#165 -- Fright Night (1985)

Director: Tom Holland
Rating: 4 / 5

It's been a very long time since I first saw this movie, and I'd forgotten just how awesome certain parts of it were. This one and the original are both on demand, so I figured I'd get cracking on them. I think every horror fan knows Fright Night, and it seems to me that everyone has positive things to say about it. I can definitely understand why, because it's very entertaining. It's about a teenager named Charlie. It seemed like he was a fairly normal guy with a pretty normal girlfriend, Amy. He had sex on his mind, as does pretty much every other teenager. That was until someone moved into the house next door. He became a little obsessed with his new neighbor, because the very first day of his arrival, Charlie saw a coffin being carried into the house. He was curious and a little bit worried, so he started watching the guy's every move. He was Jerry Dandridge, and Charlie became positive that he was a vampire. He felt pretty safe when his best friend explained to him that a vampire cannot enter your home without being invited first. But, unfortunately, Charlie's mom thought Jerry was a hottie and invited him in for drinks. That, of course, meant that Jerry could come and go as he pleased. He took advantage of that, so he could sneak into Charlie's room one night to try and kill him (because he wasn't pleased that Charlie figured out his secret. But poor Charlie was all alone. His mom, Amy, his best friend "Evil" Ed, and of course the police force all thought he was nuts. No one would help him. That was until Amy paid Charlie's favorite TV star to come and help out. Peter Vincent was known on television as the greatest vampire killer of all time, but in real life he was nothing but a scared little old man. He needed the money, though, so he decided to go along and help convince Charlie that he was wrong. He took along a vial of water, told Charlie it was holy water, and had Jerry drink it. Shortly, though, Peter realized that Charlie had actually been right.

Jerry wasn't very happy that all these people knew his secret, so he went after them. He took Evil Ed first, turning him into one of the funniest vampires I've ever seen. He sent Evil to kill Peter, but that didn't work out very well. Then he kidnapped Amy in an attempt to get Charlie and Peter to his house so he could kill them himself. So it was Charlie and Peter vs. Jerry and his henchman Billy. Some interesting things I learned from this: when vampires are staked, they leak acid, which is what makes them turn to dust. It's really gross to watch, but kind of funny at the same time. Sunlight turns them to dust too, but that's nothing we didn't already know. Crosses burn their skin, though I'm not so sure how garlic effects them in this one. It was mentioned, but it was never really used. So, Fright Night does stick true to the vampire legend, which is cool. They were also able to transform into really beautiful wolves. Evil Ed became a wolf while trying to kill Peter Vincent, but he changed back when he got a table leg stuck in his heart. The transformation was gruesome, and not in the good way. That beautiful wolf became hideous in mere seconds, but I guess the effects were pretty good considering. I don't care about all that anyways, as you know, as long as it appears that someone was at least trying to make it look good.

This was made in the '80s, so you know it's going to be silly going into it. The vampire effects weren't that great (aside from the Amy-vampire; that just looked wicked, in my opinion). The acting was okay, the dialogue was typical '80s style. Everything about it screamed '80s horror movie, and it's great. My favorite character by far was Evil Ed. Human or vampire, that guy was weird enough to be absolutely hilarious. His acting was strange but extremely entertaining. I didn't know it until now, but the woman who played Amy would eventually go on to become that weird chick that lived next door to the Bundys in Married With Children. And Evil Ed would go on to star in a shitload of gay porno flicks. But anyways, Fright Night is a great movie, cheesy special effects and all.