Fright Night (1985)

Written & Directed by Tom Holland

Produced by Herb Jaffe

Starring Chris Sarandon, William Ragsdale, Amanda Bearse, Roddy McDowall, Stephen Geoffreys, Jonathan Stark, Dorothy Fielding, Art Evans

My how times change! A serious retrospective look at Tom Holland's directorial debut is almost nigh on impossible in light of the events that have taken place since I first viewed it as a (moderately) innocent young lad of seventeen back in 1985. Having written exploitation classic "Class Of 1984" (1982), reinvented the impossible with "Psycho 2" (1983) and engineered the enjoyably lurid "Scream For Help" (1984) for Michael Winner, Holland made his directorial debut with one of the best vampire films of the eighties. He went on to create pop-icon Chucky in "Child's Play" (1988), turned in the underrated "The Temp" (1993), then nose-dived with TV mini-series "The Langoliers" (1995) and big screen King adaptation "Thinner" (1996). If you hold "Fright Night" near and dear, give up reading now as it only gets more depressingly nihilistic from here… :(

But let's take a look at the cast. Chris Sarandon, who stole the show on the back of a supporting role in Sam Peckinpah's last film "The Osterman Weekend" (1983), rose with Rob Reiner's "The Princess Bride" (1987) and James Ivory's "Slaves Of New York" (1989) before sinking in the film no-one saw, "The Resurrected" (1992), slumming it as a rock'n'roll TV evangelist in "Bordello Of Blood" (1996) and eventually returning to television. William Ragsdale made a name for himself in the mildly amusing sitcom "Herman's Head" (1991), and has most recently been seen on the boob tube in "Grosse Point" (2000). Amanda Bearse popped up as Marcy in sitcom "Married…With Children", before coming out in 1993 and making a name for herself as a gay rights activist. Roddy McDowall followed his spirited performance with (almost exclusive) work for television, direct-to-video features, and voice artist work ("A Bug's Life" being his last notable feature) before succumbing to cancer in October, 1998. And last, but not least, future horror-icon in the making Stephen "Evil Ed" Geoffreys fell foul of typecasting, Hollywood and the drug culture, before descending into the world of hardcore gay-porn under the alias of "Sam Ritter", effectively killing his mainstream career.

For the uninitiated, fans of Holland's seminal film, and the less than open-minded, all of the above would seem to indicate the manifestation of some bizarre curse having been at work over all involved. Although some players have gone on to greater acclaim, "Fright Night" seems to have been the swansong for other parties. But I'm WAY off on a tangent here, so back to business…

Taking it's central theme from the classic "Boy who cried wolf" motif, Holland's film has fresh-faced teen Charley Brewster (Ragsdale) convinced that his recently entrenched neighbour Jerry Dandrige (Sarandon), is up to no good. A news report of the murder of a prostitute, a woman he had only seen stepping into Dandrige's house the day before, confirms his suspicions. Then, one night, his suspicions take an altogether spooky turn when he discovers that his neighbour is in fact a vampire.

The police won't listen, his girlfriend Amy (Bearse), and best friend Evil Ed (Geoffreys) think he's crazy, and his mother puts it down to an overactive imagination fuelled by one too many late night horror films. He is left no alternative but to confront late-night TV horror host Peter Vincent (McDowall), and call on his "expertise" to help him rid his neighbourhood of a menace worse than home-boys and skate-heads. Questioning Charlie's grip on sanity, Vincent dismisses the boy's ranting, until he himself stumbles on the truth. But Jerry, and his spooky henchman Billy Cole (Stark), have other ideas for Charlie and his nosy friends.

Apart from dating a little with its concessions to the (eighties) requirement of a hit soundtrack and (then) hip fashion sense, as well as the above listed progressions of all parties involved, Holland's directorial debut is still slice of popcorn-horror for the masses. The "boy who cried wolf" motif is given a refreshing horror spin that works marvelously within the framework of its plot. Sarandon makes for a smooth, suave and sophisticated (yet deadly) villain, and Ragsdale, Bearse and Geoffreys are perfectly cast as the teen protagonists. Plaudits too to the late McDowall as fading horror host Peter Vincent who succeeds admirably in a knowing nod towards the then similarly fading TV hosts who had started their own waning existence in the face of Freddy & Jason drawing teenagers away from their televisions and back into the theatres. The cast still manages to create a picture of normal (cinema) teens against the successive glitz and glamour of their "Lost Boys" successors of the following year. No small feat in these post "Scream" days, hey?

Nicely edited by Kent Beyda, and gorgeous photographed by Jan Kiessner, many of the film's scare scenes still work, and imagery still manages to dazzle. Post "The Terminator" (1984), Brad Fiedel may have been an eclectic choice by Holland as composer, yet his (sometimes coldly electronic) work generates scares and a slinky seductiveness in equal proportion. The evocative "Come To Me" (which turned up with an awkward vocal on the soundtrack album) has since gone on to become one of the most memorable musical themes in eighties horror cinema, as its off-kilter drum programming and processed guitars make it singularly unforgettable. Sadly, the selection of then hit bands (White Sister, April Wine, Autograph, Sparks, The J. Geils Band & Devo) now do more to tarnish Fiedel's fine work than compliment it. However, all is not lost as John Bruno & Richard Edlund's effects work is exemplary by its inclusion, making aging fans like myself pine for the day when 'organic' live effects were the norm, and massive banks of CGI didn't hold court in the horror arena. Ah well, so much for nostalgia…

Columbia's disc looks like, well, a Columbia disc! In other words, it's of the usual high standard I've come to expect of them. "Fright Night" finally regains its original Panavision framing for home viewing in an affordable format, as well as the fairly standard Columbia anamorphic transfer. Into the bargain, we fans are delivered a print that is completely free of anything resembling a film artefact (which is a nice achievement for a film of its age), has well rendered colours, and a level of blacks & shadow detail I wouldn't have expected at all! I suppose I could say that if you remember how it looked in the cinemas, then you know what to expect of Columbia's excellent DVD edition. A brand new Dolby 5.1 remix from the original Dolby stereo theatrical audio gives the film new life on disc, giving the home viewer a lot of surround activity and some extra dynamic punch to boot. Brad Fiedel's spooky score still gives me the chills, but the plethora of eighties one-hit wonders have dated the soundtrack no end and the J. Geils Band's theme song sucks majorly (they were better before Peter Wolf left the fray).

Extras are limited to the theatrical trailer and some Cast & Director filmographies. But as I so often say, we're here for the movie right? As it stands, "Fright Night" is still a great slice of eighties horror that made a welcome change from the plethora of slasher films that dominated the marketplace at the time. It also managed to steer the genre away from madmen in hockey masks with its financial returns, and back to the fantasy oriented fare some of us prefer to endless gore-fests. On the back of Mr. Holland's opus, we were treated with "Lifeforce", "Return Of The Living Dead", "The Fly", "The Kindred", "Night Of The Creeps", "Vamp", "Evil Dead 2", "Hellraiser", "The Monster Squad", "Near Dark", "Prince Of Darkness" and "The Lost Boys". Although others may disagree with me, I don't really find that a bad thing. "Fright Night" was a welcomes return of the big-screen monster movie and is ripe for rediscovery. Just don't ask me about the sequel, because all you'll get out me is "Julie Carmen was nice"…

International specifications: PAL format disc; Language options in English Dolby 5.1, German Dolby 2.0 surround, Italian & Spanish Dolby 2.0 stereo & French mono; Subtitle options in English, French, German, Greek, Italian, Spanish, Czech, Hungarian, Hindi, Turkish, Danish, Arabic, Bulgarian, Swedish, Finnish, Icelandic, Dutch, Norwegian, Portuguese & Hebrew

Review by Mike Thomason

© 2001, Icon In Black Media