![Halloween Hype 2011, Pt. III
Fright Night
[1985 / Tom Holland / ***½]
(couldn’t find a decent image of the title screen, but liked the above cropped image from the poster)
It had been a long time since I last watched Fright Night. Probably 12 years or so. When I first watch it back on the late 90s, I concluded that it was a fine but overrated film from an era that’s rife with countless essential horror classics from all over the world. Perhaps I looked down on it due it being a pretty glossy mainstream production in a genre where I’m more apt to enjoy the grittier more envelope-pushing films from that particular time. It didn’t help that I didn’t first see it in my more impressionable film-viewing years and therefore don’t have a strong nostalgic connection with it.
So, it was due time to revisit the film - combined with the fact that Netflix was streaming it in HD and because I’m pretty interested in seeing the new remake* when it hits blu-ray or free TV. I ended up liking it more than I thought I would. The studio sheen is definitely there but it embraced what it was - a mainstream-ish film in an over-populated genre that still found ways to tell a good story with fun characters a nice Rear Window influence. It’s still nowhere near my top 100 or so horror films but I’m definitely glad I made the time for it again. It firmed up my opinion of it and made me realize there’s no reason for me to look down on it more than other films of its era and budget that I may enjoy a bit more just because I saw them when I was younger (The Lost Boys, Gremlins, The Monster Squad, various Stephen King adaptations…).
* this is the type of horror film I don’t mind getting remade/re-imagined. Not a stone-cold genre classic (to me) that is impossible to improve or update for newer generations. I’ll happily take this remake (sight unseen) and the remakes of House of Wax and Amityville Horror or even My Bloody Valentine and The Hills Have Eyes, etc instead of the sacrilegious newer Dawn of the Dead, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Halloween, Nightmare on Elm St., etc. But that’s just my humblest of opinions.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lsjj0p12TV1qz530to1_500.jpg)
Halloween Hype 2011, Pt. III
[1985 / Tom Holland / ***½]
(couldn’t find a decent image of the title screen, but liked the above cropped image from the poster)
It had been a long time since I last watched Fright Night. Probably 12 years or so. When I first watch it back on the late 90s, I concluded that it was a fine but overrated film from an era that’s rife with countless essential horror classics from all over the world. Perhaps I looked down on it due it being a pretty glossy mainstream production in a genre where I’m more apt to enjoy the grittier more envelope-pushing films from that particular time. It didn’t help that I didn’t first see it in my more impressionable film-viewing years and therefore don’t have a strong nostalgic connection with it.
So, it was due time to revisit the film - combined with the fact that Netflix was streaming it in HD and because I’m pretty interested in seeing the new remake* when it hits blu-ray or free TV. I ended up liking it more than I thought I would. The studio sheen is definitely there but it embraced what it was - a mainstream-ish film in an over-populated genre that still found ways to tell a good story with fun characters a nice Rear Window influence. It’s still nowhere near my top 100 or so horror films but I’m definitely glad I made the time for it again. It firmed up my opinion of it and made me realize there’s no reason for me to look down on it more than other films of its era and budget that I may enjoy a bit more just because I saw them when I was younger (The Lost Boys, Gremlins, The Monster Squad, various Stephen King adaptations…).
* this is the type of horror film I don’t mind getting remade/re-imagined. Not a stone-cold genre classic (to me) that is impossible to improve or update for newer generations. I’ll happily take this remake (sight unseen) and the remakes of House of Wax and Amityville Horror or even My Bloody Valentine and The Hills Have Eyes, etc instead of the sacrilegious newer Dawn of the Dead, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Halloween, Nightmare on Elm St., etc. But that’s just my humblest of opinions.
Notes