FRIGHT NIGHT

US, 1985, 106 minutes, Colour.
Chris Sarandon, William Ragsdale, Amanda Bearse, Roddy Mc Dowell, Stephen Geoffreys, Jonathan Stark.
Directed by Tom Holland.

Fright Night quickly became a horror film classic, winning quite a number of awards in the mid-80s. It was written and directed by Tom Holland. Holland had written quite a number of horror screenplays and continued to do so over several decades. He directed several films, also in the horror vein. They included the initial Child’s Play as well as some versions of Stephen King novels, The Langoliers and Thinner.

The film has Chris Sarandon, surely one of the most suitable actors in Hollywood to portray a vampire. William Ragsdale portrays a young movie fan, an expert in horror films who becomes convinced that his next-door neighbours are a vampire and his carer. The only person he can think of to exorcise the house is the host of the horror movie show on television, a decrepit old actor played by Roddy Mc Dowell. The Ragsdale character and Roddy Mc Dowell’s character were to reappear in Fright Night Part 2 directed by Tommy Lee Wallace.

The film is wittily written, capitalises on audience familiarity with the conventions of the genre, also capitalises on Chris Sarandon’s menacing and suave screen presence and dramatisation of evil as well as the comic style of Roddy Mc Dowell.

1.An enjoyable horror film? Its use of the genre and its conventions? Relying on audience familiarity with them? A vampire in modern-day America?

2.The settings – the contrast between real life and the television studios? The city, the houses and streets, the nightclubs? The world of television and television movies?

3.The atmosphere, tongue-in-cheek? Suggesting horror? Jerry as the vampire, the violence, the work of the vampire killer and the deaths? The transformation? Billy and the ooze, the struggle with the wolf, the house, the Living Dead? The effects and the lighting? Pace?

4.The blend of the serious and the humorous, nightmare? The song?

5.The opening, Charlie and Amy, expectations, the kids and sex, the television program, the coffin with Peter Vincent, the experience – and it all coming together at the end?

6.Charlie and his personality, his love of horror stories, watching the horror films? Amy and her huff? The mother? Ed? And his nickname of Evil? The coffin, the girl? Seeing Jerry, hiding in the bushes? Jerry’s home visit? At night, the terror? The police and Billy? Amy, Ed and their help? Peter Vincent at the studio, proving that Jerry was a vampire, the visit, fear, pursuit, the disco? The attack? Billy’s death? Jerry and Amy, the crypt, the seduction, the light? The credibility of all these goings-on?

7.Amy, the year, sex, anger, hurt, the visit of Peter Vincent? The five hundred dollars? The disco, Jerry, the seduction, bitten, her becoming a sex object? The end?

8.Ed and his being picked on, laughter, experience, cornered, luring Jerry, the cross, the struggle with the wolf?

9.Jerry as a vampire, the modern style vampire, the contemporary house? the dark, the sense of menace, Billy? Deaths, the visit and the threats? The inner ugliness, the crypt, the holy water, the pursuit, the seduction of Amy, clash and death? Billy as the henchman? His death?

10.Roddy Mc Dowell’s tour-de-force as Peter Vincent, television, the satire? Washed up, sacked? His fear, the five hundred dollars? The visit and the water, the mirror? His decision? Billy’s death? The cross and the wolf? Head, his techniques?

11.The supporting characters, Charlie’s mother, the neighbours, at the television station, in the club?

12.A satisfying variation on the vampire themes?