Monday, October 30, 2006
You have to have faith for this to work on you
BLOGGER'S NOTE: This appreciation of the 1985 film Fright Night is part of today's Vampire Blog-a-Thon being coordinated by Nathaniel R. at The Film Experience. Check there for links to other vampire posts today.
By Edward Copeland
Sinking my teeth into today's vampire blog-a-thon, I thought I'd give some long overdue appreciation to the best example of a cinematic tale of the undead from the mid-1980s. No, not Joel Schumacher's bore The Lost Boys. Not even Kathryn Bigelow's
overpraised Near Dark. No, for my money the best vampire tale of the mid-1980s was Tom Holland's scary and funny Fright Night from 1985. Thanks in no small part to two great performances, Chris Sarandon as Jerry Dandridge, the vampire next door, and an Oscar-worthy turn by Roddy McDowall as a ham B-movie actor reduced to hosting horror flicks on a local TV station who finds himself having to fight vampires. For real. This is that era's vampire film that's worth inviting into your home. (I'm not joking about McDowall and Oscar either. Klaus Maria Brandauer in Out of Africa and William Hickey in Prizzi's Honor earned their supporting actor nominations, but McDowall deserved recognition over Don Ameche in Cocoon, Robert Loggia in Jagged Edge and Eric Roberts in Runaway Train.)
As the notes in the Fright Night DVD indicate, the movie is a variation on "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" and the boy in this question is high school student Charley Brewster (William Ragsdale, before he vanished into the Fox sitcom world of "Herman's Head"). He's a huge fan of the horror movie TV show hosted by Peter Vincent (McDowall), has a girlfriend named Amy (Amanda Bearse, also in her pre-Fox sitcom days before "Married ... With Children") and a goofy friend named Evil Ed (Stephen Geoffreys, whose post-1980s credits, according to IMDb, consist mainly of hardcore porn). Charley also has a new neighbor moving in next door.
One night while fooling around with Amy in his bedroom, Charley notices the new neighbor, Jerry Dandridge, and his Renfield-esque handyman Billy (Jonathan Stark) carrying what appears to be a coffin into the house. Amy, who finally was ready to surrender her virginity to Charley, leaves the house in a huff. What Charley saw convinces him to turn voyeur and he happens to catch Jerry in the window of his house about to have a sexual tete-a-tete with a hot naked woman -- something that will grab the attention of most horny teenage boys. Only in this case, the penetration that Charley almost witnesses isn't sexual -- it's Jerry's fangs about to plunge into the young woman's neck. Unfortunately, Jerry spots Charley as well and quickly closes the shade before finishing his kill.
Needless to say, Charley's friends and his mom don't buy Charley's story -- Amy even thinks that it may be a ploy to win her back into his good graces. Charley doesn't have better luck with the police either, who can't believe they fell for this kid's story about a murder when he's really claiming it's the work of a vampire. Jerry, however, knows what Charley saw and that he's a threat. Easily finagling an invitation into Charley's house from his man-hungry single mom, Jerry pops in for a visit -- laying the groundwork for his plan to take care of Charley. When he arrives later in the night, whistling "Strangers in the Night" no less, he insists to Charley that he doesn't want to kill him and he's going to give him something Jerry didn't have -- a choice. Charley doesn't agree to stay mum and manages to escape Jerry's murderous intentions and decides to turn to Peter Vincent for help.
Charley catches the actor on a particularly bad day -- he's just been fired from his TV job because his ratings have dropped. As he laments to Charley, kids don't want to watch vampire killers anymore. They prefer "watching demented men in ski masks hacking up young virgins." Vincent feels sorry for Charley, but he's also convinced that the kid needs psychiatric help. When Ed and Amy discover Charley setting up his bedroom for defense and sharping stakes for a planned assault on Jerry's house, they decide to give Peter Vincent another try, hoping he can talk sense into their friend. Vincent agrees to help prove to Charley that Jerry isn't a vampire -- for a $500 savings bond. The actor and the three teens visit Jerry with the intention of faking a vampire test so that Charley will back off -- only something happens that manages to convince Peter that perhaps Charley is telling the truth.
Peter -- a coward at heart -- hastily makes plans to leave town, but not before Jerry has abducted Amy, who bears a startling resemblance to a past love, and turned Evil Ed into a vampire, who stops by Vincent's for a visit. Later, Charley shows up and convinces Peter that they are Amy's only hope and it leads to the nearly 30-minute climax that takes place almost exclusively inside Dandridge's house as Charley and the ham actor prepare to battle the undead.
What makes Fright Night such a hoot to this day, on top of the great performances, is the deft blending of humor and suspense that Holland manages to build in his story. Peter's lament about what kind of horror movies kids want to watch in the 1980s seems a direct criticism of the endless Friday the 13th installments and similar films that seemed to be Hollywood's main attempts at horror in the 1980s. Those dreadful wastes of celluloid about Jason helped to make Fright Night such a refreshing change of pace.
What also set Fright Night apart from other mid-1980s horror efforts is that it didn't look cheap. I'm sure it didn't have that big a budget, but it looks as if it could have with sharp visuals, effects and sets. It also has a great techno score by Brad Fiedel aided by some typical 1980s technopop-type songs that certainly date the film but don't in any way diminish from the film's fun.
The film also manages to revitalize many cliches, from the redemption of a fallen hero (in the case of Peter Vincent) to brief asides to teen sex comedies and truly modernizing the role of the charismatic vampire through Sarandon's witty and wicked performance. While Ragsdale, Bearse and Geoffreys are serviceable, Fright Night wouldn't work at all if it weren't for Sarandon and McDowall, two old pros who could have phoned it in for a paycheck but who raise the film to the level of a true, if underappreciated, classic of the horror and vampire genres.
The one question I sought to answer when I decided to select Fright Night for today's vampire blog-a-thon was what happened to Tom Holland. He later wrote and directed the original Child's Play, another film that blended horror and humor, though not nearly as well as Fright Night. Since then, most of his credits on IMDb consist of writing and directing many of the TV adaptations of Stephen King works. As a sidenote: He had nothing to do with the sequel, Fright Night Part II, which should be avoided at all costs.
Before we put the vampires back in their coffins for today, I want to change the subject and ask a question of the many fans of the "Buffy, the Vampire Slayer" TV show (of which I am one). They constantly say that the vampires' hearts don't beat, meaning their blood doesn't pump, so how exactly did Angel and Spike always get erections to enable to them to have sex? If anyone has a good answer to that question, I'd love to hear it. Meanwhile, have a happy Halloween.
Labels: 80s, Blog-a-thons
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Excellent post about a great 80s movie! I wrote a little about Fright Night in my Blog-a-Thon entry today as well, but I didn't cover it in depth as you have.
I can distinctly - with chills - remember hearing the line in the movie that you've used as your title, and how it turned a rather tired vampire cliche onto its ear at a rather crucial plot moment.
It's a great movie moment that I'll always remember - completely unexpected and terrifying!
I can distinctly - with chills - remember hearing the line in the movie that you've used as your title, and how it turned a rather tired vampire cliche onto its ear at a rather crucial plot moment.
It's a great movie moment that I'll always remember - completely unexpected and terrifying!
Ok, I really need to get this. If I'd see then as recently as 'Vamp' I would've blogged about this too.
Wow, I hadn't given this movie a second thought, given my prudish former views on horror flicks -- but this sounds really fun AND interesting! I'll have to check this one out.
As for Spike and Angel's erections... oh my gosh, WHY HAVEN'T WE THOUGHT OF THIS BEFOREHAND?? Indeed, that makes no logical sense whatsoever. (Also, therefore, Darla's orgasms?) I'm shattered. *sob*
As for Spike and Angel's erections... oh my gosh, WHY HAVEN'T WE THOUGHT OF THIS BEFOREHAND?? Indeed, that makes no logical sense whatsoever. (Also, therefore, Darla's orgasms?) I'm shattered. *sob*
Bwa-hahaha!! You know this is one of my favorite movies of all time for exactly all the reasons you said!
Okay. Thank you. "Fright Night" is one of the most under-rated horror films. It succeeds because it takes teen angst and twists it until it screams.
One precious moment in the film? How do you really hurt a teenage boy where he lives if you're a vampire? You beat the crap out of his car.
Good job
One precious moment in the film? How do you really hurt a teenage boy where he lives if you're a vampire? You beat the crap out of his car.
Good job
How do they get erections? How do they get those bony ridges on their foreheads? That's the answer, I'd imagine, plus it answers the question why Buffy is so into vampires--their boners are literally made of bone...
Nicely done. "Fright Night" is a movie I caught on cable many years and which I kept watching mainly in hopes for a nude scene (I didn't realize it was the "Married with Children" neighbor).
As I recall, there wasn't much payoff in that regard (I think I missed the opening bit of "fooling around") But, yeah, it's pretty fun, it's certainly fun and I do agree with its implied criticism of slasher films...not only because I'm on the squeamish side but because monsters are much more fun.
As for vampiric erections on "Buffy", I'm thinking that all the vampires visit a plastic surgeon for one of those implant things that were the main cure for erectile dysfunction back in the pre-Viagra/Cialis era.
As I recall, there wasn't much payoff in that regard (I think I missed the opening bit of "fooling around") But, yeah, it's pretty fun, it's certainly fun and I do agree with its implied criticism of slasher films...not only because I'm on the squeamish side but because monsters are much more fun.
As for vampiric erections on "Buffy", I'm thinking that all the vampires visit a plastic surgeon for one of those implant things that were the main cure for erectile dysfunction back in the pre-Viagra/Cialis era.
The only nudity you missed was a brief topless shot of Jerry's victim that Charlie spied through his bedroom window.
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