Fright Night

As both a remake of an '80s cult classic and yet another vampire film, Fright Night already has a couple of obstacles to overcome. The original, while certainly not flawless, had a certain spooky-funny charm, and it would be difficult to top Roddy McDowall’s performance as campy horror host Peter Vincent, or the oozing, collar-popping charm of Chris Sarandon. And in the trailer, at least, the new Fright Night doesn’t even try: McDowall’s successor, Doctor Who star David Tennant, barely cameos, withholding the promise of seeing him in his Criss Angel-inspired Las Vegas magician guise until a later date. Meanwhile, Colin Farrell is nearly all  standard bluster and swagger here, dropping menacing hints to Anton Yelchin’s nosy neighbor kid that he should watch out for both his mom (Toni Collette) and girlfriend Amy (Imogen Poots) without hinting at any of the sardonic humor Sarandon displayed. In fact, there’s not much humor at all in this preview, which suggests this Fright Night takes itself way too seriously. But still, maybe we’ll reserve judgment until we see Tennant in his leather pantsuit or Christopher Mintz-Plasse transformed into Evil Ed, because this film looks like it could really use a laugh or two.