I’ll forgo whining or complaining about remakes in general and about a Fright Night remake in particular… and just get right to the news.
The original Fright Night is about a teen named Charlie Brewster and the vampire who moves in next door to him and his mom. The bloodsucker starts working his way through Charlie’s friends and neighbors, and the teen is forced to fight back with the help of his best friend, ‘Evil’ Ed, and his new girlfriend. He also seeks out the legendary horror icon Peter Vincent, a self-proclaimed expert on vampires, who turns out to be a complete fraud. It remains a classic and the best film of director Tom Holland’s career. (Yes, it’s better than Child’s Play.)
The upcoming remake keeps most of the plot intact and has seen a flurry of casting announcements recently. Anton Yelchin (Terminator Salvation) was previously announced as Charlie, Toni Collette (About A Boy) will assay the thankless role of Charlie’s mother, and the suave but deadly vampire next door will be played by Colin Ferrell. Two new names were added to the film this week over at HeatVision… ‘Evil’ Ed will be played by Christopher Mintz-Plasse (Role Models, Kick-Ass) and Peter Vincent will be portrayed by Neil Miller’s man-crush, David Tennant (Doctor Who). It’s interesting that both Red-Mist and Hit-Girl (Chloe Moretz) have moved on to star in remakes of much loved vampire flicks. Well, mildly interesting anyway…
The original film saw Vincent as a late-night TV host who was once a famous actor known for his work in horror films. The remake was originally said to change the role to Chris Sarandon (Fright Night) playing himself… as the actor who played the vampire in the original Fright Night. Personally I liked the idea, but it was apparently too meta for some folks and they’ve scrapped the idea completely in favor of making Vincent a “Las Vegas magician whose show revolves around horror-movie imagery.” That’s unfortunate as both the appeal and the point of the original revolved around the power of film, horror fantasy, and imagination. And magicians are lame.
What do you think of this cast? And of the Fright Night remake in general?
Related Topics: Fright Night
