I didn’t even know they were remaking Fright Night until I saw the trailer for it last week while waiting to watch Horrible Bosses. And I wasn’t exactly blown away by the trailer, if I’m honest. Even though the cast suggests this should be a brilliant film.
Colin Farrell as a vampire who moves into a neighborhood and starts preying on people? Tick. Anton Yelchin and Christopher Mintz-Plasse as the teenagers who realize what is going on and do all they can to stop their town descending into a cacophony of chaos? Tick. A cameo by Dr. Who David Tennant? Tick.
Unfortunately none of this helps, and I won’t be bothering with Fright Night. Perhaps part of the reason is that I’m all vampired out thanks to the Twilight series ramming them down our throats for the past few years. Not that this bears much resemblance to Twilight, as explained by Yelchin:
“[Fright Night] acknowledges the presence of a particular kind of romantic image of a vampire that’s now, because of Twilight, the way we see that traditionally menacing horror figure. Now it’s a romantic figure and we bring it back and say, no – he moved in and he’s just going to f**king f**k you, or kill you, or both.”
Twilight has changed vampires and the way we view them, possibly for ever. But will Odd Thomas, the Dean Koontz books which Yelchin is set to star in the movie adaptation of, change our view of those who can see dead people? Yelchin continued:
“I think it’s a great character. There’s a lot going on there, because he’s given this spiritual ability that makes his world so complex. I mean, face to face with death every day, and the universe he lives in, the moral universe, is so intense. He’s of both realms; he’s a human being but he’s also within the spiritual realm at all times. So it gives you the room to sort of put him… I mean, he’s Odd Thomas. His name is ‘Odd,’ so he’s weird. It allows you to experiment with that, and at the same time, kick some ass. It’s a fun combination of a lot of things.”
Yelchin’s career is going from strength-to-strength. After Fright Night and Odd Thomas he’ll be starring in the next Star Trek movie. We could be looking at the next Hollywood A-lister, assuming Fright Night isn’t a complete and utter flop.
