On F List of Movie Reviews

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Fright Night (1985)

Rate: 6
Viewed: 11/03, 9/20

9/20: Despite the excellent-looking poster and fun horror theme, Chris Sarandon is the only best part about Fright Night.

Having seen the movie over five times since the 80's, I always came away disappointed because it could have been much more. My thinking is the filmmakers ran out of gas during the second half. At least, it initially works well, and the Peter Vincent thing is cool who's a mix of Peter Cushing and Vincent Price.

It's hard to believe Jerry Dandridge let himself be defeated by nitwits so easily. He practically invited death upon himself by saying, "Oh, yeah...Charley, go ahead and kill me because you are more important than me." At least, Jerry has an indelible movie moment by announcing: "Welcome to Frrrright Night."

I know Chris Sarandon was terrific in Dog Day Afternoon, but his performance in Fright Night may be the best of his career. He has a great aura of seductiveness which makes it easy to root for his character. Forget the rest of the cast; they are hopeless just like the über annoying Stephen Geoffreys who ended up doing gay porn.

The editing job is bad. Take a couple of scenes with Roddy McDowell. One shot has a close-up of his face looking surprised. The next one is what's happening at the moment. It's back to Roddy with the same expression and then over to the same moment. Back and forth...back and forth...back and forth...come on, enough is enough.

All in all, being in the same league, The Monster Squad is far better than Fright Night.

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