Fright Night (1985)
vs. Fright Night (2011)
Original
Fright Night centers around Charley Brewster (William
Ragsdale) who discovers that his next door neighbor, Jerry Dandridge (Chris
Sarandon) is a vampire! Soon Dandridge starts to stalk Brewster, so he turns to
a washed up actor, Peter Vincent (Roddy McDowall) to help him defeat Dandridge.
The original Fright Night was a film that was way before its
time. It’s able to take on a comedy/parody and also mix in its own drama and
what we get is a well blended film that has now become a classic.
There is just so much put into this movie that makes it a
worthy horror film. It will make you laugh, scream, and cringe and all because
it does its job effectively.
Remake
This is a remake that many believe, including myself, that
shouldn’t have been made. Yet, come to think of it there are a lot of horror
remakes that shouldn’t have been made.
With that out of the way, I’m happy to say that I’m glad to
have this remake because I enjoyed it immensely.
Let’s first look at the world that this Fright Night was
released into. By 2011 vampire lore was being changed dramatically due to the
success of the Twilight series. Vampires no longer needed permission to enter
your home, they no longer feared the son, and they were no long creatures of
the night. So, basically everything that has made vampires cool in the past has
almost been destroyed by movies like Twilight.
Now they release the remade Fright Night, which follows all
of the classic vampire rules and it’s just refreshing to see. It’s nice to see
a vampire acting like a real vampire. He can’t go out in the sun, so he does
his yard work at night, he can’t enter your home with out being invited, and
overall he’s a dangerous predator that lurks around at night. Just having these
things in the remake make it great to watch.
Now, the performances from Colin Farrell and David Tennant
are great. Farrell really lets himself get into his role as the vampire living
next door and Tennant brings actually humorous comic relief in his role as
Peter Vincent.
The film does get attacked for being an average vampire
movie and at times it can be held down by certain clichés. But that’s easy to
overlook because I was entertained through out most of the movie.
So, which is better?
The remake is above average and I highly recommend it. Yet,
the original still has a hold on me. Maybe it’s the nostalgia but I still find
the original to be superior than the remake.
Original Wins
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