Fright Night

Fright Night
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Tom Holland
Produced by	Herb Jaffe
Written by	Tom Holland
Starring	Chris Sarandon William Ragsdale Amanda Bearse Stephen Geoffreys and Roddy McDowall
Music by	Brad Fiedel
Cinematography	Jan Kiesser
Editing by	Kent Beyda
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release dates	August 2, 1985 (1985-08-02)
Running time	106 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$9 million
Box office	$24,922,237

Fright Night is a 1985 American horror film written and directed by Tom Holland and produced by Herb Jaffe. It stars William Ragsdale, Chris Sarandon, Roddy McDowall and Amanda Bearse as the film's plot shows about young Charley Brewster as he sees his next-door neighbor, Jerry Dandrige is a vampire and finds out that since no one belives him, Charley decides to get Peter Vincent, a Vampire TV show host to stop Jerry from starting a massive killing spree. The film was released on August 2, 1985 and was followed by a sequel, Fright Night II in 1988, a 3D remake in 2011, and a sequel to the remake in 2013.

Plot

Charley Brewster (William Ragsdale) is a huge fan of traditional Gothic horror films. He stays up late at night to watch the horror movie TV series "Fright Night" hosted by Charley's hero, Hammer Horror style actor Peter Vincent (Roddy McDowall), who played a vampire killer for many years in horror movies.

Charley discovers that his new next door neighbor, Jerry Dandrige (Chris Sarandon) is a vampire. Upon coming to this terrible realization, Charley tries to tell his naturally skeptical yet loving mother, and asks his friends for their help. In desperation he calls the police but when he reveals his suspicions to them they believe he has a wild imagination and ignore his claims. That night Charley gets a visit from Jerry himself who offers Charley a "choice" (something he claims to lack himself): "Forget about me and I'll forget about you." Charley tries to use his crucifix on Jerry but the latter stops him and slowly tries to push Charley out the window to his death. Charley stabs Jerry through the hand with a pencil. Enraged, Jerry destroys Charley's car in retaliation and warns Charlie that he plans to do much worse to him later.

Charley turns to Peter Vincent, for help, but Peter dismisses Charley as an obsessed fan. Charley's girlfriend, Amy Peterson (Amanda Bearse), fears for Charley's sanity and safety so she hires the financially destitute Vincent to "prove" that Jerry is not a vampire by having him ingest what they claim is "holy water", but it turns out to only be tap water (Jerry having claimed to Peter that ingesting actual holy water would be against his religious convictions).

Vincent accidentally discovers Jerry's true nature after glancing his lack of a reflection in his pocket mirror, which causes him to accidentally drop and smash the mirror. With this terrifying knowledge Peter flees but Jerry learns of Peter's discovery after finding a piece of his pocket mirror on the floor.

Jerry hunts down and turns Charley's friend, "Evil Ed" Thompson (Stephen Geoffreys), into a vampire. Ed then visits Peter and tries to attack him, only to be warded off when injured by a crucifix. Meanwhile, Jerry chases Charley and Amy into a club. While Charley is trying to call Peter for help, Jerry hypnotizes and abducts Amy, who bears a resemblance to Jerry's lost love (whom Jerry has a painting of). With nowhere left to turn, Charley attempts to gain Peter's help once more.

Peter, frightened from having dealt with Evil Ed, initially refuses, but then reluctantly resumes his "Vampire Killer" role as Charley approaches his neighbor's house. The two are able to repel Jerry's attack using a crucifix, though only Charley's works, since he has faith in its spiritual power. Billy Cole (Jonathan Stark), Jerry's live-in carpenter and daytime protector, appears and knocks Charley over the banister and to the ground. Peter flees to Charley's house, finding that Mrs. Brewster is at work, and is attacked by Evil Ed, who takes a wolf form. Peter apparently kills Ed after staking him through the heart. An unconscious Charley is taken to Amy who has been turned into a vampire by Jerry. Peter says the process can be reversed, but only if they kill Jerry before dawn.

Charley and Peter are then confronted by Billy, whom Peter shoots, on the assumption that Billy is human due to having a reflection and appearing during daytime. This theory proves to be correct, but after his death Jerry utters a phrase of evil, transforming his dead caretaker into an undead fiend. Billy rises again and is only killed when staked through the heart by Charley, dissolving him into goo and dust. Jerry appears, but Peter is able to lure the overconfident vampire in front of a window using a crucifix (which now works against Jerry in the hands of Peter, due to Peter's renewed faith in its abilities). Just before the morning sun lights him ablaze. Jerry turns into a bat and attacks Peter and Charley (biting Charley in the process) before fleeing, wounded, to his coffin in the basement. Charley and Peter go in pursuit of Jerry; Peter breaks open Jerry's coffin and tries to stake him through the heart whilst Charley has to fight off Amy, who has completed her transformation. By breaking the blacked-out windows in the basement, Peter and Charley are able to expose Jerry to the sunlight and kill him. Jerry's death leads Amy to become human once more, and the three embrace.

A few nights later Peter returns to his Fright Night TV series and announces a break from vampires, instead selecting to present an alien invasion movie, watched in Charley's bedroom by Charley and Amy. The last shot shows two red eyes appearing from the darkness of Jerry's house, followed by Evil Ed laughing sarcastically "Oh, you're so cool, Brewster!", indicating that he had survived his fight with Peter.

Cast

• Chris Sarandon as Jerry Dandrige^[1]
• William Ragsdale as Charley Brewster
• Amanda Bearse as Amy Peterson
• Roddy McDowall as Peter Vincent
• Stephen Geoffreys as Edward "Evil Ed" Thompson
• Jonathan Stark as Billy Cole
• Dorothy Fielding as Judy Brewster
• Art J. Evans as Detective Lennox

Production

Filming began from December 3, 1984 and was finished in February 23, 1985. Some of the films used as movies shown on the fictional Fright Night are Scars of Dracula (1970), The Premature Burial (1962), Count Dracula (1969), and Octaman (1974).

Roddy McDowall's character, Peter Vincent, was named after horror icons Peter Cushing and Vincent Price.

Reception

Box office

Fright Night's widest release was 1,545 theaters. The film also turned out to be a surprise hit at the box office, making $6,118,543 on opening weekend (1,542 theaters, $3,967 average). Domestic gross was $24,922,237. It performed the best of any horror film released during the summer of 1985.^[2] It was also the second highest-grossing horror film of 1985, bested only by A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge.

Critical

Fright Night was well-received, winning three Saturn Awards, a Dario Argento Award, and a critics' award—special citation at Fantasporto and currently holds a 94% approval rating at Rotten Tomatoes, based on 30 reviews. Chris Sarandon was praised for his multifaceted performance. A 1988 sequel followed, entitled Fright Night Part II, with William Ragsdale and Roddy McDowall reprising their roles. The sequel was not as well received as the original.^[3]

Adaptations and merchandising

In 1985, a novelization, Fright Night, by Craig Spector and John Skipp, was published by TOR Books.^{[citation needed]}

In 1988, Fright Night was also spun-off into a comic book series by Now Comics. It ran for 22 issues until July 1990.^[4]

An arcade-style computer game was released in 1988 for Amiga computers. In the game, players assume the role of Jerry Dandrige as he attempts to turn his victims into vampires before sunrise.^[5]

Sequel

In 1987, after the critical and financial success of Fright Night a sequel Fright Night II was given a very limited release. Both William Ragsdale and Roddy McDowall reprised their roles.

Home media

The film was released on VHS and on DVD as a bare-bones edition in 1999. On December 13, 2011, the film was released as a limited edition Blu-ray (only 3,000 copies were made) sold exclusively through ScreenArchives.com. It includes two theatrical trailers, an isolated music score and a four page booklet containing an essay on the film as special features. The Blu-ray is now out of print/sold out and has become an expensive item on Amazon.com. ^{[citation needed]}

Soundtrack

Fright Night
Soundtrack album by various artists
Released	1985
Genre	Rock, New Wave
Length	37:12
Label	Private I

1. "Fright Night" (The J. Geils Band) – 3:45
2. "You Can't Hide from the Beast Inside" (Autograph) – 4:14
3. "Good Man in a Bad Time" (Ian Hunter) – 3:41
4. "Rock Myself to Sleep" (April Wine) – 2:57
5. "Let's Talk" (Devo) – 2:52
6. "Armies of the Night" (Sparks) – 4:34
7. "Give It Up" (Evelyn "Champagne" King) – 3:43
8. "Save Me Tonight" (White Sister) – 4:22
9. "Boppin' Tonight" (Fabulous Fontaines) – 3:10
10. "Come to Me" (Brad Fiedel) – 3:54

Remake

In May 2009, DreamWorks announced that it would be overseeing a remake of Fright Night.^[6] Mike De Luca, Michael Gaeta, and Alison Rosenzweig are the producers.^[7] Marti Noxon wrote the script of the remake.^[8][9] In March 2010 it was announced that Craig Gillespie would direct the remake,^[10] and it was financed by Steven Spielberg with his company DreamWorks.^[11] It will be released and distributed by Disney under the Touchstone banner, as part of the 30-picture deal between DreamWorks Studios and the Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group.

The film was shot in New Mexico, and wrapped in 2010 with Anton Yelchin to play the lead as teenage Charlie Brewster who thinks his next door neighbor is a vampire.^[12] Toni Collette plays Charlie's mother. Colin Farrell plays the antagonist/charismatic neighbor/vampire Jerry Dandrige, originally portrayed by Chris Sarandon.^[13] Scottish actor David Tennant plays the role of Peter Vincent. In the remake, Vincent is a Las Vegas magician whose show revolves around horror-movie imagery.^[14] Sandra Vergara, sister of actress Sofia Vergara, plays his girlfriend, the magician's assistant.^[15] Christopher Mintz-Plasse plays Evil Ed.^[16] Imogen Poots plays Charlie's girlfriend Amy.^[17] Chris Sarandon cameos as a hapless passerby who encounters the vampire.

On August 19, 2011 the film was released in Real D 3D with Paradise FX's Tri Delta camera systems.^[18] Max Penner (CTO of Paradise FX) is the Stereographer.^[17]

The remake was followed by a sequel, titled Fright Night 2: New Blood, which was released direct-to-video on October 1, 2013 by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment.

References

External links

• Fright Night at the Internet Movie Database
• Fright Night at allmovie
• Fright Night at Box Office Mojo
• Fright Night at Rotten Tomatoes
• Two free downloadable commentary tracks, courtesy of Icons of Fright.