Fright Night (2011 film)

Fright Night
International poster
Directed by	Craig Gillespie
Produced by	Michael De Luca Alison Rosenzweig
Screenplay by	Marti Noxon
Story by	Tom Holland
Based on	Fright Night by Tom Holland
Starring	Anton Yelchin Colin Farrell Christopher Mintz-Plasse David Tennant Imogen Poots Toni Collette
Music by	Ramin Djawadi
Cinematography	Javier Aguirresarobe
Edited by	Tatiana S. Riegel
Production company	DreamWorks Pictures Reliance Entertainment Michael De Luca Productions Gaeta/Rosenzweig Films
Distributed by	Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
Release dates	August 14, 2011 (2011-08-14) (The O2 premiere) August 19, 2011 (2011-08-19) (United States)
Running time	106 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$30 million
Box office	$41 million

Fright Night is a 2011 American comedy horror film directed by Craig Gillespie. A remake of Tom Holland's Fright Night, the film was adapted by Marti Noxon. The film premiered at The O2 in London on August 14, 2011, was produced by DreamWorks Pictures, and widely released by Touchstone Pictures on August 19 in Real D 3D.

Plot

Charley Brewster is a teenager living in a suburb of Las Vegas, Nevada, who discovers that a new neighbor has moved in next door to him. Charley's old best friend, Edward "Ed" Lee, informs him that many fellow students have gone missing. When Charley goes home after school, his mother, Jane, introduces him to Jerry Dandrige, their new neighbor. Fed-up and angry with Ed after he claims that Jerry is a vampire, Charley tells him that he's crazy and that he doesn't want to be friends anymore.

While feeling deeply angry, hurt, and upset on his way home, Ed is confronted by Jerry. Jerry claims that he has been watching Ed and has been aware of Ed watching him. After a short fight and chase Jerry considers making Ed a vampire. He then starts to gradually exploit and manipulate Ed's weakness of his emotional state with his former friend (a year earlier, Charley abandoned Ed to hang out with a more popular crowd at school) and his social status with his peers. Jerry convinces Ed into believing that his life would be much better if he was a vampire. Ed subsequently succumbs and willingly allows Jerry to bite him. The next day, Charley feeling remorse over the way he had treated Ed the night before realizes that he is missing and decides to investigate, starting to believe Ed's claims when he discovers video recordings of objects moving on their own, with Ed's voiceover revealing that he is recording Jerry to prove that his reflection doesn't show up in recordings. As Jerry begins to attack more people throughout the neighborhood, Charley sneaks into Jerry's house and finds out that he keeps his victims in secret rooms. Charley goes to Las Vegas magician Peter Vincent, a supposed expert on vampires. Peter doesn't take him seriously, and kicks him out.

Jerry comes to Charley's house and sets fire to it. Charley, Jane, and his girlfriend, Amy Peterson, barely escape with their lives, fleeing through the desert in their minivan. Jerry catches up with them, but is wounded by Jane with a real estate sign stake. Jane is admitted to a hospital, where Charley is summoned by Peter. Upon arriving at Peter's penthouse Ed turns up. By now Ed has been fully transformed into a vampire and he aids Jerry in attacking Charley, Amy, and Peter. As they fight, Ed lets all of anger out on his opponent and Charley reluctantly kills Ed. Meanwhile, Amy injures Jerry with holy water. They then run into a club, where they get separated in the crowd. Amy is kissed, bitten, and possessed by Jerry, who proceeds to take her.

Peter refuses to help Charley and reveals that both of his parents were killed by a vampire (later revealed to be Jerry himself). He does, however, give Charley a stake blessed by Saint Michael that will kill Jerry and turn all of his victims back into humans. Charley goes to Jerry's house where Peter decides to join him after all.

They are led into Jerry's basement, where they are attacked by many of Jerry's victims, including Amy. Charley confronts Amy and she explains how they can be with each other forever. Just as she is about to bite Charley he stabs her, missing the heart and then escaping. Meanwhile, Peter is ambushed by Jerry and many of his victims. Peter is able to kill a few before his weapon backfires. Charley returns to the basement only to see Peter being fed on by the remaining vampires. He decides to shoot holes in the roof, from which sunlight shines in and kills them. The patch of sunlight guards both Charley and Peter from the vampires who had not been destroyed. Jerry appears, explaining that Charley's quest is in fact over. Charley, having outfitted himself in a flame-retardant suit, has Peter light him on fire and tackles Jerry just as Amy is feeding off him. A struggle between the two ensues while the other vampires watch. Peter assists him by shooting another hole in the floor above to allow sunlight in. This burns Jerry, and Peter tosses Charley the stake he had dropped.

Charley quickly stabs Jerry in the heart, killing him and returning his victims to their human form. Afterwards, Charley's mother recovers from the hospital and goes to shop for a new house as Charley and Amy make love in Peter's penthouse.

Cast

• Anton Yelchin as Charley Brewster
• Colin Farrell as Jerry
• Christopher Mintz-Plasse as Edward "Evil Ed" Lee
• David Tennant as Peter Vincent
• Imogen Poots as Amy Peterson
• Toni Collette as Jane Brewster
• Dave Franco as Mark
• Reid Ewing as Ben
• Will Denton as Adam
• Sandra Vergara as Ginger
• Lisa Loeb as Victoria Lee
• Brian Huskey as Rick Lee
• Grace Phipps as Bee
• Dee Bradley Baker as Vampires (vocals)

Chris Sarandon, who portrayed Jerry in the original film, makes a cameo appearance as a motorist killed by the vampire (his character is credited as "Jay Dee", after the initials of his original character).

Production

Principal photography with 3D cameras began in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, with Las Vegas set as the backdrop on July 26, 2010, and wrapped on October 1, 2010. Fright Night was produced by DreamWorks Pictures and distributed worldwide by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures through the Touchstone Pictures label.

Steven Spielberg provided a great deal of input in the making of the film, such as storyboarding scenes and assistance with editing.

Release

Although the film received a wide release in the United States on August 19, 2011, an advance screening took place at San Diego Comic-Con International on July 22, 2011.

Home media

The film was released by Touchstone Home Entertainment on Blu-ray Disc, Blu-ray 3D, DVD, and digital download on December 13, 2011. The release was produced in three different physical packages: a 3-disc combo pack (Blu-ray 3D, Blu-ray, and DVD with Digital Copy); a 2-disc combo pack (Blu-ray Disc and DVD); and a one-disc DVD. The film was also released digitally in 3D, high definition, and standard definition. The DVD version will include the "Gag Reel" and "Squid Man – Extended and Uncut" bonus features, as well as an uncensored music video for Kid Cudi's song "No One Believes Me". The digital download version will include the same features as the DVD version, plus "Live in Las Vegas: An Interview with Peter Vincent" and "The Official 'How to Make a Funny Vampire Movie' Guide" bonus features. Both the 2-disc and 3-disc combo packs will include five deleted scenes with introductions by director Gillespie, a gag reel, an uncensored music video for "No One Believes Me", "Squid Man – Extended & Uncut", "Peter Vincent: Swim Inside My Mind", "The Official 'How to Make a Funny Vampire Movie' Guide" and "Frightful Facts & Terrifying Trivia" bonus features.

Reception

Critical response

Fright Night received generally positive reviews from critics. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a rating of 72%, based on 163 reviews, with an average rating of 6.3/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "It may not have been necessary to remake the 1985 cult classic, but the new Fright Night benefits from terrific performances by Colin Farrell and David Tennant -- and it's smart, funny, and stylishly gory to boot." On Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out to reviews from mainstream critics, gives the film a score of 64 out of 100, based on 30 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". CinemaScore polls reported that the average grade moviegoers gave the film was a "B-" on an A+ to F scale.

Robert Koehler of Variety writes, Fright Night has "a cleverly balanced mix of scares and laughs".

Box office

Fright Night opened in number six in the box office. The film grossed $7,714,388 in its opening weekend and finished with a domestic grossing of $18,302,607 and $22,700,000 in other countries, giving a worldwide total of $41,002,607 against its $30 million budget.

Accolades

Fangoria Chainsaw Awards

• Best Wide-Release Film: 2012

IGN Best of 2011

• Best Horror Movie: 2011

Sequel

A straight-to-video sequel titled Fright Night 2: New Blood was filmed in Romania. It stars Will Payne, Jaime Murray, Sean Power, Sacha Parkinson and Chris Waller. The film was released direct to DVD on October 1, 2013. Though billed as a sequel, the film repeats the plot of the original and remake, with none of the 2011 cast, and no reference made to events in the previous film (for example, the character of Evil Ed, killed in Fright Night, is alive in the "sequel").

See also

• Vampire film

External links

• Fright Night at IMDb
• Fright Night at Box Office Mojo
• Fright Night at Rotten Tomatoes
• Fright Night at Metacritic