Fright Night

For other uses, see Fright Night (disambiguation).

Fright Night
Film poster of Fright Night
Directed by	Tom Holland
Written by	Tom Holland
Produced by	Herb Jaffe
Starring	Chris Sarandon William Ragsdale Roddy McDowall Amanda Bearse Stephen Geoffreys
Cinematography	Jan Kiesser
Edited by	Kent Beyda
Music by	Brad Fiedel
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release date	August 2 1985
Running time	106 min
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$9 000 000

Fright Night is an American vampire comedy horror film starring William Ragsdale, Chris Sarandon, Stephen Geoffreys and Roddy McDowall that was released in 1985. It was followed by a 1988 sequel, Fright Night II along with numerous other merchandise including tapes, CDs, videos, DVDs, and comic books.

The visual effects are the work of Richard Edlund, who also provided the effects for Ghostbusters a year earlier.

Plot

Charley Brewster (William Ragsdale) is an aficionado of horror films. One cold night he sees new neighbors moving in the next door and they appear to be carrying what looks like one coffin. Charley shrugs this off until he sees his new neighbor Jerry Dandridge (Chris Sarandon) biting the neck of a very exposed young teenage girl. He tells his mother (Dorothy Fielding) what he saw but she passes it off as a cliche. He tries to tell his friend "Evil" Ed Thompson (Stephen Geoffreys) and girlfriend Amy Petersen (Amanda Bearse) but they also believe Charley is mistaken and begin to worry about his mental wellbeing. Charley calls the police claiming that he saw Dandridge killing his (Dandridge) date and that there is a coffin in the basement. The police investigate and not finding the hooker (Heidi Sorenson) and the teenage girl (Irina Irvine) they tell Charley to never call the police again.

Charley then decides to seek the help of veteran vampire movie star and local late-night horror showcase host Peter Vincent (Roddy McDowall), who after a long and mediocre career has become cynical and dispirited. Vincent visits Dandridge with Brewster in order to persuade Charley that he's deluded (by asking Dandridge to drink tap water labeled 'holy water'), only to find that Dandridge casts no reflection in his mirror.

Amy comes to believe that Dandridge is a vampire, but Evil is not convinced, and wants to hear nothing about it. As he leaves, Evil takes an alley, only to encounter Dandridge. He becomes scared, and tries to run, but Dandridge keeps up and bites him, changing him into a vampire.

Back at his house, Vincent is scared and tries to shake off his feeling of dread. Just then Evil knocks on his door. Vincent opens it, and begins talking to Evil casually, as he knew nothing of what Evil was now. Suddenly, Evil attacks Vincent, who narrowly escapes by using a cross. A scalded Evil slinks away, threatening Vincent with telling the 'Master'.

Amy and Charley, at the time, happen to be crossing the streets when they see Dandridge following them. They run into a night club, but Dandridge follows them, where he hypnotizes Amy. Charley attempts physical combat, but Dandridge subdues him. He then leaves with Amy to his house.

Charley runs back to Vincent, who makes him grab a cross before he enters. There, he persuades Vincent that they must confront Dandridge, igniting Vincent's long-slumbering faith and strength. The duo get ready, and go to Dandridge's mansion. By then, he had already turned Amy into a vampire.

As Charley and Vincent enter the house, Dandridge welcomes them to what he calls F-r-ig-h-t N-i-g-h-t, for real, used to describe the night encounters that follow. Vincent has a brief moment of fear, in which his faith is too weak to activiate the power of the cross against Dandridge, however Charley's cross works and Jerry whimpers, Billy Cole (Jonathan Stark) then knocks Charley off the staircase rendering him unconcious, Peter panics and runs away to Charley's house.

Charley then wakes up to find himself locked in a room with Amy (who is now a half vampire), Jerry leaves a stake for Charley, giving him the choice to kill her. Peter enters Charley's house only to find the phone lines have been cut, he searches for his mother and finds Evil Ed sleeping in her bed, Peter runs away and collapses onto a table, Evil then turns in to a wolf and runs towards him, Peter lifts a broken table leg and stabs the wolf in the heart just before it leaps onto him, Evil slowly turns back human and his cross scar vanishes. He is dead.

Peter removes the stake and goes back to Jerry's house, he finds Charley sobbing over Amy and breaks him out, Charley takes the stake and leaves Amy in the room (he must destroy Jerry in order to save her), Billy then attacks him! Peter shoots him in the head and he rolls down the stairs, he then rises again and Peter keeps shooting him but it has no effect, He lifts Peter up and Charley instantly stabs him in the heart, it works and Billy melts to death. Jerry then returns to fins his minion dead and Peter scares him with his cross- his faith has returned.

Just then, the bell for daybreak goes, and they all go into the basement of the masion, where Dandridge proceeds to hide in the coffin which he has locked himself in. Amy is present here, and nearly bites a temporarily softened Charley. Peter breaks the lock of the coffin with his stake and hammers it into Jerry's heart, Charley knocks Amy over with a glass bottle. But Jerry removes the stake before it kills him and throws it at Peter, it misses and breaks the conveniently weak wall, the vampire-hunting duo then keep smashing the walls until Jerry is surrounded, he flies towards his coffin again but Peter closes the lid, Jerry now has Peter cornered. But Charley quickly rips a massive chunk off the wall, the impact of the sun knocks Jerry flying to the other side of the room and he burns into nothing. Amy is now cured.

In the final scene of the movie, Charley and Amy are at home, watching Vincent's popular new show, Fright Night, who's sci-fi based. They then deviate attention from the show and begin making out on the bed. The movie ends as a pair of red eyes flash repeatedly outside, and we can hear Evil Ed's catchphrase: "Oh, you are so cool, Brewster!" as the credits start to roll. 'Fright Night' is far from over. However it should be noted that it was not the eyes of "Evil" Ed watching Charley but Jerry's sister. Ed's voice is just added to song played at the end of the film from a line he says earlier in the film.

Reception and merchandising

Fright Night's widest release was 1,545 theaters. The film also turned out to be a surprise hit at the box office, making $6,118,543 on opening weekend (1,542 theaters, $3,967 average). Domestic gross was $24,922,237. It performed the best of any horror film released during the summer of 1985. It was the second highest-grossing horror film of 1985, bested only by A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge.

Fright Night was well-received, winning three Saturn Awards. It also won an award and a nomination at Fantasporto. It spawned a 1988 sequel which also gained a Fantasporto nomination.

In 1985, a novelization, Fright Night by Craig Spector and John Skipp, was published by TOR Books. Fright Night was also adapted into a comic-book series by Now Comics.

An arcade-style computer game was released in 1988 for Amiga computers. In the game, players assume the role of Jerry Dandridge as he attempts to turn his victims into vampires before sunrise.

Production

Actor William Ragsdale accidentally broke his foot during a Christmas Eve shoot. Filming was halted until Ragsdale could make a recovery.

The theme song of the film, "You Can't Hide From the Beast Inside" was written and performed by Autograph.

Remake

In May 2009 it was revealed that DreamWorks would be overseeing a remake of Fright Night. Michael Gaeta and Alison Rosenzweig are set to produce.

External links

• Fright Night at IMDb
• Fright Night at AllMovie