Fright Night (1985) is directed by Tom Holland (not Spider-Man) and stars William Ragsdale, Chris Sarandon, Roddy McDowall, Amanda Bearse, Stephen Geoffreys, and Dorothy Fielding. The film follows teenager Charley Brewster (Ragsdale) who becomes convinced that his new next-door neighbor (Sarandon) is actually a vampire. Charley struggles to convince his mother (Fielding), girlfriend (Bearse), and friend “Evil Ed” of the vampire’s existence. When Charley has nowhere else to turn, he enlists the help of famous TV vampire slayer, Peter Vincent. Charley is quickly reminded that the real-life Peter Vincent and the characters he plays on TV are not even close to one in the same. When Peter is finally convinced of the vampire’s true existence, he must use his knowledge of fictional vampires and apply that to a real one. The thing is, some of the information is accurate, some not so much. Together, Charley and Peter are forced into a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse with an otherworldly foe, only slightly protected by their pop-culture knowledge of vampire lore. 

I have a personal rule that I will not review holiday movies before my birthday on December 3rd. It is my own strict personal tradition. So, today being December 2nd, I recognized that this would be my last chance in quite awhile to review a spooky film of any kind. Since it is my birthday, I felt it appropriate to review one of my favorite films. I watched Fright Night for the first time at quite a young age and since then it has always stuck with me. Similar to what The Lost Boys (1987) would also achieve two years later, Fright Night is a perfect example of a fun 80’s horror-comedy featuring classic vampire lore. 

The acting here is really a strange mix of good and bad elements. The delivery of dialogue, especially from Ragsdale and Bearse, oftentimes feels forced, dated, and a bit awkward. The dialogue seems as if it’s attempting to emulate an older B-movie of sorts. Sometimes this supports the more fun and goofy tone, but other times feels just plain old cheesy. The direction of some of these scenes doesn’t always help either. Odd music choices and over focus on certain elements were a bit distracting. Roddy McDowall is very entertaining as Peter Vincent, giving the right balance to portray a soft actor who often identifies more with the characters he plays in movies even though he truly shares zeros commonalities. I just wish the performance gave us a little more badassery in certain areas. The character ceases to be cool or formidable even when he steps out of his comfort zone. Though the juxtaposition between his initial fear and eventual brave actions is interesting in its own right. Chris Sarandon has the perfect amount of evil charisma to make his vampire role iconic. He really gives this feeling of both seductive grace and ancient evil. The most memorable performance though is by Stephen Geoffreys as Evil Ed. This performance is so maniacal and fun that it sort of penetrated my soul. He’s that sort of 80’s character that has a cartoonish laugh for just about everything. He also is incapable of taking anything seriously in the slightest. It’s just such a wild physical performance that it’s hard to forget. He also provides some of the bigger dark comedy moments in the film. The performance gave me a similar feeling to seeing Matthew Lillard’s performance as Stu Macher in Scream (1996).

What’s really great about Fright Night is its balance of dark comedy. Compared to something like The Lost Boys, this is far more of a comedy in my opinion. This does make any horror within the film suffer, but I never felt this movie needed to be very scary in the first place. What they try to emulate here are more classical horror villains such as your Draculas and Frankensteins and Werewolves. Those horror characters were always more fun than scary in a way. That’s not to say there is no serious tension here, it’s just more on the level of PG-13 fare as opposed to hard R. The film is also really nicely paced. These types of “Nobody believes me” movies often become repetitive, going through a cycle of “I have proof” and “the villain is one step ahead.” The film certainly does feature this structure, but it never feels like a significant portion of the runtime. There’s a nice variation in the events here to keep things moving along.

The film does feature a few questionable choices in places. Vampire death scenes are absurdly prolonged. Sometimes this is a great showcase of the practical effects used and other times it causes the viewer to almost chuckle at how long it is. There are also some romance elements that are undeniably dated and the cast isn’t always able to pull them off. 

What makes Fright Night such a classic and one of my favorite films despite its clear flaws is the fact that it’s all just so ferociously entertaining in such a pure way. The horror is exciting, but not so scary or graphic that it becomes uncomfortable. The comedy is very funny, but in balance with the dramatic elements. The characters are clear, likable, imperfect, and again: fun. The premise alone is irresistible. The idea of having an aging TV horror star be forced to fight monsters in the real world sounds like a recipe for some fun situations if you ask me. The film is also very self-aware in terms of the horror film canon. You can see the influence this had on meta films such as Wes Craven’s Scream through characters like Evil Ed and the film’s constant references to classic horror movie monsters.

Overall, Fright Night is another classic of 80’s horror-comedy. It is not without its flaws and other dated elements, but they are the kind that can easily be ignored/forgiven within a film that is this much fun. The film avoids being boring at any given point and succeeds at delivering the goods in terms of movie magic. It doesn’t check off every box on the “perfect movie list,” but it does have more x-factor elements than most films one would describe as “perfect” or “Oscar worthy.” This is just plain old classic fun, and for me it’s as good as it gets. Though, I have to admit objectively that it isn’t perfect and hasn’t aged as well as I would’ve liked. B+