In the world of film-making there are a lot of things you need to learn about if you wish to pursue this career one of which is DON'T BOTHER MAKING SHITTY REMAKES. Now I've already made my peace with the rare remakes that are genuinely good while other remakes can just go rot in the filmmakers' asshole. So which category does the 2011 remake of Fright Night falls under? Well believe me or not the answer may surprise you.
So we start off with at a suburban home in Las Vegas where a family (except for a teenage boy) had been slaughtered by an unknown being. The teenage boy runs to his father's room and hides under the bed, the boy grabs a gun under the mattress but gets kill off before getting the chance to use it. We cut to daytime where we're introduced to Charley Brewster (played by Anton Yelchin) and his girlfriend Amy Peterson (played by Imogen Poots) heading off to school. At the school Charley is approached by Ed "Evil" Lee (played by Christopher Mintz-Plasse) telling him that there's something going on with some of the students not showing at the school including their friend Adam but Charley refuses to listen. Ed continues to convince Charley to join him in a investigation he's been working on, Charley finally agrees. You'll notice the tension between Charley and Ed because they used to be geek friends until Charley started to get some popularity to the point that he doesn't talk to Ed anymore. Later back home, Charley and Amy are introduced to Jerry Dandrige (played by Colin Farrell) who is the new neighbor next door to Charley's place. A little bit later Charley meets up with Ed at Adam's house, the two sneak in and look around the house until Ed tells Charley that Jerry is a vampire. Of course Charley doesn't believe him; they began to argue until Charley pushes him down and leaves. Ed is heading home until he's tackled down by a bully but managed to get away but unfortunately runs into Jerry. Ed runs into an abandon house with Jerry going after him. Ed gets out from the bathroom and ends in the backyard where Jerry waiting for him, Ed falls into a pool and slowly but surely Jerry kills Ed. The following day Charley notices that Ed is not at the school so right after school he heads to Ed's house, the parents don't seems to notice that Ed is gone. I guess they really didn't love their son all that much too even notice that he hasn't been home since last night. Anyway Charley goes into Ed's room and goes looking on his computer, he looks at some video clips of Ed watching Jerry. Only to see or (the case that Jerry is a vampire) not see Jerry on the videos since vampires don't appear on any video recording device. OK so Ed had actually video evidence of Jerry being a vampire and not even bother to show them to Charley. Don't you think that instead of going to Charley like raving lunatic you could of just I don't know SHOW HIM THE VIDEO. Just maybe if you did he might actually believe you and be on your side....just saying. Later that night Charley is approached by Jerry asking for some beer for a date. Charley goes to his house to get some but carefully doesn't invite Jerry in his home because vampires can't enter one's home without being invited. You know this film does a good job of sticking with the rules of vampires unlike this one vampire film that personally ass-rapes the rules. That's right I'm talking to you Twilight what's your fucking excuse? Anyway Charley hangs Jerry some beer and then he leaves. Back in his bedroom Charley spies on Jerry who's right outside with a new victim....I mean woman. This doesn't please Amy as she tries to seduce Charley to have sex but is still spying on Jerry to the point Amy decides to leave. Late that night Charley is awaken by the woman's scream from Jerry's house after which Charley proceeds to call the cops. The cops don't seem to find anything out of the normal and then leave while Charley watches from his bedroom window.
A little bit later Charley spots Jerry leaving his house giving him the chance to sneak into Jerry's house to look for the woman. He searches all over the house finds no sign the woman but found some type of vampire insignia and takes a picture. Charley hears a truck engine which turns out to be Jerry returning home. Charley quickly goes into a closet in Jerry's bedroom where he finds a hidden door to a small hallway with rooms which Charley finds the woman in one of them. Before Charley gets her out Jerry comes in forcing Charley to hide in one of the empty rooms as he watches Jerry drink blood from the woman before leaving the hallway. Charley finally frees the still alive woman makes break for it to the front, they make it outside but apparently the woman was becoming a vampire therefore she immediately explodes in the sunlight. Oooooh nasty. So Charley decides to head to the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino to find Peter Vincent for help and upon arriving at a rehearsal he meets Peter Vincent (played by the Tenth Doctor himself David Tennant) This is the reason why I watched this film because the Tenth flipping Doctor is in it, this film just got hilarious and awesome. We cut to Peter's penthouse where Charley tries to get info from Peter since that he's this oh so vampire hunter. But Peter immediately senses bullshit tells Charley to leave but not before Charley leaves pictures of the vampire insignia. Back at Charley's place he place crosses all over his bedroom and making some stakes until Amy arrives demanding some explanations from Charley but instead he tries to convince her to stay away from him. Moments later Jerry arrives at the front door, Charley stops his mom from answering. Jerry tries to convince Charley's mom to let him in because of Charley has been intruding into his home and stalking him. But luckily Charley's mom listens to Charley instead and tells Jerry to leave. Of course this doesn't stop Jerry at all as heads to Charley's backyard with a shovel and an electric hand saw. Jerry digs up a gas line cuts it open and lights the opening with a cigarette lighter causing the gas in the house to explode forcing Charley and the others to get out. The three escapes in a SUV but Jerry soon follow and catch up to them in his truck until he's ahead of them. Charley's mom runs him over and keep on driving but Jerry has cling to the bottom of the SUV and starts punches through the floor. They come to a stop and get hit from behind by a car which turns out that motorist is none other than Chris Sarandon the original Jerry Dandrige from the original film. Now to be fair I did not see this coming, this film has actually impressed me. Anyway Jerry Hulks out and lifts the SUV off of him and kills off....ugh....ugh....you know what let’s call him J.D. to prevent some confusion so yeah Jerry kills off J.D. and goes after the three. Charley makes a stand with a cross in hand but that doesn't seem to bother Jerry and proceeds to kill Charley. But his mom stabs Jerry from behind with a sign stake...wow...damn way a go Charley's mom. And with that the three gets to J.D.'s car and drive off. At a hospital where Charley's mom is recovering from....stabbing a vampire from behind I guess. Anyway Charley gets a call from Peter asking him to come over his penthouse...OK how does Peter have Charley's cell number?
Anyway Charley and Amy show up and Peter explains to them the vampire insignia belongs to some type of tribunal species of vampires that keeps their victims alive for days while feeding on them. A little bit later Peter gets a delivery and invites the delivery guy in and...wait it's the middle of the night. Ah crap it's a trap. The delivery guy turns out to be Ed back from the dead as a vampire. Peter despite being armed with a stake runs away to his panic room. Hey cut the guy some slack it's not every day he fights real vampires OK. So Charley and Amy are left fighting off vampire Ed while Jerry enters the penthouse. Charley merely wounds him but managed to staked vampire Ed with the help from Amy. The two run off into a crowded dance night club to get away but Jerry soon follows. Charley and Amy get separated by the crowd and Amy is caught by Jerry. Charley tries to follow Jerry but is slow down by the crowd then stopped by a bouncer while Jerry feeds on Amy. Charley returns to the penthouse asking Peter for help but once again he refuses, so instead Peter hands Charley a special stake which upon killing a vampire with the victims return to normal. Around the crack of dawn Charley goes to a general hardware store and gears up to fight Jerry. Charley returns to Jerry's house finding Amy in one of the hallway rooms but Amy falls through a trap door. As Charley is about to go into the abyss he is surprisingly accompanied by Peter with his vampire killing tools of his own. Oh come on you really thought that the Doctor was gonna puss out for the rest of the film? It's obviously from the trailers that he kicks some vampire ass. The two go through the trap door into an underground lair. They enter a room where Peter is sneak attacked by Jerry and locks in Charley with the now vampire Amy. Peter retreats back into the first room where he's now cornered by a horde of vampires. Charley stabs vampire Amy but not in the heart and breaks out of the room. Charley runs back into the first room only to find the vampire horde feeding on Peter. NOOOOOO NOT THE DOCTOR I......wait he's the Doctor he can just regenerate and he'll be as good as new. Anyway Charley grabs Peter's shotgun and starts shooting the ceiling letting in sunlight that burns the vampires off of Peter. Charley runs to Peter but get the shotgun taken from him by Jerry and he and Peter are outnumbered. Charley ready his plan as it turns out the outfit he's wearing is a flame-retardant suit, Peter provides the light and Charley does some TOASTY action. Charley grabs hold of Jerry as Peter grabs the shotgun shoots more holes in the ceiling. Jerry continues to shake off flaming Charley with no prevail ultimately getting stabbed in the heart and dies. As that has happened victims who were turned by Jerry are returned to normal including Amy. The film ends everything returning to normal and Charley and Amy finally openly having sex...at Peter's penthouse of all places. Hey at least they're not having sex in the TARDIS which would lead Amy being pregnant and giving birth to a Time Lord and having a Time Lord as a son-in-law. Perhaps I'm geeking out about Doctor Who a bit too much.
My Final Verdict: I honestly thought I was gonna hate this remake I really did. But upon watching it three times now...I loved it. Unlike most remakes the characters aren't made of stupid from beginning to end, the story doesn't insult your intelligence, and the film itself is modernized to the point that actually makes sense. And also David Tennant is fucking awesome; even if this film sucked I would still love it because David Fucking Tennant is in it. Now the next remake I'm reviewing I won’t be so merciful, next time it's the 1996 remake of Humanoids from the Deep. Stay tuned.
