I always try to claim that “baby of the ’80s” credit despite being five when the decade came to a close.
Most people would argue that I didn’t truly grow up in the ’80s and really only experienced a maximum of two cognitive years during the decade. Regardless, I claim the title because I grew up during the last few years of politically incorrect kids’ films and classic horror movies. I watched a lot of Ren & Stimpy and my favorite movies were Beetlejuice, Pee Wee’s Big Adventure and Monster Squad. The latter came to be the biggest influence on my eventual love of the horror movie genre.
Vampires are suddenly in vogue again. Many would argue that the creatures in such media hits as Twilight, Vampire Diaries and True Blood can hardly be called Vampires. Regardless of what you believe, that’s what people consider them, and thus, vampires they are. Many of us long for the vampires from the eighties, be it a bunch of outcast kids in The Lost Boys, sophisticated socialites in the books of Anne Rice, or even Pee Wee Herman in the movie version of Buffy the Vampire Slayer(which technically was released in 1992, but man, that movie feels like something from the ’80s.)
It’s been recently announced that one of the greatest ’80s gems,Fright Night, is being remade. These days, most of us groan at any announcement of a remake, and while sometimes it’s a surprising step up from the source material (like the recent gem,The Crazies), it’s normally bland and insults our intelligence even more than the original source material (like Prom Night). However, the Fright Night remake seems to be a very different case.
People tend to say things like “remakes suck” or “the ’80s was the only time remakes were done right.” It’s hard to disagree per se, but it has nothing to do with decades – it has everything to do with intentions. The three horror remakes people always cite as ones that went above and beyond the call of duty are David Cronenberg’s The Fly, John Carpenter’s The Thing and Chuck Russell’s The Blob. These movies took classic (but somewhat B-status) horror/sci-fi movies from the late ’50s/early ’60s and modernized them slightly with the help of three decades of improved special effects. With each film (especially The Thing), the directors were very open about their love of the original film. It’s easy to brush this off because most directors say this about whatever movie they’re remaking, but you could tell by watching these film that they were genuine pet projects. You could imagine a young Chuck Russell running from his local theater in 1958, as well as David Cronenberg’s youthful eyes staring wide-eyed at the screen as David Hedison’s voice screeched “Help me!” You could tell that John Carpenter walked out of The Thing From Outer Space thinking, “That’s what I want to do someday.”
These weren’t infamous franchises. They were B-movies, far from the respected films of Universal Studios. Meanwhile movies like the Friday the 13, and more recently,Nightmare on Elm Street remakes, feel like nothing more than desperate money grabs simply trying to cash in on the brand name of Freddy or Jason. (Not to mention the fact that the trailers tend to brag with things like “From the producer of Transformers” or “starring the WB’s very own” and feature the same tired, grainy stock footage and dark undertones. Fright Night is far from a franchise film. It spawned one mediocre sequel and has a brief cult following, but it seems like this remake is far more of a passion project like the remakes of the ’80s versus a giant cash-in. (It should be noted that Fright Night is still in the pre-production phase of casting, so I could be VERY wrong about everything in this article. There’s no trailer to base this opinion on – in fact, this is almost completely based on the casting.)
Let’s start with the casting of David Tennant as the Peter Vincent character. Some have argued that the former Doctor Who is simply not old enough to play the role. In the original, an aged Roddy McDowell played the failed and out of work late night horror host (like a male Elvira)/former actor. I most recently read the role will be changed to a failing magician. I’m not extremely happy with this change, however I understand it partially. The remake (as far as I can tell) will be modernized, taking place in 2011 – the type of show Peter Vincent hosted in the 1985 original hasn’t existed since Monstervision with Joe Bob Briggs. Changing the character’s occupation makes sense, however, I don’t know how a magician really connects with vampire slaying. I feel like someone related to a horror genre or a comic book writer could work. Perhaps even pull My Name is Bruce and cast someone like Sarah Michelle Gellar or a director like John Waters and Lloyd Kaufman (okay, maybe only I’d want to see them play Peter Vincent). Regardless, David Tennant is very talented actor who I trust wholeheartedly will put the right spin of pathetic (but not TOO pathetic) that the role calls for.
The casting of Christopher Mintz-Plasse (McLovin) as Evil Ed is pitch perfect. I can’t think of a single young actor better suited for the role (except if I built a time machine and got 10 Things I Hate About You-era Joseph Gordon Levitt). The original Evil Ed Thompson was performed by Stephen Geoffrey, an actor who brought an intense and wild energy to the small handful of roles he played in the ’80s. However, in the ’90s he disappeared from the public eye to become a gay porn star, because he was either, a, not a strong actor, b, loved fucking, or c, all of the above… watch Heaven Help Us and decide for yourself. The way I see it, you can either love the casting of Mintz-Plasse or you can hope that the role has some type of curse and you won’t see him again expect for random searches on Pornotube.
Who shall play our hero Charley Brewster? The fine people behind this remake have picked the slightly unknown Anton Yelchin. While he’s the star of the short-lived TV series Huff and the indie film Charlie Bartlett (one of my personal favorites of the last decade), he’s still far from a major player and a big draw, despite being in the blockbusters Star Trek and Terminator: Salvation. This is quite fitting however, since Fright Night was William Ragsdale’s first major movie role. But I do hope that Anton Yelchin will have better luck in his career following this movie since Ragsdale followed Fright Night with such movie roles as Mannequin 2, Big Momma’s House 2 and the TV movie prequel to Romy & Michelle’s High School Reunion.
But a hero is only as good as his villain. Who will play the suave, sophisticated and sexy next door neighbor? Chris Sarandon was perfect for the role in 1985, but Colin Farrell will step up to the vampire plate in 2011. Perfect. Undeniably perfect. The suave, sophisticated and sexy part is already taken care of – now let’s see if he can handle the heavy make-up and make us truly fear him.
It’s not just the casting that’s perfect – the production team isn’t anything to frown about. The movie can boast some indie cred of having Craig Gillespie as its director. Now granted, he gave us Mr. Woodcock (which was painfully unfunny to an almost unwatchable point), but his directorial debutLars & The Real Girl was a funny, off color but still undeniably heart-warming romantic comedy. He’s one for two. Though it’s hard to stand behind him 100 percent, I think the source material of Fright Night will be just what he needs to prove his directing chops (Not to mention a script by Marti Noxon who was a producer – and occasional writer – onBuffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel.) Noxon knows how to make vampires sexy without taking away their threat (something that Stephenie Meyer has no ability to do, but in her defense she also doesn’t have a firm grasp on the English language, proper grammar or even storytelling).
There is still a lot that can go wrong with this movie: CGI versus practical effects, studio interference, the change from a former horror icon to a magician not making any sense. Or even Craig Gillespie giving us a whole lotta Mr. Woodcock without any Lars & the Real Girl. But for now, I’m just happy to have a horror movie remake out there that isn’t immediately groan worthy. I’m a big fan of little victories.