Fright Night (1985)

Director: Tom Holland
Writer: Tom Holland
Stars: Chris Sarandon, William Ragsdale, Amanda Bearse, Stephen Geoffreys and Roddy McDowall

Index: Make It a Double.

After Heaven Help Us, Stephen Geoffreys was given the lead part in Fraternity Vacation, then found the role for which he’s most known, Evil Ed Thompson in Fright Night. It made his name and it doesn’t shock me that it was his second Make It a Double pick.

What shocked me was how much (and how little) I’d remembered of this film from my last viewing many decades ago.

I remembered the core of the story, about a teenager, Charley Brewster, who realises that his new next door neighbour, Jerry Dandridge, is a vampire, but nobody believes him. So he turns to his hero, Peter Vincent, a horror actor and host of the TV show Fright Night Theatre, who is a renowned vampire killer. Of course, Vincent thinks Charley’s mad too as vampires aren’t real. Until he realises that they are.

It’s a great idea for a story and I remember enjoying Roddy McDowall’s performance as an actor playing a Van Helsing type in the Peter Cushing vein, whose confidence he completely fails to find when faced with a real vampire.

What I didn’t remember was everything else or pretty close to it.

I didn’t remember the tone, even if it starts out in the light hearted vein that I expected, Charley making out with his girlfriend Amy on the floor while a cheesy movie plays on Fright Night. She finally agrees to let him go further after a year, but he’s suddenly diverted by the coffin he sees being moved into the basement next door, so grabs his binoculars and watches that instead, utterly oblivious to what he’s just done. That’s the tone I remembered.

I didn’t remember the serious side, a couple of themes that delivered a powerful punch to me this time out.

For instance, Peter Vincent could easily be a joke character, but he’s the deepest part of the film. He’s a hero to people like Charley and Ed, who are big fans. However, he knows that he’s a hasbeen, a relic from a bygone era clinging onto the coattails of his old career. He’s about to get fired from Fright Night as the audience has moved away from his particular brand of monster movies and he’s about to get evicted too because he’s broke. He’s drawn into this story because he’ll do anything for money and Amy pays him to perform a test on Dandridge that will prove he’s not a vampire.

McDowall has fun flouting our expectations as the actor behind Peter Vincent, but he gets a serious story arc when he realises that he is absolutely facing a vampire. Everything about him has to change given that revelation, with all the doubts and conflicts about who he used to be, who he has become and what he can be written all over his face. I remember enjoying McDowall’s part but now I’m appreciating it.

By the way, Tom Holland wrote the part for Vincent Price, who turned it down because he had done too many horror films. However, he later complimented McDowall personally.

The other punch I received here was due to Stephen Geoffreys’s role as Ed Thompson. He’s not the confident weird kid I remembered and he doesn’t have the back story I expected. He’s a misfit, pure and simple, and while he plays it up for effect to survive, taking nothing at all seriously, he’s seriously hurting inside.

For almost the entire movie, he’s annoying. Sure, his antics bring a lighter tone to a story about a boy who’s fundamentally expecting to be murdered tomorrow, but none of it helps a friend in need. Were I Charley, I wouldn’t be at all hapy with him, even if he passes on the key knowledge to counter a vampire attack.

However, that mask slips occasionally, for crucial moments when Geoffreys displays such profound vulnerability that it becomes almost painful to watch.

The first happens in an alley. Dandridge has been stalking the kids through the streets and Evil Ed takes an unwise shortcut because he’s not going to be scared of some boogeyman. Of course, Dandridge is right there because he’s a real vampire and he reaches his hand out to a boy who’s now very scared indeed. Ed reaches back and takes Jerry’s hand because he doesn’t have to be different any more. He’ll belong.

The last happens near the end of the picture because he isn’t much better as a vampire as he was as a kid. Power has gone completely to his head and he’s too confident and arrogant to survive. So he’s stopped and, after a wildly impressive transformation scene back into a recognisable boy, we see the realisation on his face. There’s loss and pain, regret and anguish, but always that ache to belong once in his life.

What’s odd is that Evil Ed isn’t a particularly large part and, except for those few moments, it’s a relatively insubstantial one. That we tend to remember him and Roddy McDowall more than the actual lead actors, William Ragsdale and Chris Sarandon, speaks volumes.

Now Ragsdale does a capable job as Charley, though it’s telling that he chose the sequel not the original for his Make It a Double. Amanda Bearse, of Married... with Children fame, is more substantial than we might expect as Amy, who would typically just be the girlfriend but gets a lot more substance here. Charley’s focused on one thing: not dying. Amy does everything she can to help him and their relationship, though he’s too focused to actually notice.

Sarandon is appropriately insufferable as an arrogant vampire next door and his renfield is likewise, but with more snark; that’s Jonathan Stark as Billy Cole. The downside to the vamps isn’t the acting but the writing. We’ve all read or seen enough vampire stories to know that if you’re going to kill human beings, you need to be circumspect about it. You need to hide and to not be seen doing anything unusual.

Instead, Dandridge’s coffin is seen moving into his new house, mysterious murders start happening, some of them upstairs in front of open windows, and at least one victim arrives at his house in a taxi. And that victim was a memorably beautiful blonde victim played by an actual Playboy Playmate, Heidi Sorenson! Is he actively trying to draw attention?

My most unforgiveable memory is that this was another cheesy ’80s horror flick. It isn’t. It’s deep in theme. It has outstanding effects, care of Entertainment Effects Group, who had just done Ghostbusters and 2010. They were able to scale down majestically without seeming to and they get much more icky than I recalled. Frankly, the most dated it gets is in having a theme tune by the J. Geils Band!