Fright Night review

A remake of the 1985 horror comedy starring Chris Sarandon, this smart 2011 update stars Anton Yelchin (Hearts In Atlantis) as teen Charley Brewster, who thinks his new next door neighbour Jerry (Farrell) is a vampire. No one – including his mother (Toni Collette) – knows what’s going on, of course, but when locals start disappearing, Charley decides to enlist the help of Vegas magician/vampire hunter Peter Vincent (Tennant) in his quest to kill the creature of the night… before Jerry starts munching on his mum.

The original Fright Night was a fun flick for teens and horror fans, and so is this slicker, funnier update – mainly thanks to a superb performance from Farrell, who manages to be sexy, witty and a bit scary all at the same time. He steals the show from the other actors, but is almost matched by the sheer delicious daftness of Tennant’s performance in which he leers about in leather trousers (looking like Russell Brand), clearly having as much fun here as he did as Doctor Who.

It’s silly stuff, of course, but has a terrific script (courtesy of Marti Noxon, no stranger to vampires as she worked on the TV series Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Angel) that makes it just the right fangy antidote to sappier vampire movies such as Twilight.