You're So Cool, Brewster! The Story of Fright Night

This is a documentary that I heard about through podcasts. It is interesting that Fright Night is a movie I remember watching a handful of times as a kid. I had always liked it, but when I got into podcasts, it wasn't high on my list. I've seen it in the theater at least once and I've come around to it as being one of my favorites from the 1980s. I was curious to check out this documentary to see what I could learn about its making.

Now that I've set this up, this is an excellent doc. There is so much information here. It includes hearing from Tom Holland who wrote and directed it. They interview Chris Sarandon, Amanda Bearse, William Ragsdale and Stephen Geoffreys, who tell how they became involved with the project, their experiences during it and lasting legacies of it. I even love hearing from the effects guys or other people behind the camera like Steve Johnson. There is so much information that it didn't bother me that it runs for as long as it does. It is never a drag for me, which is a perk.

Something that is a bonus is that there is a second episode that discusses and does similar dives into Fright Night 2. This is one that I've only seen once. I wasn't the biggest fan, but it is on my list to revisit. I'm even more on board for having seen this. I forgot that it featured Brian Thompson and Jon Gries. Or that Tommy Lee Wallace directed. He truly was the master of doing sequels for popular films. Julie Carmen was another fun person to hear from.

There is also a bit at the end bringing up the remake. I don't hate that one. Holland and others involved here especially with the original are shocked that they didn't do more to capture to bring back individuals. It is Hollywood so there's that as well.

I'll end here by saying that this is well-made. Editing in footage from both films to help drive home what they're saying, especially when discussing the effects, is great. It helps make sense of what they're saying. This is one of the better documentaries that I've seen on a film and its sequel. I do appreciate when they do a deep dive like we get here. I'm giving this the highest rating I give to docs for sure. Would highly recommend it to fans of Fright Night.

My Rating: 8 out of 10.

The interviews are all great, the actors and crew all have such enthusiasm for the work. They share some great behind the scenes' information on their method and how the films came together.

I really enjoyed this documentary BUT It's a bit too long even for a hardcore fright night fan and the sequences with the Peter Vincent Impersonator are too numerous and stay long past their welcome. The novelty of him at the start begins to wear after a couple of hours of the same over enunciated hammyness.(maybe skip past those parts)

The stage curtains open ...

Being a big fan of the original "Fright Night" (1985), I gladly jumped into this documentary on the making of the movie despite it's incredible length of 3 hours and 37 minutes. We got to revisit one of the best vampire movies ever made with highlights, interviews, the special effects that went into it, the marketing for it, the music, and it's cultural impact.

The film starts with the great vampire killer himself, Peter Vincent (played here by Simon Bamford), as he takes us back to the set of the TV Show, Fright Night and reminisces about the old days of the film which then opens up with interviews from the original film's cast members, director, and other noteworthy people behind the camera. We get to see what William Ragsdale, Amanda Bearse, Chris Sarandon, Stephen Geoffries, Jonathan Stark, Art Evans and Tom Holland look like these days. We are also given a very nice nod to Roddy McDowall who passed away in 1998.

Everything in this documentary is covered. How Tom Holland came up with the idea for the movie, how it was casted, how it was filmed and edited, how the music was created and incorporated, how they did all of the creature special effects and so on and so on and so on. We also got some insights into the sequel, with interviews from its cast members, director and special effects crew as well. And then, at the very end, they spend a little time talking about the 2011 re-make. They literally covered all of the bases here.

The problem I had with this was that it was far too long. Also, one thing that I have enjoyed with other similar documentaries on other movies, were fan and critic reactions and memories. For instance, with the Friday the 13th documentary, "His Name Was Jason - 30 Years of Friday the 13th", we got interviews from other film directors and celebrities who had no actual part in the filming - and I really enjoyed those outside viewpoints. This documentary gives us none of that. Also, in that Friday the 13th documentary, they covered all of the series films inside of only about 90 minutes. This Fright Night documentary was 2 hours longer than that.

By the time I finished watching this, I was so done with it. I was Fright Night'd out. It was too much. If you have roughly 4 hours of time to burn, and you are a fan of the films, you would like this. It is as in depth as they come. I am still a very big fan of the original movie. The sequel and resulting re-make and it's sequel, I honestly could do without. I give this one a nod at only 5 stars out of 10. It was worth watching, but very long - and nothing I'd watch again. I will queue up the movie instead and re-live my own memories.

I really enjoyed Fright Night (1985) I consider it a true cult classic that has aged extremely well, it's sequel however I found went the other way entirely and I try to forget about its existence.

This extremely difficult to get hold of documentary covers both movies and stands at around 3hr 40 minutes which is pretty hefty. I'd say each movie get's about 50% of the time and that's where the problem lies.

I really enjoyed the first half, the interviews were brilliant and the story of the movies creation was arguably the best I've ever seen. Play by play, scene by scene it told the story of Fright Night almost as well as the movie itself and was a joy to behold.

Then the second half kicked in, and it all fell apart. I'm bias I know, because of my dislike for the second film but almost 2hrs of interviews and stories about a film that poor was painful.

If you enjoyed Fright Night I'd heartily recommend this to you as it really is excellent, but if you are of the same mind as me that the sequel was a pathetic cash grab then turn it off about half way.

The Good:

Highly indepth

Great interviews

Brilliant behind the scenes stories

The Bad:

Second half was pretty lame

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

Charlie Sheen was nearly Charlie!

William Ragsdale had a broken foot for most of the film

Some props from Fright Night had been used in Ghostbusters (1984)

You're So Cool, Brewster! The Story of Fright Night (2016)

**** (out of 4)

If you're a fan of FRIGHT NIGHT then you'll certainly love this documentary no matter which version you watch. The original version apparently runs 217-minutes and discusses not only the original film but also the sequel and remake. There's an alternate version clocking in at 140-minutes and this version can be seen on Shudder at the time of me writing this and it only covers the original film and a few minutes of the sequel.

With that said, the 140-minute version that I watched was certainly highly entertaining and contained just about anything you'd want to know about the film. The director Tom Holland and the majority of the cast and crew are on hand to discuss the making of the film and how everything came to be.

It seems the new trend is to take movies and make documentaries on them that last longer than the film itself. That's the case here as this here is another mammoth documentary that covers every aspect of the production and there's no question that you're going to learn just about everything you wanted. I really loved the various discussions dealing with the pre-production and how everything came into place including the casting of the film.

There's also a lot of great talk about the various special effects that were used in the film and we get a very detailed look at their creation, what they were trying to do and what they did to achieve the look. These stories are among the highlights of the documentary as well is the discussion on the alternate ending that the studio had them get rid of.

As I said, I've only seen the 140-minute version but I honestly can't wait to see the longer one. If you're a fan of the film then you're certainly going to love this.