Geek Girl Features

Vampire fans can finally rejoice. The toothed terrors finally burn in the sun again, a good old wooden stake or holy water will do them in and they actually have fangs (although at one point they had rows of them). The remake of the 1986 cult classic Fright Night arrived in theatres Friday, August 19, starring Colin Farrell as the fanged guy next door.

Coming in at number five on the weekend box office, bringing in $8.1 million dollars in the USA box office, the remake was obscured by another movie with a cult following, Rise of the Planet of the Apes and a book to film adaptation of the Help.

Fright Night serves the vampire frenzy of today’s culture with performances by Colin Farrell, Anton Yelch and David Tennant. The story takes place in a suburb of Las Vegas, when Jerry (Farrell) moves into the house next door and seems to obsess with renovations. When the high school kids start disappearing, people start to get suspicious.

Charley Brewster is the kid next door who gets drawn into the hunt of his life by his classmate, “Evil” Ed Thompson. As events and plans fall into place, Charley must stand up to big, bad, and fanged Jerry to protect those he loves.

This movie has received great ratings across the board, and Roger Ebert said, “as vampire movies go, it was a pretty good one.” For the vampire fans out there, some parts may be a little ridiculous at times, such as the said rows of teeth or their crazy behavior when staked unsuccessfully.

For those who are not fans, the movie is an enjoyable trip into the dark side of nature. Vampires are the elegant, sinister creatures of the night again, and humans and undead alike are finally hot blooded creatures once more, rather than the cool and reserved manner of relationships introduced in the later half of the past decade. Overall, the movie was a well thought out remake. It stuck to the basic structure of the original, with some updates and, excuse the pun, revamped for the 21^stcentury.