Tonight, Streebo made the trip out to an advance screening of the remake of Tom Holland’s 1985 classic Fright Night. Fright Night (2011) stars Colin Farrell, Anton Yelchin, David Tennant, and Imogen Poots. As a quick aside – is that really this actress’ name? Imogen Poots? Is this part of that cosmic joke the universe is playing on us to see if we pay attention? I don’t know. We’ll have to leave that to the scholars and philosophers to decide. Fright Night tells the tale of Charley Brewster and the not so friendly neighborhood vampire that lives next door played by Colin Farrell.
Charley is fairly sympathetic and likeable but rather bland early on – bringing the movie to an near grinding pace – however once the vampire action set pieces kick in the pace picks up steadily. Hardcore horror and vampire fans might not find themselves as enthralled by the onscreen carnage as the n00bs, but once David Tennant enters the scene as Peter Vincent – the movie is kicked up to a higher gear. The gore is decent – but mostly CGI as are the vampire monster faces so gore-hounds are probably going to leave dissatisfied.
There’s not a single drop of nudity in the movie – not even so much as one tittle – so to speak. The vamp fighting action 
is fun and once Vincent is in the movie the characters are much more engaging. Farrell never elicits any real sense of menace – but this movie aims more for laughs and action than horror. Imogen Poots as the hot girlfriend Amy – is exactly that – drop dead gorgeous and does her job as the resident eye candy with cutesy flair in addition to helping provide some emotional depth to the character of Charley.
Fans of the 1985 classic will note that the character of Evil Ed is largely absent from the film and Peter Vincent is radically different. During the big mid-movie chase scene – pay close attention for a cool cameo with the original Jerry Dandrige himself – Chris Sarandon. The movie is fun and will no doubt have some crossover appeal and it very much aims for that non-horror True Blood watching audience. Streebo gives Fright Night (2011) a 6 out of 10 on the Streebo scream-o-meter. If you’re looking for a safe date movie this fall then make it this one.
Check out my full review in the video below:
Yeah, Imogen Poots! Don’t you remember her from 28 Weeks Later and Centurion?
Never saw Centurion – but I do remember her in 28 Weeks Later now that you mention it.