'Fright Night' tells the tale of Charlie Brewster, young man who loves him some horror flicks. One night, Ol' Charlie catches a glimpse of his next door neighbor and suspects him of being a creature of the night and now it's up to him to convince everyone else around him before they become the next victims. I first saw this film early into my what I like to call initiation into the horror genre. I saw the film very late at night during a Halloween TV marathon and I never forgot about it. Now even today, the film really takes me back to the days of 'Goosebumps', 'Are You Afraid of the Dark?', and TNT's 'Monstervision'. I was always fascinated with monsters and spooky things, even though as a child they scared the hell out of me and left me with many sleepless nights, but I couldn't help it this stuff brings so many emotions to me.
And these old memories are why I love 'Fright Night'. It's not a particularly great horror movie, it has many slow moments and only at the end does the ball truly get rolling with some awesome special effects and monsters but those childhood memories are what keep me going back to it every Halloween. And I believe that will be most people's reactions to it, it feels just like one of those B-Movies you would watch on 'Elvira' late at night. It almost has a 'So cheesy it's good' mood to it. The old Universal Monsters and the 1980's just oozes from 'Fright Night' and I love it to death.
As I said, the film's ending is where the real money and it can tend to be slow but I like certain parts of the first half. Roddy McDowell is the best part of the film in my opinion, playing a Peter Cushing late night TV host who must find his faith to battle the vampires at hand. William Ragsdale is charming as Charlie and he always reminds me of myself and most horror fanatics. He's such a relatable character and it's his charm that pulls off the character so well. One final standout is the character of EVIL ED, played by Stephen Geoffreys. This character is insane and goes through multiple special effects transformations that really hold up and are creepy as hell. He also provides some humor to balance the horror and he's really funny.
'Fright Night' is what I call a 'Sleepover' movie. The kind of film one of your older siblings would have an old VHS tape of and you aren't supposed to be watching it. You have your pizza, your soda, and your popcorn and you're all set to get the shit scared outta ya. I love it and I love 'Fright Night'.
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