Fright Night Movie Review: When Evil Lives Next Door

Fright Night: Evil Lives Next DoorThis weekend, Sheryl asked me if I wanted to go see a movie. I am always up for catching a flick. She then asked if I wanted to do dinner before the movie. Sure, I love to eat! (With this stupid diet I am on, only getting one meal a day… so any chance I get to eat “real” food, I’m in.) Then she asked if I wanted to go to Brockway Public House to see my friends My Yellow Rickshaw play. This night just sounded perfect after a VERY long and stressful couple of weeks.

When I asked her what movie we were going to see, she said… I thought she said Friday Night. So I get on Twitter, Facebook and any other number of social media outlets and said, “I’m going to see Friday Night tonight… on Friday night. Weird.” Well, about ten minutes later I learn that the movie is actually called Fright Night. Sheryl even sent me the trailer. (The trailer is below for your viewing pleasure.) Needless to say, I didn’t watch it.

Creepy Bloody Kickoff

The movie starts off REALLY good. There is a guy running through a house, blood everywhere, and a few dead bodies in the bedroom. The kid (it was a kid running through the house) climbs under the bed, and reaches for his dad’s gun. It’s locked! Oh no! That’s when I lost complete interest in the movie. He reaches into his dad’s pocket, grabs the key (there was a lock on the gun) and the “monster” comes in. You don’t see him, but you see the hand enough to know it’s not a human. I looked at Sheryl and said, “It’s not real? I’m out.”

So while the beginning started with a ton of well-placed gore, and a few dead bodies here and there… when they introduced a vampire, I was done.

The Bad (That’s so cliché.)

As most of you know, I like movies that are real… Movies that could actually happen. I like films that have a great story, good character development, and have a thought-provoking ending. This one did not. I struggled to get through it, actually. I have nearly walked out of movies before, and while I didn’t consider doing that with this film, I had to rely on the cheesy one-liners tossed in every so often.

There were a ton of great actors in the movie including Colin Farrell, David Tennant, Anton Yelchin, and Christopher Mintz-Plasse. My friend Lisa Loeb even made an appearance. It was funny to see her on the big screen! I sent her a tweet as soon as the movie was over to congratulate her on her performance! Speaking of Christopher Mintz-Plasse, he had the best line in the entire movie. I can’t say it here; it’s pretty funny… go see the movie and tell me you don’t laugh out loud.

The acting, regardless of the actors in the film, wasn’t very good. I asked Sheryl about halfway through if it was supposed to be a B movie. I knew that it was a remake, but I haven’t seen the original. After seeing this one, I won’t be watching the original any time soon.

No way… it’s in 3D?

I am so sick and tired of 3D movies. EVERYTHING that comes out these days is in 3D, and it rarely adds to the overall enjoyment of the film. In this movie, it was forced. It didn’t help make the movie any better, and in fact might have made it worse. Who wants to watch a movie with glasses on? Not me.

Oh, by the way, one of the commercials before the movie was for a 3D phone. A 3D PHONE! You can shoot photos and videos in 3D on your cell phone. The commercial was pretty funny, but they are starting to take this a little bit too far.

But there were some good parts…

I told you that in my movie review, going forward, that I would try to find some positive things to say. So… here we go. There were some very funny parts in this movie. The movie was apparently supposed to be funny, but it wasn’t obviously funny. Our good friends Heather and Ian went with us, and they were laughing the entire time. I was just sitting there shaking my head. Having known it was supposed to be funny might have enhanced my experience. Heather knows the lady who wrote it, who also wrote Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I didn’t like that show either.

After the movie was over, I learned that one of the actors that played the vampire in the original Fright Night was in the movie. That was a cool fact. Heather also said that there were several Buffy references throughout the film. Seeing as how I didn’t watch that show enough to remember anything about it, those went right over my head. I didn’t like it for what I thought it was worth. Go in thinking it’s a comedy, and realizing that it’s a vampire movie and you will be just fine. If you watched Buffy the Vampire Slayer I am sure you will like this too. I am just sick of this vampire fad.

Did you see the original Fright Night? What did you think of the new one?

The last movie review I wrote, I started a new rating system… rather than using stars I will be using popcorn kernels. This one… well, it didn’t do so well. I gave it 1/5. Let’s just be glad that there was some humor in there… or I wouldn’t know what to rate it!

Fright Night Movie ReviewFright Night Movie ReviewFright Night Movie ReviewFright Night Movie ReviewFright Night Movie Review