May 14, 2009 07:00 AM
3,695
Enter your username and password.
San Francisco, 3:50 AM
Wed Feb 10
25 posts in the last 24 hours
A Fright Night remake bring back the can't-miss combo of fearsome vampires and 80s horror comedy. Are there even enough of the hambone-type of actors still around to make this YARM interesting?
The trades are reporting that DreamWorks has its sights on the Fright Night vampires from the 80s. Honestly, I'm very confused by this move. Fright Night is, at its heart, a basic vampire tale. Mysterious but sexy neighbor moves in, local kid thinks he's a vampire, he is a vampire, kid kills vampire. The only big difference is the inclusion of the local horror TV show host for the vamp slaying, Peter Vincent, played by Roddy McDowall.
So, why remake this? It's classic 80s fodder with bad haircuts and punk rock drop out friends, covered in a cheeseball tale. What could updating this possibly add to the franchise? Plus wasn't the idea of a show about a show played out? The only real solution would be to update Fright Night, the in-movie TV show into a web series — and no one wants to see that. Second are there even the type of actors to take on the parts handed to the original vampire Christopher Sarandon? I shudder to think of Jack Black or Will Ferrell taking on this type of character, who has to straddle sexy, serious with a touch of silly... Okay, a lot of silly — but not stupid silly.
Just come up with a new and fresh vampire tale, please. Hell, you can even stick in the giant fangs from the original as a nod to Fright Night, how about that? If we start down this path, the next step is remakes of vampire comedies My Best Friend Is A Vampire, Love At First Bite and Once Bitten, and I'll be damned if I'm going to sit though a "Hands Off" vampire, slutty doll dance-off remix.
All joking aside, I'm seriously nervous for the vampire franchises of the past. Is this going to open the door for a Near Dark remake? I don't know if my heart could take that.
Send an email to Meredith, the author of this post, at meredith@io9.com.
Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
Start a new discussion