Professor Popinjay's Compendium of Perspicacity

A Non-review by Professor Popinjay

In this Non-review I’ll cover:

Fright Night (1985)

Fright Night 2 (1988)

Fright Night 2: New Blood Unrated (2013)

Fright Night (2011)

And Yes, it will be precisely in that lack of order.

As a kid, sometimes I’d venture into the horror section of the video rental store purely out of morbid curiosity. It was never a good experience and I would quickly run out. I distinctly remember the woman with the gaping maw on the box art for Fright Night. Screen shots I had seen from the film later in life didn’t help the situation. They looked scary and I wanted no part of it.

Then a few days ago, I saw a whole trailer for the film. Roddy McDowell was in it? I just could not reconcile the idea of Roddy McDowell being in a terrifying horror film. Plus the monsters and vampires I saw in the trailer looked cool and wait… is that Chris Sarandon playing a suave vampire!?!

Okay, I have to see this. AND it has a sequel? AND a 2011 remake!?! And the remake has a sequel!?!

Yeah, we’re doing this.

It took a while for all interested parties to congregate before the TV, so while I was waiting I turned on Napoleon Dynamite. A discussion arose about Uncle Rico, played by Jon Gries. We were trying to think of another movie we’ve seen him in and I could only think of one. Not important, but it’s strange that I would randomly turn Napoleon Dynamite on and we’d start discussing Jon Gries. You’ll see why.

In complete opposition to what I had assumed, Fright Night (1985) is not a horrid gross out disturbing scare fest that disables you from sleeping and makes you take up smoking as I thought but rather its a fun monster romp with funny characters and amazing effects!

It’s not a slasher flick. It’s not a little kids’ movie. But I’d say it’s demographic is teens who can enjoy some spookiness? I thoroughly enjoyed it!

Chris Sarandon, Prince Humperdink himself, definitely displays why he can be an enjoyably spooky Jack Skellington. I had no idea he was in this!

Stephen Geoffreys as Ed stands out among the other players in this film. He is just always on. Every line is delivered as if he was just told a hilarious joke and I love him for it.

Charley: “Where are you going, Ed?”

Ed: (Laughs wildly) Home!

The female lead, Amy, was played by Amanda Bearse whom many will remember as Marcy Darcy, the neighbor from Married with Children (1987). Amazing to realize Fright Night came out just two years prior to that show. I was five in 1987. No wonder I was running from the horror section. That’s funny.

Roddy McDowell plays Peter Vincent, the has-been horror movie actor turned Elvira-esque horror tv show host turned real-life Van Helsing type character. When I say Elvira-esque, I mean he hosted a show that showed old horror movies in the film. Roddy McDowell did not dress like Elvira.

Charley’s mom was a big dumb-dumb; pretty much the reason why they had one problem after another. Doesn’t EVER listen to Charley, invites the Vampire right into their house. Just dumb! She’s played by Dorothy Fielding who got to be dragged around by the shark at the beginning of Jaws (1975).

In retrospect, the characters were a bit mixed up in regards to their interests and ambitions. I feel like I encounter that a lot in older stuff, like adults writing teen characters had no clue what kids were into or what defined them. It reminds me of Fred from Scooby-Doo being both a sports jock and wanting to be an inventor. That was their answer to why he simultaneously wore an ascot and was also the one to come up with the trap that never worked as planned.

In Fright Night, the main character, Charley, looked like a preppy kid but supposedly never did his school work and he wasn’t into sports, he was into the horror TV show. Meanwhile, his friend Ed was kind of edgy/punky and was way into the occult, almost goth-like and yet he was giggling all the time. It was a weird mix.

The effects blew my mind. Since I haven’t watched a lot of “horror”, I’m not used to seeing money and effort put into them. I’m sure that’s a ludicrous statement to fans of actual horror films. I’m sure there are a lot of horror films that are high quality and have a big budget. I just haven’t seen them.

But this had Star Wars level effects! I was so impressed, I watched the climax of the film a couple of times just to really appreciate it. Well done!

What a fun film! Oh and that scary lady with the gaping maw? She really wasn’t as scary in the context of the film.

Naturally, I had to watch the sequel! Fright Night 2 (1988) had most of the same actors but Ed was missing. This was unfortunate and research shows he was supposed to be there but Stephen Geoffreys, who played Ed in the previous film, preferred a part offered to him in a Robert Englund film. Robert Englund most know as horror legend, Freddy Krueger.

Geoffreys was sorely missed in this sequel but the film is not without its charm. It works hard to achieve the fun and soul of the first film and comes pretty close.

Charley is in therapy and has apparently convinced himself the first movie didn’t happen. Probably his dumb mom’s idea.

Charley also gets a new girlfriend named Alex played by Traci Lind. I didn’t even notice she was a different person with a different name. But I wasn’t really paying much attention to her anyway. Admittedly, I was kind of out of it by now.

I felt like it was almost the same script as the first but they just wrote “again!” at the end of every revelation.

“Mom, the next door neighbor is a vampire! Again!”

“Mr. Vincent, You’ve got to help me stop the vampires! Again!”

I’m exaggerating a bit. There were enough new ideas to keep it mildly interesting but comparing the second film to the first, the first was way better as you may expect.

One major point of interest was a new character who looked strangely familiar but I couldn’t quite place him. Looking him up on IMDb revealed it was Jon Gries! Holy CRAP! Uncle Rico!?! What are the odds I would randomly turn on Napoleon Dynamite, talk about only seeing him in one other movie, and now here he is playing a weird werewolf/vampire thing!?! So crazy! So now I’ve seen him in three things, I guess: Napoleon Dynamite, The Big Empty, and Fright Night 2. Amazing.

Fright Night 2 also had Brian Thompson in it. I can’t see him anymore without thinking of Shao Kahn from Mortal Kombat Annihilation (1997). I’d know that mug of his anywhere.

After the kids went to bed I got my second wind and watched the 2011 remake of Fright Night. But first I want to talk about 2013’s Fright Night 2: New Blood which came AFTER the 2011 remake.

All the marketing for this film posits itself as a sequel to the spectacular 2011 remake with Anton Yelchin and Colin Ferrel. It is nothing of the sort. Do not be fooled. Fright Night 2: New Blood has NOTHING to do with the 2011 remake. I hate it when production companies (gnomes) do this! I consider it to be extremely dishonest. With this “sequel” you don’t get Anton Yelchin, no Colin Ferrel, no Christopher Mintz-Plasse, nothing!

What Fright Night 2: New Blood actually is is a remake of the 1985 film made by a bunch of British kids and set/filmed in Romania.

I had a hard time liking this film because I felt like I had been tricked. That having been said, I suppose the new setting and Jaime Murray in the Vampire role gave the story an interesting spin.

Had I watched the rated version as opposed to the unrated version, I may have actually enjoyed this a bit more but the unrated version was just icky and obscene, not fun like the original film at all.

You can tell these English kids are really forcing their American accents and the profanity is beyond excessive.

Will Payne, who played main character Charley in this version, really reminds me of Crispin Glover. Interestingly Will is the younger brother of Tom Payne who some might’ve seen in the Walking Dead and its many spinoffs.

Chris Waller seemed to understand the assignment in the role of the iconic and energetic Ed but that’s a tall order to fill. I hate to say his execution of the role was lackluster because I don’t think anyone could top Stephen Geoffreys’ portrayal. I assume Chris Waller’s interpretation of the character was that Ed was a kid who has to say the F word as many times as he can in every sentence or he’ll die. He really added to the character. <-Sarcasm.

Aside from New Blood’s many shortcomings, the last ten minutes were pretty interesting, Not necessarily redeeming per sé, but interesting nevertheless.

Also, this film will go down in my mind as having the most bizarre camera angle I’ve ever seen in a movie: a POV shot from BEHIND a guy’s tattoo. Go ahead and read that again. The guy had a crucifix tattoo on his chest to which he forcibly pressed the face of a vampire. The tussle continued for a second before the camera switched to an angle supposedly INSIDE the tattooed man’s chest with the vampire’s face pressed firmly against it as if the man’s chest was a rigid piece of  tattooed transparent plastic, which, in real life, I’m sure that’s exactly what it was. It didn’t really work as an effect but it WAS hilarious. And if you think that’s the only time this movie films from inside a man’s chest, think again.

Obviously, calling this film Fright Night 2 was just a cash-in on the popularity of the 2011 remake of which we have yet to talk about. A true sequel to that film would have been most welcome. But greed, deception, and instantaneous satisfaction being what they are, here we are with this low budget production that likely duped many into handing over their hard earned cash. Shame on you, 20th Century Fox! I never attach MY name to an inferior product!

Now that we have that out of the way, let’s focus on the gem of this lot, the OFFICIAL remake: 2011’s Fright Night starring Anton Yelchin, Colin Farrell, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, David Tennant, Toni Collette, and Imogen Poots.

I apologize for the odd order of this article but I wanted to save the best for last. I was so impressed with this film!

First of all, I felt the script was fantastic! Steven Spielberg actually offered advice on storyboarding and editing. It really feels like the writers did their homework to iron out some of the problems the original had.

I still hold the original in high regard but, since 1985, deep analysis of the film has revealed some problematic plot devices and strange character decisions. Sometimes a fun film is just a fun film and doesn’t need to be taken too seriously but now it makes sense to fix the once less-thought-about issues.

I have to say, Anton Yelchin is a phenomenal actor. I remember him playing the young Kyle Reese in Terminator Salvation (2009). It was like watching a young Michael Biehn. Mind blowing. The weirdness of Charlie’s character makes more sense in this remake. Basically, he used to be a fun nerd with his friend Ed (Mintz-Plasse), but he grew out of that life and started dating Imogen Poots. Can you blame him?

I think they too realized nothing would top Stephen Geoffreys’ original portrayal of Ed so they drastically changed the character. In 1985, Ed was Charlie’s die-hard friend but considering Charlie’s evolution in this version, Ed is understandably quite bitter but also extremely manipulative of Charlie. He’s not really a fun character anymore but considering Ed’s story arc, he makes more sense in this. My only beef with his part: early in the film it seems like some scenes are missing that would explain just how Ed knows the weirdness going on with Charlie’s neighbor. I imagine scenes may have been cut for pacing but it was a little awkward. It felt like we were showing up in the middle of the movie. It’s a small matter though.

Amy is a bit more complex now as well, which I appreciated. She’s not just Girlfriend. She genuinely likes Charlie because deep down inside he really is a sweet nerd, not the superficial slave  of fashion he pretends to be. That depth in character was refreshing to see in a film about vampires.

Charlie’s mom is not a dumb-dumb in this. Of course she expresses reservations when Charlie starts freaking out about their neighbor being a vampire but she makes good choices, even affording Charlie a level of trust when it might not yet have been merited. She is a really good mom! And it doesn’t take long for that trust to be rewarded. The age old horror trope of parents NEVER believing the kid is not present in this film or, at least, it’s quickly overcome. So nice to see rational behavior.

Peter Vincent, our impromptu Van Helsing, is drastically different here. Set up more like Criss Angel and his Mindfreak illusion show, David Tennant portrays a crass, apathetic, strangely cartoony Las Vegas magician with a flair for the macabre and major Vampire PTSD. He’s fun in a less classy way when compared to Roddy McDowell’s rendition of the character. This is one change they made just to add some production value and modernization I think. In the age of streaming services and YouTube, we don’t really see a lot of TV horror hosts anymore like Roddy was patterned after. That’s kind of sad. I miss Joe Bob Briggs. That dude was awesome.

Colin Farrell was perfect in the role of Jerry Dandrige, the vampire neighbor. If Chris Sarandon was the epitome of suave and enchanting in 1985, Farrell is definitely the 2011 version. Don’t tell my wife I said that.

I’d love to have like 50% of Colin Farrell’s good looks but sadly I am cursed with 110% which you would think is a good thing but I’m like TOO handsome?

Anyway, because mom wasn’t a stupid dumb-dumb head in this film, it meant Jerry the vampire wasn’t able to just gallivant around their house. What Jerry chose to do alternately made this movie so much better! OMGosh! I was reeling as events unfolded!

So good! I even showed some of the kids the next day.

The effects aren’t bad. Standard cgi stuff. Nothing beats the practical effects of the original but that gaping maw vampires get in these films look decent enough. It doesn’t really matter because this film was just so well thought out! I cannot think of another film where I liked the remake better than the original. So much for my theory that the only reason to remake a film is to put Nicolas Cage into it. It’s hard to imagine but Fright Night (2011) was great even without Nick Cage! Now I need to go watch Renfield (2013) to get my fix.

On the other hand, research has revealed a film called Never Cry Werewolf (2008) which as I understand it is either homage or blatant rip-off of Fright Night but with werewolves instead of Vampires. Looks like I have some homework.