Ammazzavampiri

The 80's dropped a few movies of this ilk that blended horror themes with comedy (House being another good one). Plants its tongue firmly in its cheek and just focuses on being entertaining. Its really good fun.

Chris Sarandon is absolutely fantastic in this and the rest of cast contribute well.

Keep an eye on your neighbour, you never know who lives next door?

While with his girlfriend Amy Peterson (Amanda Bearse) in his bedroom, the teenager Charley Brewster (William Ragsdale) sees a coffin being transported to the house on the next door. A couple of days later, he concludes that his neighbor Jerry Dandrige (Chris Sarandon) is a vampire, who is committing some recent unsolved murders. Charley decides to look for help first his friend Evil Ed Thompson (Stephen Geoffreys), since the policemen do not believe on his accusation. Jerry is upset and promises to kill Charley. Later, he meets Peter Vincent (Roddy McDowall), a middle aged man, who is a vampire killer in a television show but does not believe on vampires in the real life. Amy and Ed seek out Peter Vincent, and the group tries to prove to Charley that Jerry is not a vampire.

'Fright Night' is one of my favorite vampire movies, indeed a cult-movie in Brazil. I do not know how many times I have seen this film in my life, but yesterday I saw it on DVD for the first time and I was not disappointed, since the Brazilian DVD offers two choices (widescreen and fullscreen). There is just a trailer in the extras, but it suffices. Chris Sarandon is incredibly funny and sexy in this role; the movie has a perfect combination and timing of the genres of horror and comedy; the 'Van Helsing' of the story, Peter Vincent, is a fantastic joke with the names of the great Peter Cushing and Vincent Price; the special effects were state of art in 1985. My vote is nine.

Title ('Brazil'): ' A Hora do Espanto' ('The Fright Hour')

Note: on 14 January 2012, I saw this wonderful film again.

Classic, good vampire movie. Maybe not a great one, but still one of my favourites.

Fright Night is a good horror film. It's not scary but well made. It has enough violence to make a true horror bugf happy. It also has a good story. It's well made, written and acted. It's hard to believe thos movie is almost 40 years old. I remember seeing it heavily edited on broadcast television before I got a chance to rent it. Television cut out good stuff. I think the most interesting character is the vampire. Mr. Sarandon was convincing as the neighbor from hell. William Ragsdale along with Roddy McDowell played their parts to the hilt. I recommend watching this in the dark with someone who loves old movies as much as you do.

A Classic! Spawning a whole new subgenre of vampire movies e.g. Vamp (Richard Wenk, 1986), Near Dark (Katheryn Bigelow, 1987), Bram Stoker's Dracula (Coppola. 1991) and Blade (Stephen Norrington, 1998), Fright Night is very similar to Count Yoga – Vampire, but is a brilliant film in its own right. If you can get past those eighties fashions and mannerisms this is a timeless treasure.

Charlie Brewster (Ragsdale) is the student/horror film fanatic accusing his super-suave next door neighbour, Jerry Dandridge (Sarandon) of being a bloodsucker. He begs cowardly, unemployed has-been horror veteran, Peter Vincent, ‘The Great Vampire Killer' (excellent performance by McDowell) to help him stake the Vampire. Cue lots of laughs, scares and some genuine unforgettable sequences. Fright Night predates the Scream trilogy by over a decade and does a much better job of combining the chills and jokes with tongue in cheek all the way. Like the homoerotic Interview with the Vampire (Neil Jordan, 1994), there's a subplot concerning Brewster loosing interest in his girlfriend and obsessing over the good looking man next door.

Brad Fiedel (The Terminator & Serpent and the Rainbow) and Tangerine Dream (Firestarter & The Keep)'s soundtrack here is also perfect and almost steals the show. Tom Holland, who had previously gained recognition and flashed his genre credentials for his screenplays for The Beast Within (Philippe Mora, 1982) and Psycho 2 (Richard Franklin, 1983), would go on to give us the charismatic killer doll, Chucky, in the original Child's Play movie, also starring Chris Sarandon.

The Fright Night sequel followed in 1987, but was too similar to its predecessor and lacked the intense, roller-coaster feeling. It's still worth seeing though, for McDowell and Ragsdale's return to the characters, I for one, will mostly remember them for. Stephen Geoffreys also deserves a mention for his OTT performance as Charlie's manic best friend, Evil Ed.