Fright Night (1985)

Plot Outline: A teenage boy learns that his new neighbour is actually a vampire but no one will believe him. So he enlists the help of washed-up horror actor, Peter Vincent, to try and stop him. Vincent doesn't believe him either and only does it for the money he's being offered. But as events progress, he grows more convinced and soon realises that he really is a vampire and needs to be stopped.

The Review: This is one of those typical 80s horror films - you know the kind. It's got typical 80s actors in it, is set in a typical 80s setting and contains plenty of typical 80s music. The film has dated badly and you can clearly tell it is the 80s but that is what makes it enjoyable - the 80s cheese factor! Sorry if I've repeated the word 80s lots but this film just seems stuck in a time warp. The film mixes comedy and horror to a reasonable degree, although the comedy aspect isn't as good as I hoped. The special effects have also dated badly and look quite cheap now (considering most of the last part of the film is special effects based, this matters quite a lot when there's meltings, stakings, and transformations left, right and centre). The film's quite slow paced throughout and could easily have been reduced in time by a good 20 or so minutes. But the film is raised by the performances of a great cast. Chris Sarandon is menacing and surprisingly charismatic as the vampire. Where did he disappear to? He seemed a quite capable actor and held his own in this and Child's Play. But he's not around these days is he? William Ragsdale is alright in the teenage lead role but his character is written so poorly and so dumb, you wonder how he figured out his neighbour was a vampire after all (his girlfriend even asks him for sex at one point and he turns her down, despite trying desperately to do it for ages). The star of the show is Roddy McDowall though and he produces one of his greatest performances as Peter Vincent, the 'fearless vampire killer' who is anything but what his name suggests. The only annoying character is 'Evil' Ed Thompson played by Stephen Geoffreys, whose high-pitched cackles tug at your nerves every time he opens his mouth. The funny thing is that the actor who played him went on to become a porn star! Guess his career really went 'up' after this!

Final Verdict: It may not be as good as I expected it to be but Fright Night is still a decent effort, largely due to McDowall's too realistic performance. And for a big slice of 80s cheese, you can do no harm in checking this out.

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