Movie-"Fright Night"

For those of you haven't seen it, "Fright Night" was a popular movie from 1985 involving two nerdy high school kids, a single mother, and a vampire who moves in next door. No one believes the kid, so he seeks help from the host of a late night TV horror anthology show. The movie became a bit of classic because the actors were very good, and it had an underlying sense of subtle humor (not like Ghostbusters). The special effect were the norm for that time period, and seem very dated today.

The remake is currently bombing at the box office taking in less than $8m in it's opening weekend. It is one of the worst performing movies this year.

However, I thought the movie was very watchable. It has several things going for it.

(1) The actor who plays the kid (Chekov from the recent Star Trek reboot) is very talented. He is interesting to watch in action.
(2) The supporting actors who play his mother and his nerdy childhood friend who he has abandoned are excellent.
(3) It's an imaginative script that takes the main plot points from the original movie and recombines them in clever and unexpected ways.
(4) The short segment about the stripper is one of the sharpest subplots in any movie I have seen recently. Brilliant!

Chris Sarandon (the vampire) and Roddy McDowell (TV host) from the original movie are nearly impossible to replace. Chris Sarandon actually has a small part in the remake. Roddy McDowall died in 1998. The best you can say about the new performers ( Colin Farrell and David Tennant ) is they hold their own.