Tom Holland (Child’s Play, Thinner) gives us Fright Night, a self-referential, shotgun blast of vampire cinema in a mocking horror comedy vein. The film works a majority of the time yet lags in most every respect right when Holland should have been clinching the deal. Ironically, the production kept audiences entertained enough to initiate a small revival of vampire theater as a consequence of Holland’s efforts, which isn’t too shabby considering it was his directorial debut.
Jerry Dandrige (Chris Sarandon, The Princess Bride, Dog Day Afternoon, The Nightmare Before Christmas, The Resurrected, Child’s Play, The Sentinel) and Billy Cole (Jonathan Stark, Rainman, House II–I know, the actor’s name is almost too good to be true) have recently moved into the house next to Charlie Brewster (William Ragsdale), a teenage horror fan. Shortly thereafter, reports of female corpses begin appearing regularly on the news. One night, Charlie believes he spots the neighbors disposing of a body. He then witnesses, though his bedroom window, Jerry seducing a female. Just as Jerry bares his elongated fangs, he peers over at the voyeur. After Charlie attempts to convince, first his girlfriend, Amy Peterson (Amanda Bearse, The Doom Generation), then his best friend, Evil Ed (Stephen Geoffreys, 976-EVIL), that he lives next to a vampire after having been readily dismissed by the police, he resorts to contacting B-movie horror hero has-been Peter Vincent (Roddy McDowall, Planet of the Apes, The Longest Day, Macbeth, Cleopatra) in hopes of having the famed vampire hunter eliminate the undead menace. Dismissing Charlie as yet another unstable viewer, he concedes to escorting Charlie and his friends to Jerry’s house in hopes of proving to the young fan that vampires don’t exist outside the silver screen. Unfortunately, Peter finds the converse to be true as Jerry begins to hunt Charlie and his crew.
What is interesting about Fright Night is its, not subtext, but near explicit homoerotic theme. Of course, homoeroticism is one of the central metaphors for vampirism but, surprisingly, Holland does not explore the issue to any effective degree–the notion merely dangles throughout the film like a flaccid limb. We have Charlie who, after he believes he spots Jerry in action even though Amy has finally consented to letting him into her pants after almost a year of sexual frustration, becomes fixated on his tall, dark, and handsome male neighbor who, more perplexingly, reciprocates Charlie’s leering glance across the way. Once we are permitted inside Jerry’s house, Billy appears as the roommates readily exchange coy, in-joke glances at one another before Billy rests his chin on Jerry’s shoulder as the couple watch their guests depart.
Yet, the film does have focus in other areas, especially in Jackie Burch’s casting of Sarandon as a vampire. He exhumes the sexuality of Peter Cushing and adds a flippant, cocky reassurance to the role as he whistles “Strangers in the Night,” sips Bloody Marys, and tells Peter that his films were “amusing.” We have often seen Bela-like vampires hypnotize and seduce females with a glance but this is the first time that we believe that a girl would surrender all–not due any supernatural sway from her undead hunter but rather–due to the opportunity to be with such an alluring, mysterious figure.
The work is the epitome of self-referentiality. We have Peter Vincent who, not only in name echoes his role as a famed cinematic vampire hunter, but is host on the television program “Fright Night.” Predictably, he is called upon to actually be what he depicts onscreen, but only after he is paid for his services because people no longer have an interest in vampire theater. He subsequently quips to Charlie, “The kids today don’t have the patience for vampires. They want to see some mad slasher running around and chopping off heads.” Obviously, Holland feels the same.
However, the film looses itself two-thirds of the way through as the special effects take center stage while the movie simultaneously severs itself from the logic it had previously established. Peter tells Charlie that Amy can only be saved after being bitten if her master, Jerry, is destroyed before sunrise. Jerry is subsequently dismissed shortly after dawn but Amy nevertheless returns to normal. This follows Peter haphazardly realizing that Jerry does not cast a reflection in a mirror but, later in the film, Jerry is seen walking through a nightclub and, passing a series of mirrored walls, his reflection posits itself in plain view. For the credit due to Sarandon as antagonist, the character of Peter Vincent was gratuitously tossed to Roddy McDowall. The obvious choice to make the referential theme of the film that much more succinct would have been to cast someone like Peter Cushing, who was working at the time. Even an actor not known for roles in vampire cinema, but merely a horror icon of some acclaim, would have been more appropriate. Also, and perhaps the work’s biggest sin, was Stephen Geoffreys as Evil Ed. Not only does he come across as excessively annoying, second only to the figure of Michael in Andrea Bianchi’s Burial Ground, prompting the audience to early anticipate the character’s demise, we almost run in fear at the thought that his character will serve as the segue into the sequel (which, luckily, he turned down the opportunity for reprisal of the role).
For what he set out to do, Tom Holland almost succeeded. Fright Night is a mad attempt at rejuvenating vampire cinema as the director implements, while simultaneously mocking, many of the genre clichés. To its credit, Fright Night did spur the genre up a bit, garnering enough box office returns for production companies to back such features as Joel Schumacher’s The Lost Boys, Kathryn Bigelow’s Near Dark, Fran Rubel Kuzui’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Francis Ford Coppola’s Dracula.
-Egregious Gurnow
- Interview with J.R. Bookwalter - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
