Fright Night

Written by Jonathan Jacobs

Fright Night is wildly entertaining. The storyline adheres just enough to the original plot for me to ignore the modern trappings inserted by director Craig Gillespie. Fright Night is a remake of the 1985 film starring William Ragsdale (Herman from "Herman's Head" for those of you old enough to recollect the failed sitcom). What is new about Fright Night v 3 or FN 2011 as it were, is Colin Farrell. Farrell brings a much needed edginess and let's face it, a believable bad boy vibe to the franchise. Even better is the added bonus of Christopher Mintz-Plasse returning to his McLovin' roots by acting like a bamboozling buffoon. There is nothing more pleasurable than watching the clumsy geek-Ed Nelson (Mintz-Plasse) turn into the frightful vampire 'Evil' Ed Nelson. Newsflash people, turning into an undead creature of the night does not guarantee a change of personality, a mailing address perhaps, but that's it!

Charley Brewster (Anton Yelchin) is a run-of-the mill regular guy. He lives in what passes for a Las Vegas suburbia (removed from the strip) with his gorgeous mother Jane (Tony Collette). Charley has a smoking hot teenage girlfriend Amy (Imogen Poots) who drives him to school despite the sarcastic remarks directed their way from the popular adolescents. Along the beaten path from geekdom to pseudo-popularity Charley managed to step on a few toes, namely Ed Nelson's. He abandoned his childhood friend for the greener pastures of beautiful women and a sense of belonging in high school. All of his newfound, tenuous happiness blows up when a new and inimical neighbor crashes his teenage pants party.

Jerry Dandridge (Farrell) is the ultimate bad boy personified. He is flirtatious, intelligent, provocative, and a real beefcake to the extreme (Farrell has a background in the adult film industry). From the first instant Jerry moved to the small Vegas neighborhood, Ed became convinced he was a vampire. Naturally, nearly everyone dismissed his outlandish notions because creatures of the night allegedly only exist in the science fiction and fantasy section at Barnes and Noble. When Ed is abandoned by Charley as an attention seeking lunatic, Jerry takes advantage of the situation and turns the young whippersnapper into a vampire...a comically pathetic one at that.

Meanwhile, the notion that Jerry is a vampire eats away at Charley as his classmates begin disappearing. He is so distracted that he misses out on a golden opportunity to lose his virginity to the hottest girl in school. His imagination runs wild and the evidence begins mounting in favor of the impossible. To add diesel to the inferno, Charley watches the infamous Vegas illusionist/vampire slayer Peter Vincent (David Tennan) on television and becomes mesmerized. Charley seeks Peter out only to find he is a drunken fraud, but a wealthy swindler with a blazing hot girlfriend (Sandra Vergara).

Charley becomes desperate enough to break into Jerry's house after he has heard screams emanating from the premises. This breaking and entering bravado convinces Jerry his neighbor is a threat and must be eliminated. The level of violence quickly escalates and Jerry blows up their entire house via a natural gas leak. Charley, Jane and Amy are nearly incinerated. They escape and the game of cat and mouse begins.

Interspersed between the thrilling actions scenes are dozens of hilarious jokes. Plasse's inefficacy is hysterical and Ferrell's flaunting is not to be missed. Similar to the original character, only with more tattoos and in the extreme, this Peter the vampire slayer is rather cowardly and full of malarkey. He owns nearly every weapon conceivable used to diminish vampirism but he is too afraid to use them.

Fright Night is the first film I have watched all year that is perfect for the 18-34 age demographic. It is hot, sexy, hilarious and best of all entertaining. Colin Ferrell is the perfect next door neighbor/vampire snacker. He exudes sexy masculinity and bloodthirst with a perfect balance. Yelchin will never set Hollywood on fire but he sure can light up a vampire like a campfire smore. For those of you that love to disagree with me I challenge you to pinpoint any flaw with Fright Night, because I didn't find even one. Bravo, finally a vampire movie that is not RETARDED like Twilight which lacks even a heartbeat of imagination and creativity.