Let’s Watch (Retro Edition): Fright Night (1985)

Brewster’s Minions.

*Since early 2020, the While Rome Burns crew has gathered every week to watch a film of questionable content. As the frames go by, we give our two cents. This is a collection of the best pennies from those sessions for you.*

“You know, I’m something of a Fright Night, myself.”

The Film We Watched:

“There are no such things as vampires, fruitcake!”

It was Kev’s turn to pick out a Halloween-themed film for the group in October of 2020, and he went with, well, this.

What They Say This Movie Is About:

Charley Brewster, a high school student, accidentally discovers the true and creepy nature of Jerry Dandrige, his dashing and enigmatic new neighbor; but no one seems willing to believe him.

What This Movie Is Actually About:

Gen Xer’s and Millennials are taught not to trust or talk to their own neighbors, thus kicking off decades of isolationism.

Why This Movie Is Actually Good:

I’ll let the trailer speak for itself on this one:

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Plot Points By Point, With The Gang:

Our film starts with Charley Brewster. He’s an 80’s teenager like any other teenager — he has his interests, he has a romantic partner, etc. etc. In this case, his interest is in the late night horror TV show “Fright Night”, hosted by the totally real vampire hunter Peter Vincent.

As “Overdrawn at the Memory Bank” taught us, never show a good movie in the middle of your bad movie. But in this case, we’ll never know if it was good or bad.

Life’s going well until Charley sees his neighbor, Jerry Dandridge, doing vampire like things through the window. Naturally, Charley tries telling everyone what he saw, and no one believes him. Not his Mom, not his girlfriend, not his best friend “Evil Ed” Thompson, nobody. So, he gives up and calls the cops, thinking they’ll help. lol. lmao, even.

Ahead of the game compared to Dear Evan Hansen.

The cops send out Detective Lennox to investigate with Charley, only to learn from Jerry’s roommate Billy that Jerry’s away on a business trip. However, Charley led Lennox here on false pretences and tries to convince him Jerry’s a vampire, which causes the detective to leave.

Remember when it was Dollar Tree and not Temu? Eh? Eh?

Later that night, Jerry shows up in Charley’s house, and gives it straight to Charley — ignore what you saw or I’ll murderize ya (I’m paraphrasing here). Charley isn’t having any of this so he tries shoving a crucifix in Jerry’s face. In retaliation, Jerry tries pushing Charley out the window, and he counters by stabbing Jerry’s hand with a pencil. And Jerry retaliates by destroying Charley’s car and threatening him over the telephone.

“A vampire is never late, lest they burn up in the sunlight.”

With no one left to help, Charley turns to the Vampire Hunter Peter Vincent himself for help, and of course Peter doesn’t buy it. Charley’s girlfriend Amy can see that Charley’s clearly losing it, so she asks Peter to help create an elaborate scheme with Jerry by drinking tap water (disguised as holy water) to convince Charley that Jerry’s just a normal dude. While the scheme works, Peter takes a look in his pocket mirror and notices that Jerry isn’t in the reflection. So yeah, now Peter knows this is real. And after seeing a mirror shard on the floor after Peter left, Jerry knows that Peter knows.

Do vampires order the Moons over My Hammy on behalf of werewolves? Or as a sassy jab at werewolves?

So what happens next? Is Jerry going to convert everyone into vampires? What happens when Peter and Charley get together to figure out what to do next? Will they be able to save everyone from vampirism or are they truly doomed to the call of the night? You’ll have to watch to find out.

Folks, talk to your neighbors.

Should You Watch This Film?

Absolutely. This film is excellent 80’s shlock horror, it’s one of the better films we’ve watched with this group over the years. I can only strongly recommend it.

Best Out Of Context Riff Of The Night: