Fright Night revolves around Charley Brewster (Anton Yelchin), a high school student adjusting to life as a popular kid as he deals with his relationships with his girlfriend Amy (Imogen Poots) and former best friend Ed (Christopher Mintz-Plasse). One day, he discovers that his next door neighbour Jerry (Colin Farrell) is a vampire, and things just spiral out of control from there.
Yes, this is a teen movie. However, before you shun this, there’s one more word you should remember: vampires. Truthfully, without vampires, this would have been another production that we could have rightfully ignored. Fortunately, because of their inclusion, the film becomes accessible to young audiences but at the same time still gives enough incentive for other viewers. We are treated to an interesting blend of character self-discovery, romance, creature mayhem and litres of blood.
Physically speaking, vampires have many interpretations. For Fright Night, how the vampire looks like is captured effectively; not too monstrous, not too sexy, and definitely not sparkling. Effects are pretty decent. The film was able to visualize how tasty a human being can be (Not that we should try being cannibals anytime soon, but I’m just saying). Through the screen, you can feel the crunch of every bite that goes through the human flesh.
The film’s take on vampires is traditional. It does not deviate that much from popular culture. For example, if you’ve been exposed to other material before, you would find the ways on how to kill a vampire very familiar. Although this does not make the film more unique, the simplicity is actually fun. For once, you don’t have to worry about a vampire feature you may have missed out. That being said, the origin of Jerry was not explained that well. It was simply narrated. I understand that the focus of the story is how this boring neighborhood deals with such a being, but having a little more background would have been better.