Fright Night Movie Review

by Rick Grant
This Craig Gillespie film is both a homage and dark parody of the original Fright Night. Set in the barren desert of the Las Vegas region, where right in the middle of this waste land exists a ticky-tacky suburban neighborhood. In this dying middle America jungle, every other house is for sale, with a Century 21 sign on the lawn.
In a twisted reference to our current economic distress, one of those Century 21 signs is used as a weapon to stab a vampire. Yes, it should have been a Morgan Stanley executive–another form of vampire. Gillespie’s film is full of these hip references using vampire chic as a symbol of social discourse.
In the cloistered setting, Andy Brewster (Anton Yelchin) is a popular young high school kid. However, he notices that every day another kid is missing from his classes. This could be explained by the record number of foreclosures in Andy’s neighborhood. Ah yes, a perfect place for a bloodsucker.
So when a strange guy moves in next door named Jerry, (Colin Farrell) Andy become suspicious, especially when Jerry hits on his Mom (Toni Collette from “United States of Tara”).
What if you find out that your next door neighbor is a vampire? Who would believe you? That is the dilemma facing Andy as he conducts his own investigation and finds Jerry’s lair of secret rooms where he stashes his meals on legs.
Who you gonna call? Some fake vampire/magician named Peter Vincent! Andy, deluded in his teenage naivete, thinks Vincent is a real vampire slayer and approaches him to kill Jerry. Much to his dismay, Andy finds out that Vincent is nothing but a creepy drunken jerk.
Director Gillespie’s subtle campiness is written into the script and not used as setups for bits. The actors pulled off the parody aspects of the screenplay with skilled effectiveness.
Yes, the film’s social message is blatant but all in vampire movie fun. Colin Ferrell has a ball playing Jerry as he eats his way through the suburban mediocrity. The film is definitely worth seeing for a fun night at the cinema.