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Fright Night (1985)
Rate:
6
Viewed:
11/03, 9/20
9/20:
Despite the excellent-looking poster and the fun horror theme, Chris Sarandon is the only worthwhile part about
Fright Night.
Having seen the movie over five times since the 80's, I always came away disappointed because it could've
been much more. My thinking is that the filmmakers ran out of gas during the second half. At least, it
initially works well, and the Peter Vincent thing is cool which is a mix of Peter Cushing and Vincent Price.
It's hard to believe that Jerry Dandridge let himself be defeated by these nitwits so easily. He practically
invited death upon himself by saying, "Oh, yeah...Charley, go ahead and kill me because you are more important
than me." At least, Jerry has an indelible movie moment by announcing: "Welcome to Frrrright Night."
I know Chris Sarandon was terrific in Dog Day Afternoon, but his
performance here may be the best of his career. He has a great aura of seductiveness which
makes it easy to root for his character. Forget the rest of the cast; they're hopeless just like the über
annoying Stephen Geoffreys who ended up doing gay porn.
The editing job is bad. Take a couple of scenes with Roddy McDowell. One shot shows a close-up of his face
looking surprised. The next is what's happening at the moment. It's back to Roddy with the same expression
and then over to the other one. Back and forth...back and forth...back and forth...come on, enough is enough.
All in all, Fright Night has the potential to be much better.