Fright Night (1985)

Featured Audience Ratings

• John H

  
  Other than Stephen Geoffreys horrible performance and some very cheesey 80s makeup effects this film was a hilarious horror thrill ride that's a delight to watch over and over again!

• Michael E

  
  A brilliant blend of comedy and a special effects horror show. The idea of bringing the Vampire into modern day standards back in the 80s sounded like it would fail miserably, but this film pulled it off, and quite possibly my favorite of all horror movies I've seen. The effects… More
  A brilliant blend of comedy and a special effects horror show. The idea of bringing the Vampire into modern day standards back in the 80s sounded like it would fail miserably, but this film pulled it off, and quite possibly my favorite of all horror movies I've seen. The effects are incredibly well done for the time, and it is quite possibly the most innovative horror movie of its time in the effects department.

• KJ P

  
  This film represents horror classics in a huge way, with twists and surprises that will have you begging for more. As a new neighbour moves in next door, the main character (Charlie Brewster) takes it upon himself to spy, causing his curiosity to spiral out of control. When he… More
  This film represents horror classics in a huge way, with twists and surprises that will have you begging for more. As a new neighbour moves in next door, the main character (Charlie Brewster) takes it upon himself to spy, causing his curiosity to spiral out of control. When he realizes that his neighbour is in fact a vampire he is going to do whatever means necessary to take him down. This film is scary, real, and had my jaw on the floor. The visual effects are extremely terrifying and the story is frighteningly original, but there is one thing that turns me slightly off from calling this film a masterpiece. There are a few scenes where the actors don't seem to give it their all and the seriousness becomes a little cheesy. All-in-all, Fright Night is a true horror classic and I love it!

• Jeff "

  
  Fright Night has the reputation of being one of the best vampire films of the 1980?s, maybe of the genre. Long before The Lost Boys, Near Dark and The Hunger, there was Fright Night. A little horror gem with such a simple story that it makes it that more enjoyable. Fact is, is that… More
  Fright Night has the reputation of being one of the best vampire films of the 1980?s, maybe of the genre. Long before The Lost Boys, Near Dark and The Hunger, there was Fright Night. A little horror gem with such a simple story that it makes it that more enjoyable. Fact is, is that Fright Night strips away anything really original or unique, however, director Tom Holland pulls it off with great precision. What makes Fright Night a lot of fun, is the characters, the story, Brad Fiedel's incredible soundtrack and Nostalgia of the 1980?s. I mean these were the years where vampire films mattered. Vampires were evil and charming. Fright Nigh delivers all that. Many people have said that this film looks dated. I reply, "so what?" the film manages to still be entertaining and fun after all these, and that's what counts in the end. Hell, mostly every film made in the 80?s are starting to show their age. Doesn't mean they still can't be fun. Fright Night is one of my personal favorite vampire films for that matter. Not only that, but its one of the best horror films of the 1980?s. Seeing this for the first time, I was blown away. Tom Holland's direction on this flick is super, the writing brilliant, the characters enjoyable to watch on the screen. This is one vampire flick that deserves to be treasured. Fright Night is a fun ride throughout. There's a great blend of comedy and horror that's sure to satisfy. Amanda Bearse, Roddy Mcdowall, William Ragsdale all deliver in this fine vampire film. But obviously the best performance of all is Chris Sarandon as Jerry Dandridge. This is a phenomenal Horror yarn that you shouldn't miss. To those that say that they don't want to watch Fright Night because it's a "cult" film, you're probably an idiotic person who wants to watch Twilight instead.To those who say that the film looks dated, well nearly every film of the 80?s looks dated, so tough luck. Oh well, at least fans of the film aren't missing out, because revisiting this again and again, makes it worthwhile and makes us fans remember that vampires were once evil creatures of the night.

• Chris W

  
  I enjoy horror movies, so it really came as a shock to me when I realized recently that I had somehow managed to get through life without having seen this before. Maybe it was the release of the remake that reminded me. Who knows? Anyways, because of the recent remake, and because… More
  I enjoy horror movies, so it really came as a shock to me when I realized recently that I had somehow managed to get through life without having seen this before. Maybe it was the release of the remake that reminded me. Who knows? Anyways, because of the recent remake, and because this isn't the most obscure film out there, I can be pretty snappy with the synopsis, which is this: a teenager named Charley believes that a vampire named Jerry Dandridge has moved in next door. He ends up being correct, but when no one believes him, he decides to get help from an elderly actor who played a vampire killer, but now hosts a horror television show, akin to Ghoulardi or Elvira. Charley believes that, even though this guy is an actor, he can at least give some insight into how to deal with his problem. What I really loved about this movie is how it is really reverent to the genre, and is filled with all kinds of tributes, references, and homages. The actor, Peter Vincent, is named about Peter Cushing and Vincent Price, and comes from the Hammer vein of horror pictures. There's some tweaking with the vampire mythology, but there's also a lot of keeping up the status quo of the mythology as well. This film has great pacing, a slow build with lots of suspense, great atmosphere and art direction, and a good mix of wicked humor and scares. It's got some pretty nifty and effective special effects and makeup, too. Where it really shines though, is in the characters and the acting. William Ragsdale is pretty good as Charley, doing a terrific job at playing a guy who knows he's right, but really struggles to get support. Chris Sarandon is very suave and creepy as the villain Jerry Dandridge, being both seductive and malevolent. Amanda Bearse suffers from a bit too much "80s hair", but she's got believable chemistry as Charley's girlfriend and Jerry's obsession (she resemles his long lost love). Stephen Geoffreys is really annoying as Ed, and is the main reason this isn't getting a higher grade, but thankfully he's just a side character. The highlight though, is Roddy McDowall as Peter Vincent. He's just a really great and memorable character. He's well rounded and developed, and he's the most compelling one of the bunch. They could have just played him off as a caricature, but instead they take him serious and the movie is all the better for it. I'm a little hit or miss with 80s movies. I'd like them a lot more if I was a bigger fan of 80s pop culture, but generally I judge them on a case by case basis. This is one of the better ones, and it holds up moderately well. I can see why in the remake they tweaked Vincent's characters since tv horror hosts aren't (unfortunately) culturally relevant anymore. Anyways, this is a really fun and entertaining film, and you should give it a watch. It's good stuff.

• Tsubaki S

  
  Fun and clever take on the genre and cliches of vampire movies. Chris Sarandon is the man.

• Luke B

  
  Fright Night is simply 80's vampire movies at their greatest. It goes along with The Lost Boys in terms of horror, gore, and fun. No depressing, sparkly, romantic crap here. Here we see Ragsdale discover his neighbor is a vampire. Of course nobody believes him and he's soon… More
  Fright Night is simply 80's vampire movies at their greatest. It goes along with The Lost Boys in terms of horror, gore, and fun. No depressing, sparkly, romantic crap here. Here we see Ragsdale discover his neighbor is a vampire. Of course nobody believes him and he's soon driven mad. Luckily he forms an alliance with a reluctant TV vampire hunter. As I said, Fright Night is a fun movie, which always raises a chuckle, but it also has some disgusting effects. I'm talking real practical stuff, with some of the most painful deaths and transformations you can imagine. This stuff is so much more creative with prosthetics and the like. Computers can easily make a body melt, or turn a wolf into a man, here some truly creative visuals make these things a reality. Sarandon is excellent as the charming vampire, and it's nice to see him go along with trying to prove he isn't a vampire. It shows him as a man that would rather keep his secret than enter a battle to the death. Ragsdale does the usual not-believed-kid routine, but he makes it work. McDowall stole the movie for me. He plays an out of date TV star given a chance to live out his pretend life. The threats are real, and the climax steadily grows. You do have to suspend some belief in terms of how the characters respond, but if you love the 80's, vampires, and movies that knew how to be fun no matter what their subject, you need to see Fright Night.

• Liam G

  
  An extremely entertaining horror film. Exciting, creepy and funny and boasts great performances from Chris Sarandon and Roddy McDowall.

• Everett J

  
  So the remake to "Fright Night" came out this weekend, and I really wanna check it out. But before I watch it, I decided to revisit the original, which was one of my favorite horror movies growing up. The story is simple, a teenager finds out that his neighbor is a… More
  So the remake to "Fright Night" came out this weekend, and I really wanna check it out. But before I watch it, I decided to revisit the original, which was one of my favorite horror movies growing up. The story is simple, a teenager finds out that his neighbor is a vampire. The movie features great performances by everyone top to bottom. Chris Sarandon is awesome as "Jerry" the vampire. He has this just "dickhead" quality that makes you hate him and really want to see Charley kill him. Humor and horror often mix, but rarely as good as it does in this movie. There are many laughs(some great one liners), and a couple good jolting moments. Now, it's been like 25 years since this came out and it's age shows. The effects are cheesy, the music is synthesized 80's all the way, but the story is still great. Being a child of the 80's, I still find "Fright Night" to be one of the best vampire movies ever. I think the remake looks great(even though horror remakes usually suck), but I doubt it will have the lasting appeal and charm of the original. If it's a Saturday night, the lights are out, and you need a good horror movie then put this classic in. You won't be disappointed.

• Matt G

  
  As I finally watched the original (and always superior) 'Fright Night' for the first time, I was overwhelmingly and indescribably blown away, as well as disappointed in myself that it took me this long to see it. Aside from being a magnificent horror film, it is a standalone… More
  As I finally watched the original (and always superior) 'Fright Night' for the first time, I was overwhelmingly and indescribably blown away, as well as disappointed in myself that it took me this long to see it. Aside from being a magnificent horror film, it is a standalone comedy, with a witty script that is delivered well by the actors performances. Chris Sarandon gives a pitch perfect performance as Jerry Danridge who masterfully plays a truly mind-blowingly creepy vampire. Aside from the obvious scene stealer, the young actors do a fine job in their roles, as well as the vampire hunter himself, Peter Vincent (brilliantly played by Roddy McDowall, who was Cornelius and Caesar in the original 'Planet of the Apes' films). What I enjoyed the most about 'Fright Night' was the fact that these are characters we really care about, and are very likable, primarily [Evil] Ed, brilliantly portrayed by Stephen Geoffreys who was one of the funniest characters in the film, and was easily the most likable character aside from Charlie, played by William Ragsdale in yet another pitch-perfect performance from this film.. Amanda Bearse who portrayed Amy was just average, nothing important, not so stunning or totally memorable, but still acceptable enough for the role written. The horror is quite well-executed in this; and while it may not take itself completely seriously, frights and scares are delivered well and with ease, and it still serves itself as a standalone genre, making 'Fright Night' a likable, chilling, magnificent film, and a admirably flawless cult classic that will never be inferior to a sequel, rip-off, nor remake (although I can understand why studios would want to remake this considering the never ending wave of teen-oriented "vampire" films). Knowing that CGI wasn't used at all for this, I was astonished with the admirably scary makeup, along with superb costume design. The effective makeup works best with Evil Ed, most notably when the cross is burning on his head, which was extremely well done, along with all of the other effects throughout the film. Another great effect for its time was Jerry's transformation into a bat, and although I don't quite know how it was done, it was undeniably impressive for the late 80s. My only major complaint would be that the ending was a bit cliche and predictable, but that by no means did not stop me from enjoying 'Fright Night' as a magnificent horror film.

• Phil H

  
  Seeing as the rather dubious looking remake is due out pretty soon I thought I would go back and see the classic original and see if it was still...classic. At first I must admit the start and build up to this kooky horror is slow and not that spooky or interesting, its the usual… More
  Seeing as the rather dubious looking remake is due out pretty soon I thought I would go back and see the classic original and see if it was still...classic. At first I must admit the start and build up to this kooky horror is slow and not that spooky or interesting, its the usual stereotypical American teen problems, teen look accompanied by all those glorious 80's cliches, styles with a bog standard plot. So the rather basic stuff aside the fun starts of course when the vampire action kicks in with bites, transformations, werewolves and melting corpses haha The real gem in the film is the icky makeup and special effects that still look quite good today bar afew dodgy looking bluescreens and puppets. The best looking sequence is the death of 'Evil' from wolf back to human after he is staked, really good sequence with some excellent makeup and bodycasts that equal 'American Werewolf in London'. The vampire makeup is really nice throughout too with the best being in the finale with different stages of 'Dandrige' as he gets wounded plus a good melting death of his henchman (the weird homosexual henchman type guy lol!). Its silly and basic but has a glowing special effects/makeup portfolio to its name which is both ingenious in craft and workmanship plus it has that great 80's look and feel thats just un-remakeable. Oh and you gotta love that 80's synthesizer heavy soundtrack that sounds like its been made by your younger brother in his bedroom over a weekend haha.

• Aaron N

  
  Jerry Dandrige: Welcome to Fright Night! For real.

• Spencer S

  
  Being obsessed with 80's horror movies, I couldn't help myself with this vampire tinged Chris Sarandon vehicle from '85. Featuring a plot that is a mismash of the old Dracula movies everyone loves so well and a special effects heavy, synthesizer laden soundtrack, sex… More
  Being obsessed with 80's horror movies, I couldn't help myself with this vampire tinged Chris Sarandon vehicle from '85. Featuring a plot that is a mismash of the old Dracula movies everyone loves so well and a special effects heavy, synthesizer laden soundtrack, sex centered parallel, Fright Night is overexaggerated to the hilt. Between the strange series of events that make no true sense, to the misuse of the actual legends of vampires and their roles in the film, this sort of confused me. I do give kudos where they are due to the awesome sequence where the werewolf/vampire (no logical sense there) turns back into a human after being staked. It reminded me of John Landis' exploits in "An American Werewolf," which is what I believe the director was going for. It had a lot of potential, but failed miserably.

• AJ V

  
  One of the best vampire movies of the decade! The story is like a sci-fi movie of the 50s, but with 80s style, which is awesome. I love this movie.

• Alexis N

  
  Awesome! It's just about perfect in all its 80's glory. It's cheesy, gory, fun and it has real vampires that hate crosses, sleep during the day, have fangs and feed on pretty-ish girls. I was in to it.

• Emily A

  
  If you like 80s monster movies, you'll really get a kick out of this one. The visual effects are not its strength, and are clumsy enough to take you out of the movie. Vampires' fangs are long wobbly rubber, the rubber facial appliances defy the realm of the believable and if… More
  If you like 80s monster movies, you'll really get a kick out of this one. The visual effects are not its strength, and are clumsy enough to take you out of the movie. Vampires' fangs are long wobbly rubber, the rubber facial appliances defy the realm of the believable and if a seductive vampire's elongated fingers give the audience pause, it follows that it would give his victim pause as well. All that aside, the strength of this movie resides in its villain, Jerry Dandridge and how he is able to slowly win over any victim he sets his sights on. I think it's really amusing that when the police arrive and are not sure a crime has even taken place, they will believe the person who tells thier side of the story the most calmly. In this case, it's the vampire who's killing his dates one by one and not the truthful yet hysterical teenager that lives next door. The many problems inherent in this film are effectively glossed over with pure enthusiasm. This is a fun and flawed horror film.

• Brian D

  
  Great 80's vampire flick.Nice slow start to the climax-it final with great performances from Sarandon and the late and great roddy McDowell .Always a joy to watch every now and then.

• Conner R

  
  Definitely a fun movie, but I wouldn't consider it a classic. Most of the dialogue, story and characters fall totally flat. It's Chris Sarandon as the vampire neighbor from hell that makes the movie worth watching. The teen cast members all seemed to be hamming it up for no… More
  Definitely a fun movie, but I wouldn't consider it a classic. Most of the dialogue, story and characters fall totally flat. It's Chris Sarandon as the vampire neighbor from hell that makes the movie worth watching. The teen cast members all seemed to be hamming it up for no real reason, which gets in the way of taking this movie seriously or truly appreciating it. It's average film making with a better than average set up.

• Nicki M

  
  Not bad for 80's horror. Seen better ones, though. Wasn't overly keen on the cast in this, but some may enjoy the gore.

• Chris G

  
  Sometime in the 1980's someone decided to make a Hammer horror movie set during the age of Reagan. Fright Night is about a teenager (William Ragsdale) who finds out that his new neighbor (Chris Sarandon) is actually a vampire. He ends up enlisting the help of the over the hill… More
  Sometime in the 1980's someone decided to make a Hammer horror movie set during the age of Reagan. Fright Night is about a teenager (William Ragsdale) who finds out that his new neighbor (Chris Sarandon) is actually a vampire. He ends up enlisting the help of the over the hill horror film star turned late night movie host Peter Vincent (Roddy McDowall) in battling the beast who's out to kill him. This film is pure '80's, mainly the disco scene. But it's one of those flicks from that era of non stop horror that sticks with you, ala Return of the Living Dead. It's a well written piece that mocks its source material without disrespecting it. Notice McDowall's horror legend name. Peter Vincent is obviously a homage to Vincent Price and Peter Cushing, two legendary vampire hunters. There is some cheese there, but Fright Night keeps a sense of humor while also keeping the thrills of a horror movie intact. This is a film that sets itself above the films with "men in ski masks killing young virgins".And they don't glitter, either.

Read all 20 featured audience ratings