The original FRIGHT NIGHT is a fun '80s popcorn flick, ably mixing comedy and horror like the best of '80s genre fare. This 2011 remake is so lame, so predictable, so forgettable in every respect that I wish I hadn't bothered watching it. The plot sticks EXTREMELY closely to the original film, so it's asking for comparisons. But the script for this one is dumb in the extreme: we're saddled with a scriptwriter who seems to think that swearing is funny and that dumb humour is the order of the day. Hell, we're stuck with Christopher Mintz-Plasse in it, for God's sake!

Needless to say this is a failure in every respect, with every action scene, every scenario, every fight, well telegraphed in advance. I turned around at the outset and said "wait for the CGI explosions and people being thrown around" and sure enough all of these things happened as I predicted. About the best thing in it is the Chris Sarandon cameo, that lasts about 30 seconds.

This has one of the worst casts I can think of. Colin Farrell's heart simply isn't in it, and he makes no effort to be imposing. Anton Yelchin is a charisma-free hero and the less I see of Toni Collette, playing his mother, the better. Imogen Poots is as lovely as ever but has little to do here other than look pretty, and the less said about David Tennant's cringe-worthy, Russell Brand wannabe the better. The FRIGHT NIGHT remake is only worth watching if you enjoy rubbishy CGI vampires over the remarkable prosthetics effects of the original.

Charley Brewster (Anton Yelchin) lives with his mom (Toni Collette) in a isolated suburb in the desert. He's a teen on the rise. When Ed (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) a dorky friend from his past comes to Charley to find another friend who's gone missing, he is unimpressed. When Ed himself disappears, he starts to suspect his new neighbor Jerry Dandrige (David Farrell) is a vampire. Peter Vincent (David Tennant) is a self proclaimed vampire killer and Las Vegas magician. Amy (Imogen Poots) is Charley's girlfriend.

This is a remake of the 1985 original. There are a couple of differences from the original. Some improved the movie, others not so much. Colin Farrell is revealed too soon as the vampire. Supporters would say that it was always a given. But I would say that they got to go thru the motion. Anton Yelchin's character is a little unlikeable. The whole conflict with his former friends really distracted from the main issue, and drag the story down. The first half started slow. But Colin Farrell is a pretty good vampire. What's also missing is the Rear Window aspect of the original. The 2nd half pace started to pick up. The 360 car chase is quite interesting. At least it's not the same old car chase. It's not necessarily better than the original. It's just different.

That is not to say this Fright Night is terrible. It is not, in fact it is watchable, it's just that it didn't ignite my fire as much as the original Fright Night(an 80s classic) did. As far as remakes go, Fright Night is somewhere in the middle, not amazing like The Thing or The Thief of Baghdad but not abominations like Psycho or The Wicker Man. Starting with what was good, it is very well made, I'd say it is somewhat slicker than the original in terms of effects and how it was edited. The music is also great and very memorable as well as successfully enhancing each scene. The direction shows moments of imagination too particularly in the impressive gory moments, and the acting from David Tennant, Imogen Poots and especially Colin Farrell was excellent. However, there are two weaknesses, Anton Yelchin who was likable enough but bland and Christopher Mintz-Plasse who was really quite awful. The story is not as well paced, and seemed drawn out to me with some awkward scenes such as towards the end with the mother, while the script has the odd witty moment but lacks bite, fun and could've done with being more creepy too. The characters aren't as well written or as incorporated either, some of the relationships also felt rushed and forced. All in all though, definitely not bad or pointless, just didn't entirely satisfy me. 6/10 Bethany Cox