A vampire story... and more
“Fright Night” Starring Chris Sarandon, Roddy McDowall, William Ragsdale, Amanda Bearse, Stephen Geoffreys. Directed by Tom Holland. RCA-Col-umbia/Hoyts. 102 min. M.
Just when you are starting to believe this horror movie is not too horrible at all, the terror takes over.
Charley Brewster (William Ragsdale) is a normal American teenager whose mother believes he watches too many late night horror films. Charley’s life is pretty uneventful, until he becomes convinced his suave and sinister neighbour, Jerry Dandridge (Chris Sarandon) is a vampire. No-one, least of all the police, will believe Dandridge is the vicious killer responsible for a spate of
bizarre murders. But Charley finds an ally in Peter Vincent (Roddy McDowall), a former horror film star and host of TV’s “Fright Night Theatre,” in his quest to nail the debonair bloodsucker.
“Fright Night” was written and directed by Tom Holland, who was
determined to respect all the conventions of a traditional vampire story — coffins, lust, - empty mirrors, grisly metamorphoses — but to place them in a contemporary context.
Forgetting about the horrible aspects of vampirism, this is a story about an older man trying to take a younger man’s girl away from him. But having said that, there is no way you will be able to forget the vampire — the special effecs team of the Academy Award winners Richard Edlund and John De Cuir, both of whom also worked their wizardry in “Ghostbusters,” see to that.
“Fright Night” is strong on warmth and relationships and also contains a lot of tyimour, but it could give you some very good reasons to be afraid of the dark.
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Bibliographic details
Press, 14 October 1986, Page 28
Word Count
271A vampire story... and more Press, 14 October 1986, Page 28
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