'Twas a dark and stormy night in the suburbs of Las Vegas. Kids are missing and Charlie, former nerd now with cool friends and a hot girlfriend, suspects his new neighbor, Jerry. The story is relatively faithful to the 1985 original, with modern updates, of course. Charlie's friend Ed gets seduced/turned by Jerry; Jerry menaces Charlie and no one believes him; Charlie turns to Peter Vincent, a Vegas goth magician who claims to be a vampire killer for help; Vincent scoffs and turns him away; when girlfriend Amy gets kidnapped, Charlie - and eventually Vincent - mount an attack on the vampire.
Parts of this update are strong. The cast is terrific: Anton Yelchin (RIP) as Charlie, Colin Farrell as Jerry, David Tennant as Peter Vincent, McLovin' as Ed, Imogene Poots as Amy, and Toni Collette in a thankless role as Charlie's mom. There are some very creepy scenes, especially in the hallway of Jerry's hidden dungeon. David Tennant is a friggin' HOOT, swanning around in leather pants and fake facial hair, chugging Midori liqueur. Colin Farrell is also superb when he is slouching around being menacing and sexy - but all that goes right out the window when the CGI kicks in.
The biggest problem is, of course, the CGI. All the effects are CGI which is not particularly good and totally took me out of the scene each time it reared its ugly head. The practical effects in the original were vastly superior, I thought. This movie also might have been shot for 3D (?) which seems pointless.
Probably the most sinister part of this new Fright Night are the scenes of those Vegas suburbs, islands of cookie-cutter neighborhoods, half-deserted in the desert. What a bleak, horrible place to live.
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