Night 27 of the Attack of the 31 Nights of Halloween

Welcome to night 27 of the second annual Attack of the 31 Nights of Halloween. Make sure to stop by our Giveaway Post and enter to win a goodie bag full of frightfully good treats from 12 different shops! Tonight we have the next movie review off our Halloween Movie List. Follow along for an extra 25 entries in the giveaway. But first lets get to our featured item of the night from Laughing Vixen Lounge.

Mark Of The Vampire Necklace - Style A

Purchase any item(s) from Laughing Vixen Lounge through October 31st and get 10% off your order. Use code OTOBER10 at checkout.

Make sure to stop by and enter our other 2 giveaways going on now. The Wicked After Dark Blog Hop Giveaway and The Hoppin' Halloween Giveaway Hop (sponsored by our good friend Deb at Strange Daze Indeed). Enter for your chance to win a Compact Mirror and Silver Pendant of your choice from Laughing Vixen Lounge.

Attack of the 31 Nights of Halloween Movie List.
Follow along with us for a month full of classic and fun spooky movies. Each night there will be a movie review of the next movie on our Halloween Movie List. Leave a comment on each post with your opinion of that movie. On the last day you will find the magic phrase you will use to unlock the entry worth 25 entries in the giveaway. You must comment on each post.



Night 27 - Fright Night

 

Tagline - There are some very good reasons to be
              afraid...of the dark.

              If you love being scared, it'll be the night of
              your life.


Written and directed by Tom Holland (Child's Play, The Temp and Thinner) and released on August 2, 1985 by Columbia Pictures (Rated R). Charley Brewster (William Ragsdale) is a huge horror fan and loves to watch a little late night show called "Fright Night". So when he starts to insist that his new neighbor is a Vampire it's no wonder that no one believes him. Poor crazy Charley.

Of course Charley isn't crazy and his new neighbor Jerry Dandrige (Chris Sarandon) is a blood sucker. With the help of Peter Vincent "Vampire Killer" (Roddy McDowall), host of "Fright Night", Charley's two friends Amy (Amanda Bearse) and Evil set out to convince Charley that everything is just fine. They fail miserably and must spend the rest of the movie fighting the creatures of the dark.

Yes, the effects are little on the dated side again with this one but a lot of it is still quite good and the rest will make you giggle. If you're old enough to remember the 80's you'll find lots to cringe about while watching the outfits go by.

This plays out like a good old fashion horror film. The teenagers run around with no one believing them. The Vampire lives in the big spooky old house next door. They use all the classic Vampire lore in telling the story. It's a fun and slightly creepy ride. Oh, and Charley drives one heck of a nice old Mustang that no regular teenager could actually afford.

What makes me so fond of this movie is Peter Vincent and Fright Night. I wish there was a late night show on just like it. I would so watch that! It may not be Roddy McDowall's best acting roll or movie but it is my favorite to watch. He plays Peter Vincent so well as a unhappy and scared man living behind his alter ego. As the movie progresses he finds the strength to live up to the name "Vampire Killer".

And I have this thing about the extra long fingers that Vampires sport in the movies. It creeps me out to no end. Why?  I don't know why. It just isn't right! They have got them close to perfect in this movie (the best being Nosferatu 1922). Eeeeew!


Take a look at the original trailer



Some trivia about the movie
1. The character Peter Vincent is named for two well know horror actors Peter Cushing and Vincent Price.
2. Chris Sarandon is also known for voicing the character Jack Skellington in "A Nightmare Before Christmas".
3. A puppet that was created for, but not used in, another Columbia Pictures production, Ghost Busters, is visible in Fright Night.
4. The most successful horror film financially of the 1985 Summer season. Also the second highest grossing horror film of 1985. The first was A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy's Revenge.
5. The fact that Amy resembles a lost love of Dandridge's was Chris Sarandon's idea. He wanted Dandridge to have added dimensions - and not just be some evil bad guy.
6. The film's genesis came in Tom Holland wanting to do a vampire story crossbred with The Boy Who Cried Wolf. Avoiding using special effects at the expense of good acting, Holland included plenty of humour, warmth and relationships. He also wanted to make it valid to a modern audience by rooting it in reality - hence the suburbia setting.
7. Although William Ragsdale and Amanda Bearse are playing teenagers, in reality Ragsdale was 24 and Bearse was 27 during filming.
8. When playing Peter Vincent, Roddy McDowall based his character on some bad actors from the films he used to watch as a child.
9. Much of the film's 9.5 million dollar budget was spent on special effects (it was the first vampire film to spend one million dollars on special effects).
10. Tom Holland's directorial debut.
11. The character of Peter Vincent claims he has been fired from hosting Fright Night because "all they want are demented mad men running around in ski masks hacking up young virgins." - an obvious reference to the Friday the 13th franchise. The bouncer (Nick Savage) at the club, who first confronts Jerry, plays one of the 3 motorcycle gang members killed by Jason Vorhees in Friday the 13th Part III.
12. Charlie Sheen auditioned for the role of Charlie Brewster, but the director decided his looks weren't right for the character, so William Ragsdale was ultimately cast. "Charlie Sheen was a hero," Higgins commented in an interview with The Projection Booth. "Bill Ragsdale in playing Charlie Brewster was the guy next door."
13. Writer/director Tom Holland conceived the role of Peter Vincent with Vincent Price in mind, but Price's health was declining and he was trying to shy away from accepting horror roles by that point in his career.