Movie Review: Fright Night

A sexy, suspenseful, fast-paced remake of the 1985 classic vampire movie.  This time around, Colin Farrell plays new neighbor Jerry, who just happens to be a deadly vampire.  Once teen Charley Brewster (Anton Yelchin) discovers the truth, he and those he loves are next on Jerry's list.  With the help of a reluctant vampire hunter played by David Tennant, Charley's forced to fight in a world he never believed in before.

This is a well-done remake of an iconic 80's vampire movie.  The action scenes are fast-paced and keep you on the edge of your seat.  Along with heart pounding action comes brilliant moments of humor which are mostly courtesy of vampire hunter Peter Vincent.  Played in the 1985 version by the very entertaining Roddy MacDowall, Tennant delivers a performance that is both hyper and humorous at the same time with some truly laugh-out-loud moments.  He's my favorite part of the movie and after seeing him here people will be left wondering Doctor who?  He inhabits his character so fully that whenever he's on-screen you can't look away.

Colin Farrell is excellent here too playing both brooding and sexy to a tee.  He's truly bloodthirsty at times as well as intelligent and relishes his cruelty.  He's a formidable villain for Charley and his cohorts.  The character of Charley is a typical teen who's a former geek not wanting to get involved in this unbelievable world after getting with the hot girl.  He's smart though and once he discovers the truth he jumps into the mythology fully.  The same is true for his mother (Toni Collette) and girlfriend (Imogen Poots) who are strong-willed women willing to get their hands dirty in a fight.  No shrinking violets here!

This movie owes a lot to the original version but stands very well on its own.  There's a brilliant cameo in this update from one of the stars of the 1985 version that had all of us cheering when we saw him come on the scene.  But this version certainly has memorable portrayals of its own, most notably Tennant with his frenetic yet humorous characterization.  I'd love to see more of his entertaining vampire hunting in the future as a matter-of-fact.  Farrell is sexy and scary and barrels through this movie with bloodthirsty glee.  At 106 minutes the movie immediately gets to the good stuff and keeps the action going steadily from there.  There are no lulls and the end comes before you even realize it.  This is an engrossing movie that I thoroughly enjoyed from start to finish and fans of horror and sci-fi will find themselves equally enthralled by.

My rating for this is an A!