Fright Night
1985, Tom Holland
A high school student believes his new neighbor is a vampire (spoiler: he's right!) and enlists the aid of a washed up horror movie star (Roddy McDowall) to stop him.
Well, that was disappointing. Fright Night is kind of a mess, with tonal problems and inconsistent performances. For every solid Roddy McDowall moment, there's a terrible William Ragsdale scene. For every good Stephen Geoffreys as a vampire bit, there's a terrible Stephen Geoffreys as a human bit. It's also oddly paced and tends to drag - our heroes head to the vampire's house to confront him with 37 minutes left, and that final confrontation does indeed take 37 minutes, and you do indeed feel every one of them.
On the other hand, there were some very effective make-up effects (the wolf transformation, Amy's mouth at the end), although those really only make up for the awful vampire design. And Chris Sarandon made for one of the better modern-day vampires I've seen. . . except when the makeup came out. I probably sound more down on this movie than I actually am - it isn't really bad. I was just expecting more. Maybe the remake (with David Tennant!) will be better.
5.5/10
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