like were the death scenes, they were very original, or the very good improvised scene where Jerry tries to get Charley out of his house.

I also loved the cast of this movie, Anton Yelchin is one of my favorite actors ever since Alpha Dog, and I kinda liked him in this movie. He played very sweet but also with a tough side. Really cool character. I'm not used to seeing Colin Farrell in a horror movie, so this was quite a nice change. I didn't think he would fit in a vampire role, but he did really good. Honorable mentions for Toni Collette, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, David Tennant and Imogen Poots. 

Personally I really enjoyed watching this movie, I think it's an excellent vampire movie with a good story and an excellent cast. Unfortunately I can't compare it with the original, but I'm sure that one is good too.
I really recommend watching this movie, it's fun and in my opinion quite good.

My personal rate: 7,5/10