Wow, this trailer just demonstrates what is wrong with the modern remake. Tom Holland’s “Fright Night” hit cinemas in 1985 and took a lot of people off guard because it was a horror movie that had it’s tongue firmly planted in its cheek. Chris Sarandon was suave, sophisticated and sexy as hell as the evil vampire Jerry, who moves into the house next door to nerdy, loser Charlie. Charlie is lovable but is awkward and when he starts to suspect the truth about his new neighbour, he tries to tell his girlfriend, Amy, and best friend, Evil (yes, that is his name) about it. Of course in good cliché tradition, no one will believe him. Charlie turns to his hero Peter Vincent, a washed up actor who plays a vampire hunter on TV to host old B movies (think Elvira), to help him kill Jerry and save his friends.
The original film was funny, scary, had great special effects and was just a little cheesy in true B movie style. Here’s the kicker, it was meant to be a little cheesy and funny, that is what made the film so much damn fun to watch.
Now DreamWorks has remade the film (you can see the trailer below) and what is the first thing we do to movies today? We strip all the humour from it. This trailer is so generic and boring that I almost didn’t get through it. What is wrong with the formula of the original film? The studio obviously liked something about the original otherwise they wouldn’t be remaking it, right? One last gripe before I let you watch this mess, Colin Farrell was the wrong choice. I love Colin Farrell but he is raw, rough and macho. To make this character work, he needed to be so charming that no one would believe that he is evil, thus no one believes Charlie. The one saving grace that this remake may have is the casting of David Tennant as Peter Vincent. I love David Tennant, why didn’t they show him in the trailer? That may have sold me on this project.
I have an idea, how about letting the people who like the original films make the remakes, they might be able to capture the flavour of what made the original worthy enough to remake. Director Craig Gillespie obviously didn’t like or respect what Tom Holland did with the original because this trailer bears no resemblance to the original film. This film is going to be “Clash of the Titans” and “A Nightmare on Elm Street” all over again.
I will be avoiding this generic looking piece of horror trash and watching the original instead, which funnily enough I did a week ago and had such a blast.
Have you see the original film? Are you interested in this remake at all? Comment below.
For historical purposes, here is the trailer for the original 1985 film.
