High School Senior Charlie Brewster (William Ragsdale) has a new next door neighbor, Jerry Dandridge (Chris Sarandon), and the sexy and charming night owl isn’t everything he appears to be. He’s a vampire, and the bloodsucker knows the teenager has figured out his secret. The boy’s only hope is the assistance of former B-movie star a late night movie host Peter Vincent (Roddy McDowall), a timid ‘vampire hunter’ who isn’t at all thrilled by the prospect of hunting the undead for real.

CRITIQUE

Fright Night, recently remade with Colin Farrel and Anton Yelchin, is a horror gem from 1985 that has only grown in popularity and esteem over the past 26 years. While the film was a minor hit back during its original release, it only became something of a minor cult favorite thanks to VHS and DVD. It was one of those movies people would pass amongst themselves (I know I loaned my copy to numerous people over the years in both Middle and High School), the type of flick everyone saw even if they never quite wanted to admit it.

Not that I ever had a problem on that front. I was one of those who felt writer and director Tom Holland’s (Child’s Play) playful horror enterprise was something special right from the get-go. Character-driven, playing on genre archetypes in a way that both subverts and embraces them, filled with noticeable in-jokes that are nearly as funny for those out the know as they are for those that are in, the movie is a whimsical adventure that is as funny as it is thrilling, gory as it is lighthearted. The bottom line is the movie flat-out works, and don’t let anyone out there try to convince you otherwise.

One of the biggest reasons for everything going as well as it does belongs to both Sarandon and McDowall. They are absolutely wonderful in their respective roles, the two actors so impeccably cast it’s impossible to imagine anyone else being able to fill their shoes (which, of course, Farrel and David Tennant try to do in the remake). They nail things so precisely, move their characters from place to place and emotion to emotion with seemingly so little effort, the result is extraordinary, making their climactic one-on-ones all the more inspired and thrilling.

Holland proved himself not to really be anything more than a B-movie maestro akin to the fake directors who made all of Peter Vincent’s second-rate Hammer knockoffs (and this is coming from someone who enjoys the heck out of Child’s Play). All the same, Fright Night borders on perfect. It moves along with believable speed, the plot fueling the action and not the other way around. The filmmaker allows his characters to evolve naturalistically, getting them to where they need to be during the climactic stretch with believable authenticity. Even when things explode into grotesque chaos and violence it does so in a way that augments the story without subverting it, and considering how few modern horror efforts can say the same this achievement is probably one of the keys to the film’s stunning longevity.

On a side note, Sony Pictures has outsourced the manufacture and release of the Fright Night Blu-ray to Twilight Time, the niche cinephile vendor (their catalog of soundtracks is rather stunning) limiting production to a scant 3,000 copies. Sadly, as of right now all items in this initial pressing have been sold, and the only way to get one’s hands on the release is through third party vendors like the one found through the Amazon link above.

THE VIDEO

Fright Night is presented on a single-layer 25GB Blu-ray with MPEG-4 AVC Video sporting 2.40:1/1080p transfer. Pretty good, overall, especially considering the film’s age and the nature of most prints from the 1980’s (they tend to look a bit soft in high-definition). Colors are fairly sharp and consistent, black levels are solid and depth is good throughout. Some of the outdoor nighttime close-ups showcase a bit of noise, and there is a bit of noticeable shimmer early on but overall this is a fine transfer that should more than please the many legions of fans this one had generated over the past two-plus decades.

THE AUDIO

The movie sinks its fangs onto Blu-ray with an English 5.1 DTS Master Audio track along with an English Dolby Digital 2.0 music-only track and includes optional English SDH subtitles.

THE EXTRAS

The only special features are the film’s Original Theatrical Trailers as well as an Isolated Score track featuring Brad Fiedel’s signature compositions.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Fright Night has held up remarkably well over the years, and as much as I liked the recent remake this one is still heads and shoulders above it, besting it in almost every way there is. While I wish this Blu-ray was more than a limited edition affair, Twilight Time has nonetheless done a great job with it, and for collectors this is a disc worth trying to get their hands on.