Fright Night
02/31 Movies for
October
10/02/2017
Fright Night
Story: 4
Plot: 3
Theme: 5
Acting: 4
Overall: 4
“Welcome to Fright Night” says a
Peter Vincent (Roddy McDowall), host of a late night ghosts and ghouls tv show.
He can only be described as a wannabe Vincent Price. All around the bedroom no
one is to be found. But wait, is that the sound of two young lovers engaging
in… Oh… no… they’re just kissing. “I think I’m ready” Amy (Amanda Bearse) says
to Charlie Brewster (William Ragsdale). The pair become involved for a moment
before Brewster lets out a “OH COME ON, we’ve been going together…” blah blah
blah. He ruins it. Of course he ruins it. Every good man ruins it once in their
lives. Or more. Most likely more. We are only human of course. Unlike the
creepy next door neighbor in this comedic horror film. Mr. Dandridge (Chris
Sarandon aka Jack Skellington), a man of 40, charming, handsome, and for some
reason has long fingers and fangs coming out of his mouth. WAIT. I think that’s
a vampire and so does Charlie. After a brief encounter with a sultry woman in
front of Dandridge’s house Charlie rushes inside to see why she went into the
obviously spooky home next door. Much to his displeasure he doesn’t see much
except for the next day at the local burger joint. The T.V. caster shows an
image of the woman and claims she was turned up dead. This is when the
obnoxiously acted Ed (Stephen Geoffreys) pops in an mentions each victim on the
news recently have shown up headless. Then laughs that terrible, slimy, twerpy
laugh. If you don’t want to punch him in the face, I don’t know what’s wrong
with you. After a failed attempt to corral a detective into believing his story
Charlie turns to his beloved TV hostest with the mostest, Peter Vincent.
Rightfully so, and very much embittered by his recent cancelling of his tv show
Mr. Vincent shrugs off Charlie like he
is some crazy fan just hoping to score an autograph.
Now we start Chapter two. The
decision to murder the vampire next door. Charlie goes all out in his efforts
in preparing to slay the undead creature. In this he frightens Amy and
twerp-man Ed enough that they enlist, through a hefty sum of money, Peter
Vincent to deter Charlie from attempting the murder of Dandridge. All four go
next door and “try” to prove Dandridge a vampire. After hesitantly drinking
holy water Dandridge does not, to the upset of Charlie, melt and perish. It’s
not until they are leaving when Peter Vincent happens to pull out his iconic
vampire hunting mirror and notices no reflection of the supposed vamp.
Terrified, he hurries all three out and send them home. Ed, always in poor
taste, scares the couple into thinking he’s been attacked only to be cornered
and converted by the Evil spirit himself. Almost immediately after, Dandridge
makes his attack on Amy. He seduces her in an 80’s nightclub. Ohlala. There’s
actually a pretty gnarly scene here where Charlie breaks Amy away from his gaze
and he goes ape shit and slashes some dudes face in half and choke slam/throws
a bouncer through the crowd causing an uproar and quick let out at the club.
There is a small chase but ultimately the bad guys steal the good girl. Oh and
kicker. The vampire bangs the girl and turns her as well!
Chapter Three. The death of an
ancient one. Ed’s a Vampire minion, Amy is abducted by Count Dandridge and
Peter Vincent is slowly growing some balls. The final fight is amazing. Vincent
and Charlie show up at the house which is by the way, spookier than ever, and
are let in by the front door ominously opening and inviting them inside.
Cautiously they walk in, trying to judge where the attack might come from. The
door slams shut! Dandridge walks down the steps. Failing to have the faith
necessary to ward of the vampire with his cross, Vincent is shown up by the
persistent Mr. Charlie Brewster and is rewarded by hearing his love in the next
room groan in discomfort as she transitions into a monster of the night. A mini
boss battle ensues leaving Dandridge in full vampire mode outside figuring how
to murder these intruders with haste. First he sends his ever dutiful human-ish
slave to attack and maim. Vincent shoots him 6 times with his revolver, each
time causing an obscene amount of smoke to form in front of them. When the
smoke settles we discover the mutilated, but still alive-ish, body trekking
forward to kill them! Thinking quick Charlie takes his wooden peg and stabs it
through the heart triggering the strangest vampire death I’ve ever seen.
Imagine if a person started oozing neon green liquid, the same substance as
Slimer in Ghostbusters, followed by skin melting off to reveal muscle prompting
the muscle to sizzle off showing only the skeleton then BAM. The thing explodes
like someone threw tnt between it’s ribcage. This leads to the epic showdown on
Immortal vs. Mortal. Amy finally wakes up but has gone full vampire with some
of the most wicked prosthetics I’ve seen in a while (she’s the disgusting vampiric
face on the movie poster). Dandridge gets injured at some point during the
fight and reverts to full bat mode, yet another brilliant practical monster
created during a time when CGI was still too shitty to cut it but also made
movies infinitely better for it. The creature of the night flies away crashing
into objects as it goes. The chase is on. In a full-on hand to hand brawl
Charlie dukes it out with his love/now vampire Amy meanwhile The Vampire Hunter
himself squares off against the Agent of the Eve. While it was a slightly
uneventful match the otherworldly ignition of the vampire turned bat was a
spectacle to be seen. Bright yellow and green ethereal lights blast open whole
chunks of flesh and the creature writhes in pain hoping for one last breath of
life. KABLOOOOOOOM is evaporates into thin air and nothing is left of
Dandridge.
Chapter Four. Amy de-vampirifies.
Vincent gets his show back but now has more up-to-date themes for the younger
generation and the young couple FINALLY get it on.
This is a classic that everyone
should watch. Great acting, great story, great fun and some very memorable
quotes and scenes to toss at your horror aficionado.
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