Exploring the Sequels

# 8 Fright Night

His DINNER is in the oven!

In the history of horror, the 1980’s were the undisputed apex for a diverse range of movies involving wildly different tones and highly creative effects that took the man in a rubber suit simplicity of Howard Hawkes’ The Thing From Another World (1951 ) to the no holds barred innovation of John Carpenter’s The Thing in 1982.

Possessed girls, leather faced cannibals, holiday serial killers, and a Tall Man with a really bad haircut terrified the 70’s and dialed up what came before so possessed dolls, subterranean cannibals, summer camp stalkers, and dream demons with really bad skin could answer that call coming from inside the house for even more terror that audiences demanded upping the ante in the 80’s.

Much like werewolves, vampires were no exception and that decade birthed a slew of top tier entries including the unholy trinity of the best vampire movies of the decade (this is the law); The Lost Boys and Near Dark (1987), and my all time favorite Fright Night (1985).

By the mid 80’s the popularity of the vampire versus slayer Hammer Horror of the 60’s and 70’s had waned with The Satanic Rites of Dracula being the final nail in the coffin (wink). Director Tom Holland (Child’s Play, Psycho 2/writer) took his love of old, low budget vampire and monster movies starring Vincent Price, Christopher Lee, and Peter Cushing, and infused it with the then modern antics of a teen comedy and the late night tv horror hosts like Elvira and Svengoolie.

Holland took these elements and expertly crafted a taut, lean, and propulsive story by melding together the main character and motivations from Bram Stoker’s most popular novel with Alfred Hitchcock’s masterpiece of a man finding out his neighbor sucks. A point Holland would make literal. It’s brilliant.

A high schooler named Charley Brewster (William Ragsdale) discovers his new neighbors acting strange while moving in next door late one night and carrying a coffin into their house. The two men who moved in are Jerry Dandridge (Chris Sarandon) and his Renfield like roommate Billy Cole (Jonathan Stark). Charley later sees multiple women arrive separately at the neighbors house in the following days and each turn up murdered.

Charley begins ignoring his girlfriend Amy Peterson (Amanda Bearse) and seeks help from his friend, “Evil” Ed (Stephen Geoffries) as he obsessively becomes certain Jerry is a vampire. Charley enlists the help of the local late night horror host of Fright Night, Peter Vincent (Roddy McDowall..RIP Cornelius). At first Mr. Vincent doesn’t believe him just like everyone else. But he soon learns the truth and joins forces with Charley to not only save themselves but also Amy, who resembles Jerry’s long lost love, before he can turn her into a vampire forever.

Fright Night holds similar parallels with another teen genre movie from 1985. I’m forgetting the name of it…I bet you know it though…oh the one about the teenager who’s not a total nerd but not quite the “coolest” either. He’s a bit of a loner, has a girlfriend that should probably be out of his league, and he hangs out with an older, eccentric mentor and has esoteric interests that differ from most of his peers at the time.

Never mind. I’ll think of it later.

The movie I’m forgetting the name of nostalgically cherishes the baby boomer memories of the 1950’s and uses time travel as a narrative device to transport their modern 80’s audience to the past to relish in that bygone era. Fright Night’s director does the reverse, crafting a nostalgic vessel of the past through Peter Vincent bringing an old school vampire story into the then present to be appreciated regardless if modern audiences didn’t anymore.

The old guard in the form of Peter Vincent not only fights an ancient monster but also does battle for cultural relevancy against the new regime of masked killers who are not the only ones who can ruin a group of teenager’s day. A vampire can do just as much damage and look better doing it. Peter Vincent even comments on this with a direct meta reference to Charley stating;

“I have been fired because nobody wants to see vampire killers anymore, or vampires either. Apparently all they want to see are demented madmen running around in ski masks, hacking up young virgins”

Tom Holland himself would kick off his own slasher icon with Don Mancini on Child’s Play three years later.

We see this similarly in Scream (1996), deconstructing the slasher genre with its own meta quips from its characters about the very cliches and tropes in which the movie is commenting on. Both Fright Night and Scream are horror movies first that use bursts of comedy to seriously say something about their sub genres they are sincerely paying homage to or competing against. Scream made slashers cool and bankable again in the 90’s and many imitators followed, but Fright Night accomplished the same feat with vampires a decade earlier.

The cast is top tier beginning with Roddy McDowall and Chris Sarandon. Roddy plays Peter Vincent as a small, cowardly man with a large ego who’s dignity has shrank along with his stardom but as the movie progresses he shows compassion, bravery, and completes an arch of redemption. Peter Vincent has the opportunity to truly become the “vampire killer” he has pretended to be for so many years. Being an actual hero instead of just playing one on tv.

Chris Sarandon plays Jerry Dandridge as a suave, stylish playboy with an even larger ego whose humanity has shrank the longer he lives (unlives??) as a vampire. One of the smartest aspects of the script and this character is that we get no real backstory on Jerry except an old portrait he owns of a woman who looks exactly like Amy. But he tells us so much without any insight through his actions. Jerry is basically Dracula who has most likely changed his name throughout time and has landed on the basic b name of Jerry. He’s charming, intelligent, funny, sexy, and genuinely scary. A man in appearance only, who can transform into a viscous, fully grotesque monster when provoked at will. One of the all time great cinematic vampires of any era.

Sarandon and McDowall both get two key scenes separately that adds nuance to what could have been more generically written roles. Jerry Dandridge visits Charley in his bedroom after Charlie’s mom Judy (Dorothy Fielding), invited Jerry into their home. Jerry offers Charlie an out to just forget about him and move on. You can see the faint, distant echos of an almost entirely lost humanity come washing back closer to shore, for just a moment in Jerry’s eyes, before Charlie makes a decision that seals their fates. You can hear the vocal breaking of genuine disappointment from Sarandon that Charlie didn’t take him up on his offer when Jerry calls him “fool”. A perfect story example of showing and not telling spoken by an actor taking the role seriously.

Roddy McDowall’s scene later in the movie (and my favorite) is when he mortally injures a different vampire who has transformed into a wolf and tried to kill him. In wolf form, the staked vampire crawls into the shadows of the stairwell, holding the broken wooden table leg pierced in its chest, and painfully transforms in reverse from wolf to human. It is a lonely, terrifying experience by someone who lived only a young life full of loneliness and was haunted by being different. The creature, looking like a dying werewolf, struggles to reach out its arm to Peter Vincent for a single moment of comfort. Tears and pitiful understanding in his eyes, Vincent almost reaches back.

Jonathan Stark interprets Billy as mix of pre Jim Carrey shit eating goofiness and true cold blooded menace who will protect his master at any cost. His relationship to Jerry is obviously and purposefully gay coded especially in how even some shots between them are blocked. And Jerry’s interaction with Evil Ed and his offer to help Ed embrace his uniqueness and never be bullied again suggests vampirism as fluidly sexual freedom safe from human violence.

An additional interesting layer to this subtext is that Roddy McDowall, Amanda Bearse, and Stephen Geoffreys were all gay actors in a time that to be open about their sexuality would most likely have negative consequences on their careers. I’m not sure how different it is today.

The teenage cast all do solid work as well. Amanda Bearse as Amy, balances the last breaths of adolescent innocence in her character against a burgeoning desire for the darker seduction of adulthood literally transforming her into her greatest fear. William Ragsdale is the weakest actor mostly going big and yelling his lines. I’ve thought before how another actor like Michael J Fox or even Zack Galligan from Gremlins may have handled the role. It would be a slightly different movie but I do think Ragsdale as Charley mostly captures Tom Holland’s vision for the character. He’s supposed to be a bit insufferable and he accomplishes that mission as a guy lacking the James Dean/Jim Morrison loner cool of Michael in The Lost Boys or the aimless aw shucks cowboy charm of Caleb, desperate for an adventure in Near Dark.

Geoffries as Evil Ed, invokes an absolutely alien, awkward presence with off kilter line readings and a spastic physicality. His performance transcends any semblance of naturalism into a space of someone incapable of anything other than true teenage individualism ahead of their time. But the consequences of that is forsakenness and misunderstanding especially in a world before social media where one can find their tribes. He is a character to connect with from any generation of horror fans, artists, theater kids, etc and his character arc becomes arguably the most iconic part of the movie. You will not forget him.

The special effects only strengthen an already brawny script turning Sarandon into a crimson eyed beast and later his true form as a purple skinned, giant vampire bat. Richard Edlund, Steve Johnson, and Randal Wilson Cook, fresh off of their work on Ghostbusters, reused some of the same creature effects to equally great effect on Fright Night.

The Lost Boys’ iconic soundtrack was a mix of eclectic new wave rockers like Gerard McMann and Echo and the Bunnymen. Tangerine Dream elevated the western landscape and mood of Near Dark with their hauntingly ethereal synth score. In Fright Night, Brad Fiedel (The Terminator 1 and 2) creates his own synth score perfectly melding ageless sensuality with the modern horror sounds influenced by John Carpenter. The movie’s original poster is one of the best pieces of art from that era and one of my personal favorites.

Additional highlights are subtle details like Charley’s car being a classic Ford Mustang that has an incomplete paint job possibly signifying a dad who started to do some body work for his son’s first car at some point and then abandoned his family without finishing. Jerry always eating fruit like a real bat would. A clip on the show Fright Night of Peter Vincent in one of his movies holding his stake backwards, blunt side first, before impaling a vampire. And Jerry twirling Amy around in a dance club in front of a row of mirrors and you can only see her reflection as they dance together.

Fright Night is a perfect, unstoppable creature, masterfully created to move in next door to your slasher movies, trauma horror, or the meta horror comedies of today, take you into its arms, and promise something different than the current trend. The status quo. A horror film that looks of its time but can connect with you universally making you laugh one moment but drain you of your color the next when real danger persists before a new dawn. A perfect horror movie that would make Jerry Dandridge flash a knowing smile in recognition, bearing fangs among the dying light. Bram Stoker’s villain burning yet unreflective in the broken glass of a Rear Window.

If you have not yet seen this please rectify your sins, grab some holy water, your favorite crucifix, and have faith that this classic is one of the best vampire films ever made and is a must see for any cinephile. 100% certified Horrorble.

You’ll be so COOL, Brewster.

Oh shit, I remember the movie I was blanking on earlier…..Teen Wolf (slaps face)! Yep, not even gonna double check Google on that.

Next time my Horrorble Army…maybe of one, we gonna seek familial revenge with Fright Night 2.

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Last year I had the opportunity to see most of the cast of Fright Night and director Tom Holland with my daughter at Rupp Arena in Lexington, KY. Nothing to add other than it was awesome.