Fright Night

Plot synopsis:
In the opening shot during the credits, there is a shot of a sub-division suburb of Las Vegas. It's night, and all the houses look exactly the same, with desert and nothingness not far from this quaint little slice of suburbia.Inside one of the homes, a small dog climbs through the pet door of the back door and walks past a big screen TV with the local news describing the latest in a bizarre string of attacks, where people say someone is trying to bite them in parking lots and other odd places. The television also plays an advertisement for Peter Vincent's "Fright Night", which is a Las Vegas vampire-themed illusion show at the Hard Rock Hotel that's a mix of David Copperfield, Chris Angel, and Vincent Price.Inside the house, the dog senses something's wrong as the camera shows a boy being tossed out of a room like a rag doll... a woman inside the room clearly being eaten by something with nasty, grayish claws and very long nails. The boy regains enough of his senses to head upstairs, trying to hide from the creature. In a bedroom, the parents of the house are both dead, the mother on the bed exsanguinated and the father on the floor with his neck slashed open while he was trying to unlock and load up a rifle. The boy dives under the bed and tries fumbling with the gun himself, snagging the key to the lock from the dead man's pants. As he's fumbling, the creature comes into the room and starts to drag the man's body away. He hears the boy drop the bullets for the gun, lifts up the bed, and kills him.The next day, we are introduced to Charley Brewster (Anton Yelchin), a classic, all-American teen, with a motor bike he's trying to fix up and an inexplicably hot girlfriend named Amy (Imogen Poots) who tools around in a lime green Volkswagon Beetle. Charley is a recovering dork, who until recently was more interested in making Power Rangers-style YouTube videos with his friends Ed and Adam than girls... but all that seems to have changed with Amy. Charley's now running in a faster social circle, and has coldly severed ties with his dorkier friends.Charley's mother, Jane (Toni Collette), is a Nevada real estate agent, constantly filling up her car with For Sale signs (important later), since people in Las Vegas are transient by nature. No one is "from" Las Vegas, and few stay in Vegas for long, with many of them up and leaving very quickly without much notice or fanfare. Jane laments this to Charley, as beloved neighbors the Perrys moved away, leaving their home vacant for a long time... until a new neighbor, named Jerry, purchased it and started renovating it somehow. Jane's confused because she sees a lot of concrete being removed from the house, though she knows Jerry is not installing a pool. Charley tells her to stop spying on the neighbor and to stop obsessing over the construction dumpster in his yard, but Jane says she's only trying to keep up the look of the neighborhood, since she needs homes to sell so she can make money.A neighbor from across the street, Doris, is a go-go dancer in one of the Vegas casinos, and walks around the neighborhood in skimpy little outfits. A lot of the people who live around there work night jobs on the Vegas strip, so it's not uncommon to see homes with the windows blackened or curtained shut, since there are many people in this town who sleep all day. Jane informs Charley that Jerry the neighbor works night construction downtown, and that's why they've never seen him. Charley's motorcycle isn't working again, so he accepts a ride to school from Amy and her friends.When they get to school, Mark (Dave Franco) and Ben (Reid Ewing) hassle Charley over the mocha frappachino he's drinking, since he rode to school with all the girls. Charley is the new addition to the cool crowd, since he's dating Amy, and that means Mark and Ben have to be nice to him instead of picking on him like they did in the past. Charley wants to ask Amy to the prom, but Amy says she's too cool to go to a school dance, and Charley then backs off and realizes he has a lot to learn about being cool. This is clearly and obsession with him. In school, the teacher takes morning roll and several students are missing...including Adam, who used to be good friends with both Charley and "Evil Ed" Lee (Christopher Mintz-Plasse). Charley doesn't seem to care that Adam is missing, but Ed looks incredibly concerned.After class, Ed pulls Charley away from Mark and Ben long enough to tell him that he's worried about Adam and the other kids who have gone missing lately. Charley doesn't want to talk to Ed, and so Ed has to threaten to release all the videos they made together dressed up as superheroes in tights if Charley won't meet him at Adam's house after school. Charley, obsessed with his new reputation as a cool kid, agrees to meet Ed.After school, Charley blows Ed off and goes home instead, where he finds his mother talking to Jerry Dandridge (Colin Farrell), their new neighbor. It's already dusk/dark out, and Jerry's helping Jane with a sprinkler or something else that's broken on the property line. Jerry flirts heavily with Jane, who loves it, while Charley feels uncomfortable. Amy appears and joins the conversation. Charley then gets a text from Ed with a sample of the video he will release if Charley does not meet him at Adam's house in ten minutes (it's a video of Charley dressed as Squid Man, doing martial arts in the front yard with Adam and Ed). Charley then races off to meet Ed, leaving everyone abruptly.At Adam's house, Ed explains that he believes Adam was killed by vampires, and that in fact Charley's new neighbor Jerry is a vampire. Charley thinks he's insane, but Ed convinces him to break into Adam's house with him. We see quickly that it's the house from the opening of the movie, because Ed uses the pet door to gain entry. He carries with him a satchel that has crosses, holy water, stakes, and other vampire-fighting gear in it. Ed slinks through the house looking for signs of Adam and his family, but finds nothing. He explains to Charley that he and Adam were doing surveillance and have deduced that all the disappearances of late are localized to Charley's neighborhood, and that on a map these vanishings radiate from Charley's house... or, rather, from the house next door to Charley's. Ed says that he and Adam had been following Jerry for a while and that they just need to figure out how to defeat him. Ed wants to go to Peter Vincent (David Tennant), since he is billed as the world's foremost expert on vampires (in addition to being the star of a Las Vegas magic show with a vampire theme). Charley says he wishes he had never been friends with Ed and that his life finally got better when he stopped talking to Ed and Adam and grew up, instead of playing make-believe. Charley decides to go home and ignore Ed and his suspicions.Ed leaves as well, and is accosted by Mark on the street while riding his skate board. While running away from bully Mark, Ed loses his satchel with all the vampire fighting gear in it, as he drops it while trying to hop a fence. Jumping from yard to yard in the Vegas neighborhood, Ed eventually lands in a yard where Jerry's waiting for him. Jerry confronts Ed and asks him why he's nosing around and spying on him, and Ed uses a paint can to smash through a window of the home... only to find it is vacant inside. Ed doesn't realize that the "vampires have to be invited in" rule only applies if the house is occupied... and so Jerry walks right into the abandoned place. Ed runs upstairs and tries to escape through a window, and then a jump down into the yard, but Jerry's already outside waiting for him. Ed falls into the pool, and Jerry walks in, towards him, while Ed brandishes a crucifix to try to stop him. Jerry just tells Ed to calm down, that what's going to happen is what's best for him, since Ed is a misfit and he'll never fit in with regular people anyway, so becoming a vampire won't be so bad. Jerry then takes ahold of Ed, bites him, and pulls him under the water to drink his blood.The next day at school, Charley notices that Ed is missing when the class roll is taken, as well as a few other missing students. Charley asks Amy if she thinks that's weird, but Amy says it's senior year and kids are skipping school, like kids do. Charley is still walking that thin line between thinking it's ridiculous to believe in vampires and knowing that vampires are behind what's happening to all these missing people.When he gets home from school that night, Charley is surprised by Jerry outside on his front lawn, who wants to borrow some beer because Jerry claims that he has a hot dating coming whom he wants to get drunk. Charley says he will loan Jerry a six pack and goes to get it. Jerry wants to come inside, but can't unless he's invited, and Charley tries to test Jerry by talking to him and seeing if he will come inside without an invite. Charley's nervous, so he drops one of the beers on the floor and cuts himself a little. Jerry gets excited from the sight of blood and presses for an invite so he can help Charley clean up the mess. But, Charley never invites him in and brings the beers over... which Jerry cannot touch until Charley hands them to him over the threshold. Then Jerry starts talking to Charley about sex, and specifically about how sexy Jane and Amy are, and what a responsibility it is for Charley to watch out for these two women who have such strong and obvious sexual needs. He leaves Charley to supposedly have drinks with his mystery date.Charley goes up to his room to find Amy there waiting for him. Amy wants to have sex, and make that particular night the first time that she and Charley go all the way. Charley catches a glimpse of his neighbor Doris coming across the street to visit Jerry, and Charley realizes SHE is the woman that Jerry was having over. Jerry sees Charley watching and flashes a look of anger up at him. Amy gets mad that Charley is more interested in spying on Jerry than having sex with her, and so she storms away.Charley keeps listening to what's going on at Jerry's and very quickly hears a scream. He calls the police, and a squad car comes to investigate, but when the two officers talked to Jerry, he charmes them and said, "Of course a woman was here and I made her scream... I gave her what she wanted". The men laugh, bonding over Jerry's sexcapades in a boys-will-be-boys way. Charley is disgusted the police were that stupid. As soon as the squad car leaves, Jerry also gets in his big black pickup truck and drives away. Charley decides to break into Jerry's house to investigate.Going next door, Charley uses his iPhone to find a "How to Pick Locks" app. When that fails, he hunts around in Jerry's back yard for the hollow rock that hides the keys to many homes in suburbia. Once inside, Charley sees that Jerry's kitchen is totally empty, and the house is a giant mess except for a giant screen TV in the living room. Upstairs, Charley goes through Jerry's things and finds a closet full of different emergency responder and police uniforms, as well as a sort of altar with candles and an ancient tapestry with a medieval crest on it. Jerry returns from wherever he went and Charley hears him outside. He's now trapped in the house. The only place he can think to hide is the closet, but once he's inside he realizes there's a false wall that leads to a small hallway. Inside, there are small rooms like the dressing rooms in a department store. All the rooms are locked, with the keys missing from some of them. Charley looks through peep holes in the rooms and determines that Doris is being held prisoner in one of them. He tries to get Doris out, but Jerry returns before he can pick the lock and Charley had to hide in one of the other, empty rooms. Jerry walks right over to where Doris is kept and takes her out of the room to feed on her. Charley watches as Jerry drinks from Doris, with Doris motioning for Charley to stay quiet unless Jerry would find him too. When Jerry is done feeding, he locks Doris back up in the room and then leaves. Charley goes back to picking the lock to get Doris out of the house safely.The two of them wait and start sneaking down the stairs into Jerry's living room. Doris is panting heavily and is having problems walking. Jerry's watching a TV show with big-breasted Jersey Shore-type babes, enjoying himself immensely. Charley and Doris play mouse and cat with Jerry for a while, with him near-missing them as they try to sneak around the stairwell and a living room wall, trying to get out. Finally, they make their dash to freedom and we see that Jerry knew they were there the whole time and was just playing games because the moment Doris walks out into the sun she bursts into flames. Charley is stunned and races back to his house while Jerry's inside, laughingCharley knows he's dealing with a vampire now, and decides to fortify his house with garlic, crosses, and everything else he can find to ward off all the evil. His mother, of course, thinks he's going insane, but humors him as he tells her that all of this is just some sort of joke he's playing on Amy. Charley insists his mother not invite Jerry into the house or have anything to do with him, though Charley stops short of telling his mom that Jerry is a vampire.He leaves for school, and on the way stops at Ed's house. Ed's parents haven't realized their son is missing, since he kept odd hours and did strange things. Ed's mother is inexplicably played by a woman who looks and sounds just like Lisa Loeb, and has one or two lines telling Charley how much he's sprouted and how happy they are to see him (since he and Ed haven't been friends in a while, he hasn't been around). Lisa Loeb tells Charley that Ed must have left early and Charley asks Ed's mom and dad if he can go up to Ed's room for a book they need for something. When he gets up to the room, we see it is covered in Magik the Gathering and World of Warcraft posters... and Ed's computer has tons of videos of Ed, Adam, and Charley playing "Squid Man versus the Knights" and other oddball things the three of them used to do together. Charley's sad about having ditched these two friends from his childhood, who are both dead now...and finally sees what ended up getting them killed. Charley finds all the videos that Ed and Adam took where they were spying on Jerry... with Jerry never appearing on the film because he is a vampire. (Since vampires in this reality cast no reflection, they also do not appear on film or video images). Ed narrates that Jerry is getting out of a car, but the car door opens and closes on its own. Ed and Adam never realized Jerry knew he was being spied on. As Charley is closing up Ed's computer, he sees that Ed had Peter Vincent's website up on the screen and Charley makes a note to go see Peter Vincent.Charley decides to get serious about learning to fight vampires, like Ed had told him he wanted to do originally. Charley then heads to the Hard Rock Hotel and grabs a Las Vegas newspaper on his way in. He also steals the sport coat and event name badge of some conventioneer, and rips off the logo of the paper to slip inside the plastic badge, making him look like he has a press credential. He then bluffs his way into a rehearsal of Vincent's "Fright Night" show, under the ruse that he has an interview scheduled with him that night. We see a bit of what Vincent's show is all about...with female vampires writhing on a bed and flying around on wires, with another woman on the bed rising up into the air like Linda Blair in The Exorcist. That woman is supposed to burst into flames, but the effects don't work, and so Vincent yells CUT! and walks off the stage, demanding a break. Charley seizes the opportunity to run after him and get his interview. Vincent at first doesn't want to do it, but then agrees, and takes Charley upstairs to his penthouse home somewhere in the hotel tower. There, Charley sees the immense collection of occult objects that Vincent has collected --- some of which he says he bought on Ebay -- that are stored in row after row of ornate glass cases. There are axes, swords, guns with silver bullets, chalices of sacred holy water, and more stakes and sharp things than a Buffy the Vampire Slayer convention.Vincent invites Charley into his living room/bar, where Vincent pours himself a Midori and Charley continues pretending he is from the newspaper, asking him how to kill vampires for real. Vincent says none of this stuff is real, and takes off his wig and goatee, to reveal a very nerdy kind of guy who is uncomfortable in the sort of hot leather he has to wear on the stage for his show. Charley keeps pushing Vincent, and even takes out pictures he that he snapped inside Jerry's house, in particular showing Vincent the ornate tapestry crest that clearly meant something special to Jerry. Vincent then kicks Charley out, demanding his girlfriend/assistant/stage actress Ginger throw Charley out.Crestfallen, Charley heads home, where his mother Jane is disturbed by all the crosses and Charley's edginess all of a sudden.Meanwhile, Jerry's out in the neighborhood and kills Mark and Ben as they were hanging out in their car, looking at Charley's house, wondering why he suddenly got all religious with crosses everywhere. Jerry takes the bodies into his house, off screen, just like he's been doing with all the bodies he's been collecting.Amy comes over to Charley's house, and not long after that Jerry pops up by the door, trying to get invited in. Jane almost lets him in, but Charley begs her not to. Jerry tells Jane that Charley broke into his house and has been harassing him, and he says that either he comes in to talk about it or he calls the authorities. Jane tells him to just call the authorities then. Jerry storms away, back to his house, but the three of them can see him clearly through the window. He comes back to Jane's house with a shovel and a blow torch, and heads straight for the back yard.There, Jerry starts digging into the ground with super human strength, taking up large hunks of dirt with each shovel full. After three big digs, he reaches the gas line for the house. Just as Charley was saying that Jerry can't get in unless he's invited, Jerry yanks the gas line loose from under ground, filling Charley's kitchen with gas. Then Jerry takes the blow torch and send some fire through the line and into the house.... which then EXPLODES. Jane, Charley, and Amy leap over the couch to avoid a blast of fire, and then escape into the garage as the house burns down around them. They get into Jane's SUV and flee the scene, as Jerry tries to leap onto Charley's motorcycle to catch them... but the bike is broken. As they are fleeing down the street, Jerry hurls the motorcycle (still running with vampire super-speed) after them, smashing through the back of the SUV and almost killing Amy. Charley orders his mother to speed away.Since they are out in the desert, there is no cell service... and Jerry's following them in his truck. He catches up and tries to run them off the road, but Jane successfully maneuvers the car away from him. Finally, Jerry speeds up and decides to block the road so they can't pass... but Charley slams his foot on the accelerator and forces Jane to run Jerry over and keep driving. Jerry is hurt, but sticks to the SUV's undercarriage and starts trying to claw his way through the metal to get at Jane or Charley. "Do you see that freaky hand clawing up through the car? NOW do you believe me he's a vampire?" Charley demands of Jane and Amy. Jerry is able to reach up and slam his hand down on the brakes, which causes the car to make a sudden stop. Just as everyone is about to get their bearings, a car behind them slams into them and the three of them are smashed in the face by the air bags.When the driver of the other car gets out, he is a middle-aged businessman-type called Jay Dee (played by Chris Sarandon in a suprise cameo who played the original Jerry Dandridge in the first "Fright Night" movie). Jay Dee tries to see what's going on... and is then promptly bitten and killed by Jerry. Jerry, having endured some roughing up under the car, has morphed into a monstrous vampire creature with dark gray skin, red eyes, giant predatory teeth and a weirdly shaped head... which then smoothes back into his human features after eating Jay Dee. Charley's now holding a wooden cross and is moving towards Jerry, who taunts him. Jerry just touches the cross and it catches fire and burns to cinders and explains that Charley needs faith for crosses to repel him. Since Charley doesn't really believe in religion, so the cross doesn't work as it would if a true believer held it. Jerry then has Charley backed up against the wrecked SUV, and is about to kill him, when Jane grabs one of the Century 21 signs from the back of her SUV and impales Jerry with it, getting him all the way through his body, though missing his heart. Jerry is in immense pain and desperately tries to get this sign out of his body, but the wooden post that runs through it is too long for him to get a handle on. Jane, Charley, and Amy pile into Jay Dee's car and drive away, smashing into Jerry and the SUV as they do so. They speed away, leaving the vampire behind where it is seen that Jerry's starting to heal and that the sign through his body did not kill him.Jane needs to go to the hospital, so the three of them rush there. They only tell the doctors that Jane has been in a car accident, and leave out the part about vampires, since Charley says "the last time I called the cops on them they almost went to Chili's together". Charley hangs a bunch of crosses all over Jane's hospital room, telling the nurses she is very religious.Meanwhile, Peter Vincent, drinking more Midori, sees the photo of the tapestry that Charley gave him earlier in the day and tells Charley to come meet him immediately. Amy and Charley then head to Vincent's penthouse.When they get there, Vincent tells them the tapestry is the emblem of an ancient kind of vampire tribe from the Mediterranean from more then 400 years ago, and that this particular vampire nested and created a sort of tribe of vampires who were interested in creating more of their kind and taking over whole regions. He tells Amy and Charley they will need an army to stop these things. He starts to tell them what he knows about things that will kill vampires when the security guard downstairs rings him to let him know there is a package delivery. Vincent tells his girlfriend Ginger to go sign for it and has the guard send the delivery person upstairs. Vincent then says it must be more stuff he ordered from eBay, since he has a habit of getting drunk and then ordering things. Charley then asks if he ever gets deliveries from eBay this late at night, and Vincent says come to think of it, no, and they all realize too late that it's a trap.Charley sees it's Ed, dressed as a delivery man, with a fake package for Peter Vincent. Ed didn't know Charley would be there, and was dispatched to kill Peter Vincent or turn him into a vampire too, since Vincent has knowledge of vampires and was a threat to the nest. Ed is relishing being Jerry's living minion, and calls Jerry on his cell phone to tell him that Charley and Amy are at Vincent's place. Jerry then starts to make his way there too. Vincent, spooked, makes a mad dash for his panic room. Ed tries to stop him, but the panic room door closes on Ed's arm, severing it. The arm keeps twitching inside the room, with Vincent locked in there watching the TV monitors.Ed and Charley battle, with Charley knocking various things out of Vincent's display cases to use as weapons, including knives, battle axes, swords, etc. Ed's handicapped with just one arm, but slashes at Charley's chest with his giant claws, and almost gets the better of Charley a few times. He tells Charley that he wishes they could be experiencing evil together, like they used to do as friends, and that they would be having this rush together if only Charley hadn't met Amy and decided to be cool instead.Meanwhile, Amy is running through the Penthouse trying to escape, while Jerry kills the security guard downstairs and heads up to join the fight against Vincent, Charley, and Amy. Jerry confronts Amy just as she finished loading up a gun to shoot him... she turns around, fires at Jerry, and gets a good four shots into him. Jerry, unfazed, just plucks the bullets out of his flesh. "Silver", he says. "For werewolves". Amy looks around and sees a chalice under glass with water in it. She breaks the glass and tosses the holy water at Jerry and says, "For vampires!" and Jerry's face starts to burn and melt. Amy then runs back towards Charley, getting to him just in time to smash Evil Ed with a medieval mace that was hanging on the wall. That gives Charley enough time to stake Evil Ed through the heart, making his former friend turn to flaming dust.Charley and Amy run out of Vincent's penthouse and down an emergency flight of stairs that deposits them into the hotel's kitchen, from which they walk into the Hard Rock's nightclub (which is full of people, many of whom are drunk or on drugs, none of whom pay any attention to Charley and Amy). They see Jerry following them, but Amy thinks he can't do anything to them in a room full of people, but Charley says that no one would notice if he killed them right there. As they try to make their way out of the place through the crowd, they get separated by the thong of partiers. Jerry makes it to Amy and carries her into a VIP lounge, where he pricks his skin and smoothes blood all over her lips, intoxicating and hypnotizing her. Charley tries to get a security guard to help, but he says that the girl looks like she is having fun, and then he kicks Charley out of the club. He knows Amy is lost now, and sees Jerry bite her neck, right in the middle of a crowd of people, with no one paying attention.Charley then heads back up to Peter Vincent's penthouse. Vincent is out of the panic room, drinking heavily. He thinks Charley has been turned, but Charley tells him to check his cameras and sure enough Charley appears on the screen, so he is alive and well. Charley tells him that he has to rescue Amy, because either Jerry has her alive as hostage or he has killed her or turned her, but either way Charley doesn't want him to keep her. Vincent says that he is too scared to follow him, but he will give him a special stake that was blessed by Saint Michael and has the power to not only destroy a vampire, but also to free everyone from vampirism who was turned by that vampire. Vincent also relates to Charley that years ago he had an encounter with vampires... and that is what made him start collecting all of this stuff, even if he eventually convinced himself that it was all in his imagination and none of it was real. It turns out that Vincent's parents were attacked by a vampire, and that Vincent only survived because he successfully hid from the creature. Charley says he doesn't want to live as a coward and that he isn't hiding from anyone, so Vincent can stay there if he wants but he is going to take down Jerry. Vincent offers one good piece of advice, and it's to somehow set Jerry on fire so that he is distracted, and being distracted Charley would then have a chance to get close enough to stake him. Charley doesn't know how he can set Jerry on fire AND be close enough to stake him, but thinks on it as he leaves Vincent's place.He comes up with a solution at a sporting goods store where he buys all sorts of materials like a crossbow and fire retardant clothes, telling the store clerk he's hunting vampires, which the man behind the counter thinks is a joke.Charley then heads to Jerry's house, passing his own burned-out, ruined house, smashing all of Jerry's windows to let sunlight in. He's startled by Vincent, who decided to man up and help take down Jerry. Vincent is outfitted with all the vampire-killing gear he had been buying through the years on eBay -- some of it very untested. The two of them search the house, coming to the secret hallway with all the little rooms Jerry carved out for his victims. Amy's in one of them, but before Charley could open the door, Amy slid down a trap door in the floor, which Vincent is familiar with since he used them in all his magic tricks. Charley and Vincent head down the shoot and end up in Jerry's basement, where a giant mound of dirt is on the floor. The walls of the basement have been chiseled away in places, making giants holes that have also been filled up with dirt. It looks like a catacombs cemetery, with various antechambers carved out into the desert earth, like little caverns under the house and street. This is clearly what Jerry has been doing down in his basement instead of digging a pool.Jerry appears and separates Vincent and Charley, locking Charley into a cave room with Amy, who is now a vampire. Amy is meant to eat Charley, and really vamps it up in a white dress and tons of menace, (much like Amanda Bearse did as the original Amy in the first "Fright Night"). Vincent is left to fight Jerry, and starts taking aim at him, while Jerry just throws a small pebble at Vincent's face. It draws just a tiny drop of blood, which falls to the ground. Vincent laughs at Jerry at first, until he sees the blood has summoned vampires from the mounds of dirt all around the basement. Jerry has been turning all the people he drank from, making them vampires too, and the blood has called them all to life. Vince uses a stake-gun to shoot wooden stakes at the vamps, and manages to kill one of them, with the vamp turned to ash. Then the gun jams and Vincent exclaims "Stupid eBay!". He then resorts to using his shotgun to try to blow holes in the floor above, to let in light to keep the vamps at bay. Though 400 years old and very crafty, Jerry is very afraid of the light, and can't go near the spots where Vincent has exposed to daylight. The other vamps near Vincent maneuver around the light and start feeding on him.Upstairs, Charley outsmarts Amy by staking her with the St. Michael stake just as she was about to bite him. It wounded her enough that he can get away, but does not kill her. She thinks Charley missed, but he didn't want to kill her... he wants to kill Jerry with the St. Michael special stake so that Amy can be brought back to life. Charley then heads to the main room of the basement to fight Jerry and rescue Vincent.He discovers that Vincent is starting to smoke in sunlight, which means that he is turning into a vampire himself. Jerry gloats that all they have to do is wait until the sun goes down, and then Charley will be theirs, so there's no hope for Charley to escape. Charley then starts putting a hood, mask, and glasses on himself and tells Vincent that he's using his idea, though modified. He sets HIMSELF on fire and then runs towards Jerry, who is surprised by all this. Jerry starts burning when Charley jumps on top of him, and keeps trying to fight Charley off. Meanwhile, Vincent starts shooting more holes into the floor above so that the sun can come in. The other vamps all howl and Jerry is terrified because he realizes the end is near. The combination of the fire and the sun is too much for him, and he starts to melt away, just as Charley jabs the stake right through his exposed heart. Jerry turns to dust and drifts away... and out of all the other vamps, an evil black spirit appears leaving their bodies and flying away.(The spirits look very much like the evil spirit used on the original poster for the first Fright Night, so it could be a little Easter egg/homage to the first film.)When the evil is out of all the vamps, they turn back into people with absolutely no memory of how they got in the basement. Both Mark and Ben and several of people we never saw before are brought back to life. Presumably Adam and his family are down there too, though Charley and Amy don't point them out.Some time later, Charley's house is rebuilt and his mother is back to doing real estate. Everything seems back to normal, and Charley and Amy seem to be good friends with Vincent, who lets them hang out in his penthouse at the hotel. Charley and Amy start having sex in Vincent's living room and he appears, before sneaking off again, telling them not to do anything he wouldn't do, before the two of them get back to making out.The movie ends, and the credits start to roll as stills from the movie come up onto the screen showing all the various actors when their names are listed in the credits.(original synopsis by Kevin D)

Tags: revenge, gothic, murder, violence

Review:
After all, beloved films are dumped on all the time by would-be filmmakers out to make a quick buck for the safe Hollywood studios.Most of the central story is intact: Anton Yelchin leads the cast as Charley Brewster, a used-to-be high-school misfit who comes to the realization, thanks to childhood buddy Ed (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) that his new neighbor Jerry (Colin Farrell) is a vampire.
Director Craig Gillespie (LARS AND THE REAL GIRL, "United States of Tara") earns respect for pulling off (for him) an unfamiliar genre; he also pays homage to a few memorable scenes in the original without trying to copy or disrespect them.Most of the performances are engaging and authentic (aside from Mintz-Plasse in his later moments), with Tennant's wry turn a real treat, and the ever-wonderful Collette's naturally grounding presence adding a needed weight of normalcy.
Some of the best work of his admittedly spotty career is on display, including the film's most brilliant moment, where Jerry's fidgety impatience with being invited into the Brewster home is both hilarious and nerve-wracking.FRIGHT NIGHT is a solid film in its own right; if there's not enough love from the original's fans to spread out to its remake, that's unfortunate..
This film succeeds on that promise, quickly turning itself into the quintessential "fun" horror flick perfect for Friday night.Styled after Alfred Hitchcock's "Rear Window" (which inspired its own modern retelling, "Disturbia") with a suave vampire living next-door instead of a mysterious stranger, this plot is very similar to its original.
Things are looking oh-so-grand for the little flake (I mean, come on, any guy who hurtfully tells his friend "the day my life got better was the day I stopped hanging with you" is well a douche), he gets a new next-door neighbor that his mom (Toni Collette; "The Sixth Sense") takes a liking to: Jerry Dandrige (Colin Farrell; "Horrible Bosses").
Ed's attempts to convince Charley that Jerry is actually a vampire fail, but when Ed himself goes missing and Jerry shows proof of what he is, Charley goes to the only person who might have the answer: Peter Vincent (David Tennant; "Doctor Who"), the Las Vegas magician who boasts of supernatural knowledge on how to kill vampires.The choice to modernize the original 1985 "Fright Night" doesn't like that bright an idea considering the current rule that all horror remakes suck, but somehow this became a unique effort due to diligent actors, a reliable director, and successful laugh and scare gags.
It takes what we liked about the original and comes up some clever changes that update the story 26 years to the present.From an ingenious kill method at the end to wickedly suspenseful chase scenes, "Fright Night" boasts some surprisingly memorable scenes – some of which are incredibly suspenseful considering we think we should know what to expect from a vampire thriller.
With Craig Gillespie's (the outstanding director of "Lars and the Real Girl") imaginative direction and Ramin Djawadi's (scorer of "Iron Man" and "Mr. Brooks") jarringly effective and wholly memorable musical score, the film hits all the beats it strives for with manic zeal.The all-star cast deliver a gratifying romp of suspense and chuckles, but the movie belongs to its villain and its anti-hero, Colin Farrell and David Tennant.
So, when I first heard that they were planning on remaking the film I was skeptical as I felt it would be very difficult to match the original film.Boasting an impressive cast which includes Anton Yelchin, Colin Farrell, David Tennant, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, and Toni Collette, the remake does not try to reinvent the wheel, but instead takes the formula of the original and creates an entirely new entry into the saga.For those unfamiliar with the series, Yelchin stars as Charlie Brewster, a young man who is trying to balance watching over his single mother, and his growing relationship with a girl way out of his league named Amy (Imogen Poots).
The two unlikely allies soon find themselves in a deadly race against time to defeat Jerry and save their loved ones before it's too late.The film cleverly combines horror and comedy and does a good job of providing some suspenseful moments in between the blood and gore, managing to squeeze in more than a few laughs along the way.
Tom Holland's 1985 vampire romp "Fright Night" was a fun, campy little horror flick that had some good laughs, good scares, and some pretty awesome effects.
In the end, I find the original "Fright Night" to be one of the most underrated horror films of the 80's.Frankly, I was actually quite excited for this remake, knowing that it had a great cast and Marti Noxon(who commonly wrote for "Buffy the Vampire Slayer") was at the helm of the script.
Nobody believes him before it's too late, and it's up to him and Hard Rock celebrity Peter Vincent to kill this sucker(pun intended) once and for all.While it pays so much respect to the original movie, "Fright Night" also adds a few new elements that elevate it above other remakes.
There are some scenes that are lifted right from the original, even two of the original's most classic lines, but the movie breaks several horror movie rules and invents new ones, like whether or not a vampire can come into another person's house.The CGI effects in this remake are surprisingly quite good.
I didn't see the film in 3D(which I heard doesn't do much for the movie), but in its 2D format, the geysers of blood shoot out magnificently without going over the top, and the makeup is true to the original vampire look in the 1985 film."Fright Night" boasts a fantastic cast of well-known actors.
Basically, Colin Farrell bathes in his role like the character bathes in human blood.Marti Noxon's script is clever, funny, and smart, and by the looks of other recent horror outings, it's a script that's better than it should be.I'll just say that "Fright Night" is not particularly scary.
He does truly embody the inhuman menace of the shark from Jaws, but is somewhat hampered by the direction and editing that occasionally sets him up as a vampiric Pepé Le Pew. Though largely robbed of any kind of a backstory or motivation beyond being a vampire – and what little we do get to learn about his kind mostly goes to waste – Farrell does his best to make this movie work.The problem is that he isn't enough.Anton Yelchin, an actor who has yet to impress me in any role I've seen him in, is the lackluster lead.
Yelchin does have a couple of good scenes, but he – or director Craig Gillespie – doesn't know what to do with them.Instead of giving an actor as good a role as they did with Roddy McDowell in the original, David Tennant (as Peter Vincent) is required to start off with what looks like a Ben Stiller impersonation of Johnny Depp in any of the Pirates movies.
In summary, the 1985 original film may be considered a new classic, worshiped by a legion of fans.This teen remake is simply awful, with explosions, car chase and a cynical and charmless Colin Farrell in the role of Jerry Danridge.
The film premiered at The O2 in London on August 14, 2011, was produced by DreamWorks Pictures, and widely released by Touchstone Pictures on August 19 in Real D 3D.8/10 Grade: B+ Studio: Touchstone Pictures, DreamWorks Studios, Reliance Entertainment, Michael De Luca Productions Distributor: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Starring: Anton Yelchin, Colin Farrell, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, David Tennant, Toni Collette Director: Craig Gillespie Producers: Michael De Luca, Alison R.
It's not until he hooks up with a vampire expert and Vegas illusionist ( David Tennent ), aptly named Peter Vincent, ( a homage to Mr. Cushing and Mr. Price, I'm sure ) that the battle against pure evil begins.Craig Gillespie takes this film remake and sucks all the life out of it with pedestrian direction and an over reliance of cheesy CGI effects.
Hell, even the presence of Amanda Bearse wasn't too offensive !!On the other hand, I've just watched the remake and find it hard to believe that, even with some of the absolutely awful movies that are being released now, that this unutterable piece of crap could have EVER made it to a screen.There is NOT ONE likable character in this version, and to add insult to injury, they're all so badly played that you won't know whether to laugh or cry.All in all, unless you are a teenage girl with an IQ that pretty much matches your bra size, and thinks that the completely ridiculous "Twilight" things are "Like, soooo coool, avoid this horror story of a horror story LIKE THE PLAGUE...which, come to think of it, probably would have been more fun to watch..
Film is a remake of the 1985 film of the same name, also written by Tom Holland, it sees Yelchin as Charley Brewster, a teenager living in a suburb of Las Vegas who finds the new handsome neighbour, Jerry Dandridge (Farrell) is actually a blood sucking vampire.
With nobody believing him and the vampire homing in on his mother and girlfriend, Charley turns to enigmatic playboy magician Peter Vincent (Tennant) for help.Ah remakes, a word that often spells trouble in film fan circles, especially when populated by the horror faithful.
FRIGHT NIGHT has two saving graces: Anton Yelchin, who plays Charlie Brewster with the right mix of humor and a good grip on his character, and David Tennant who plays the TV vampire destroyer with a good deal of cultivated arrogance and outlandish attitudes.Beyond these performances, the rest of the film is only mildly successful in the casting.
Fans of the original film will hardly recognize what has been done to the story, much less the characters.However, Toni Collette as Brewster's mother and Imogen Poots as his pretty girl friend are excellent, given what material they have to work with, and Christopher Mintz-Plasse gets some comic relief from the Evil Ed character that he becomes after "the bite." In this case, his Evil Ed is much less effective than the one in the original film.So many of the key scenes are played in virtual darkness, making it impossible to see what is actually going on at important moments in the action sequences.
With more blood, more fun and better acting than the original, "Fright Night" does not concern itself with exposition; instead it recognizes that Colin Farrell ("The Way Back") is a vampire and focuses on the thrill of mixing badassery and clever, creepy, comedy.
However, the fact the performances of the rest of the cast are above average for a horror film, along with a new vampire swagger Colin Farrell brings to his character, are the reasons why the remake is a success.The main issue people may have with the film is that it bases its horror around knowing that Jerry is a vampire instead of making his existence a mystery.
I feel like it still wouldn't have played out so well.The story centers on high school student, Charley Brewster (Anton Yelchin), who begins to sense that something isn't quite right about his new next door neighbor, Jerry (Colin Farrell).
There are also some clever updates that improves upon the original film, like how the setting is now in Vegas, where people work and party all night and sleep all day, which is a perfect location for a vampire to hunt if you ask me.With all the changes, the remake does retain the original's wackiness without taking itself too seriously.
Evil Ed, played by Christopher Mintz- Plasse, is also changed dramatically (and for the better) and gone is his cheesy line, "You're so cool, Brewster!" However, I will say that he is the weakest link in the film, mainly because I couldn't take him seriously (which is due to the fact that I still remember him as McLovin).The film's main character is played well by Anton Yelchin, but the more colorful supporting actors really outshine him here, especially David Tennant, who plays Peter Vincent.
Awful CGI (Amy's vampire scene with Charley is incredibly lame and doesn't look half as good as it did in the TWENTY FIVE year old original) and a final battle scene that belongs more to "Underworld" than it does to the "Fright Night" legacy.
At the time it came out, a remake of Fright Night seemed like one of those unnecessary movies - what was so wrong with the Tom Holland original, which gave us a subtle/over-the-top performance from Chris Sarandon and some cheeky humor from Roddy McDowell as a vampire named Jerry and the would-be 'celebrity' vampire hunter?
More than that, he is necessary for the movie to work: he has to be believable as a young guy who starts off somewhat unsympathetic (trying to be 'cool' by ditching his nerdy friend for an attractive girl), and over the course of the story has to man up and not do what his dad did, which was ditch the family behind.Yelchin plays the 'straight man' to a point where we can find him believable as being both completely scared and yet ballsy enough to go for what he has to go through to save and protect the ones he cares about - his mother and then, when she's taken by this 'Jerry' fella, Amy - and it's interesting to see this *after* Green Room, where he played a somewhat similar character though in a different setting (actually substitute Nazis for vampires and you got a somewhat similar premise, with Yelchin as the vulnerable but strong-willed and tough protagonist).
Practical effects could have taken more time or been more intensive, but the results would last longer and not take one out of the movie like here.If one can look at the substance of Fright Night it does work - the screenplay comes from Buffy the Vampire Slayer creative Marti Noxon, and the sense of whip-smart timing in the dialog and come-backs about how people look at vampires is especially funny, even from Peter Vincent most of all - and is a fitting tribute to the original.
The acting performances are good, with Colin Farrell clearly enjoying his role as modern vampire and the Scottish actor David Tennant stealing the show as Peter Vincent.
Yelchin has help in this film from an all-star cast that includes, Farrell, Toni Collete, Christopher Mintz-Plasse-Mclovin, Dave Franco, and of course the original vampire, Chris Sarandon.
This remake of Fright Night is one of the few films that I liked that is aimed towards my (teenage) age group.With the same idea as the original, a teenager finds that his neighbor is a vampire.
This 2011 version of the latter-day classic _Fright Night_ is as good a time you will have watching a vampire movie these days.
This scene, like most of the effects shots, works even better in the original 3D.There are many other pleasures to this movie, including solid performances by Anton Yelchin, Imogen Poots and Toni Colette as the frightened but sophisticated protagonists.
Fright Night is a good movie with a well written storyline and a great cast that are able to jump from comedy to horror in different scenes.I normally don't like horror comedies because they usually try too hard to be both scary and funny and they end up failing at both,but this film managed to maintain both of them very well,there were scenes that had me laughing and also just as many scenes that had me in fear.I enjoyed Anton Yelchin's performance and he had great chemistry with Imoogen Poots as well,but my favourite performances are from Colin Farrell and David Tennant,they are the main reasons this worked out as a horror and comedy,because Farrell was genuinely,and quite surprisingly, terrifying as a vampire,he was dark and nothing like any character he had ever played previously,and David Tennant brought in most of the laughs,his character was hilarious even when he was suppose to be serious and was certainly given the best lines.Its nothing outstanding,but Fright Night works out pretty well as both a horror and comedy and I would recommend it to anyone looking for either of those if you have some time to kill.
I also really enjoyed the entire cast; Anton Yelchin as 'Charlie' does a great job, Toni Collette as the mother, David Tennant was excellent (and hilarious) as Peter Vincent and Colin Farrell, while a strange choice as a vampire was definitely charismatic and super sexy.
Moments that were as classic as this one got incorporated into the film in a slightly different scenario, which made it a pleasant easter egg each time fans get to spot something the survived the remake.Directed by Craig Gillespie whose pedigree is as varied as Lars and the Real Girl and Mr Woodcock, Fright Night started off quite wobbly when it tried to establish its characters, jumping directly into the fray with Charley Brewster (Anton Yelchin) being too cool for his geeky best friend Ed (Christopher Mintz-Plasse in a stereotypical role) who suspects that Charley's new neighbor Jerry (Colin Farrell) is actually a vampire responsible for the many mysterious disappearances and deaths of their satellite town.
Added into the female quotient for any vampire film, because sinking one's fangs into a long female neck is always deemed as sexy, are Toni Collette as Charley's mom who develops a crush on Jerry, as well as Imogen Poots who plays Charley's hot girlfriend Amy.It's the excellent visual effects that made this version of Fright Night work, while balancing a fairly engaging story with a light dose of comedy that made this a walk down memory lane of many past horror comedies that entertained without being too campy or silly.
Yes, I am a fan of the original 1985 version of Fright Night, so much so that I consider it as one of the best in the genre of vampire movies.