Welcome back to Born to Watch, the movie review podcast where we don't take the movies, or ourselves, too seriously.
This week, we're sinking our teeth into a Fright Night (1985) Review, revisiting Tom Holland's cult vampire favourite more than 40 years after Jerry Dandrige first moved into the neighbourhood.
For Whitey, this is personal.
Fright Night was one of those childhood movies discovered during the glory days of the video shop, when an incredible VHS cover could be all it took to convince you to take a movie home. Whitey watched this one repeatedly growing up and remembers it as the perfect gateway into horror- scary, funny and just outrageous enough for a young teenager.
Gow and Damo don't have that nostalgia.
They come into Fright Night with fresh eyes, which makes this rewatch considerably more dangerous for Whitey's childhood memories.
William Ragsdale plays Charlie Brewster, a teenager who becomes convinced that his new neighbour Jerry Dandrige, played by Chris Sarandon, is a vampire. Nobody believes him, so Charlie eventually turns to television horror host and former movie vampire killer Peter Vincent, played by the legendary Roddy McDowall.
Simple enough.
Except this is Born to Watch.
The boys dive into Sarandon's performance as the ridiculously smooth Jerry, the nightclub sequence, Jerry's magnificent '80s wardrobe, the similarities Whitey spots between Sarandon and Michael Douglas, and whether Peter Vincent really steals the movie.
The practical effects also come under the microscope. Fright Night arrived during an incredible period for practical horror effects, and the transformations, creatures, melting faces and vampire makeup provide some of the film's most memorable moments.
And then there's Evil Ed.
Good God.
Stephen Geoffreys' performance generates one of the episode's strongest reactions, as the boys try to determine whether Evil is supposed to be funny, frightening, irritating, or somehow all three at once.
There are also questions.
Lots of questions.
Why does Charlie make virtually every situation worse?
How powerful is Jerry's vampire charm?
How horny is everybody in this movie?
Can vampires really turn into wolves?
Why is Jerry wandering around in those white skivvies?
And how much nostalgia is required to keep a beloved childhood movie alive?
Along the way, the conversation naturally escapes Fright Night completely as the boys revisit the movies of 1985, talk about video shops, classic horror, Married... with Children, Planet of the Apes, old-school Australian television and plenty more.
It all leads back to one question.
Does Fright Night still hold up?
For Whitey, this isn't simply another review. It's a confrontation with a movie he loved growing up, watched countless times and hadn't revisited properly in decades.
Will the memories survive?
Grab the garlic, check the windows and don't invite the neighbour inside.
It's Fright Night (1985) on Born to Watch.
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