Fright Night

“Fright Night” review

            I should say, as I begin my review of the new slam-bang horror semi-blockbuster “Fright Night,” that I am not a fan of the horror genre.  I do not take joy in cries of pain, and I am particularly put-off by the new brand of American torture-porn exemplified in the Saw series.  However, as I was pleased to discover in the theater, Fright Night is not a horror movie, at least not purely.

            Fright Night is, at heart, an action movie.  Most horror movies, or the ones that I’ve seen at least, are largely buildup.  There’s something scary across the street, no there isn’t, yes there is, no there isn’t, yes there is, no there isn’t, oh no here it comes!  While this series of false starts normally lasts for the majority of the movie, in Fright Night, it lasts a maximum of twenty minutes, and the rest of the running time is mostly just a series of action set pieces.

            But don’t worry, the building tension has its own revelatory component, the horrific, sinister, hilarious, gleeful performance of Colin Farrel.  I howled with laughter and glowed with admiration when Farrel caught the protagonist (Anton Yelchin) in his gaze, held him steady, and warned of “Bad.  People. Charlie.”  Every moment Farrel is on the screen was a joy.

            As for the other performances in the film, I would say that they are serviceable, but not really any more.  None of them truly charmed me, not even Christopher Mintz-Plasse (of Mclovin fame) or David Tennant (of Dr. Who fame), who were each overpowered by Farrel’s magnum charisma.  However, in the film’s second half, all performances are drowned out by the movement of the camera and the excitement of the violence.  When a car comes from nowhere and slams into shot, the camera immediately flips to the side, giving a panoramic view of the chaos as a hand reaches from beyond the frame and gropes for a victim, and then just as quickly refocuses on the road behind it.

            Despite incredible artistic set pieces like the one just mentioned, I’d say that this film far from perfect, as evidenced by its disregard for physics and its tenuous hold to traditional vampire lore.  Speaking on that, I know that in Dracula aversion to sunlight and a steak through the heart are described, I’ve never heard of super strength or body dysmorphia being elements of vampire myth.  Thin characterization and nonsense aside, Fright Night is so much fun you’ll never care.

3 stars