Fright Night
Director: Tom Holland
Year Released: 1985
Rating: 2.0
A curious teen (William Ragsdale), his girlfriend (Amanda Bearse) and a TV personality who hosts cheesy horror movies (Roddy McDowall) team up against an actual vampire (Chris Sarandon) who just moved into the neighborhood. The supposedly 'satirical' aspects clink for the first two acts before turning into an action picture for its last third, which is when it really wakes up (thanks, largely, to the special effects team and all the gore and prosthetics). There is, admittedly, some intriguing sexual subtext in this, mainly how the Sarandon Vamp never has sex with his victims and lives with another man and also how the Ragsdale/Bearse couple never consummate their relationship - which is, certainly, more complex than a killer hacking away virgins - but this isn't the kind of movie that invites deep analysis for most viewers.
