00:12Hey guys, what's going on? This is the very first spot at the movies and on this spot at the
00:19movies
00:19we're gonna be looking at the 1985 release of Fright Night. Of Fright Night. Let's get a look
00:28at the movie here. The movie released on August 2nd, 1985 stars, as you can see, Chris Sarandon,
00:38William Ragsdale, and Amanda Beers. Chris Sarandon you probably will recognize from, take that off,
00:46Chris Sarandon you probably will recognize from movies such as Child's Play. He was the police
00:52officer in that. And he was also in The Princess Bride. So quite a star of the 80s, Chris Sarandon.
01:04You don't really see him doing much now. But also stars Roddy McDowell. And Roddy McDowell you
01:12probably would recognize most certainly from, well he was the bookworm in the 60s Batman movie,
01:18which, or the Batman TV series. But Roddy McDowell probably is best known as, was it Cornelius?
01:26Was it Cornelius? In Planet of the Apes. Another classic movie. Amanda Beers? Well we, Amanda Beers
01:35would probably go on to be most famous for doing Marcy Rhodes or Marcy Darcy from Married with Children.
01:44Um, the synopsis of Fright Night, for those who have not seen it, like I said, released in 1985.
01:53Um, the movie is about William Ragsdale, who, uh, who plays Charlie Brewster. And he plays a young teen
02:02who's, uh, I think much like most kids from the 80s, um, a die-hard horror movie fan. And, uh,
02:10it's,
02:11a very good movie for, like, uh, kind of, uh, reminiscent of the old Alfred Hitchcock movies.
02:18Um, Charlie Brewster plays a kid, or a teenager, and one day notices that his next-door neighbor,
02:25who is just moving into a newly sold house, um, slowly discovers that he is in fact a vampire.
02:35He is a vampire. And much like the formula for most movies of, uh, of this kind of genre,
02:43um, he, uh, he tries to convince both his friends and his family, as well as the police,
02:49that this guy next door is in fact a vampire. And, uh, I think anybody, especially his poor
02:57mother, his mother ends up meeting, um, Chris Sarandon, who in this movie plays Jerry Dandridge.
03:04And, uh, Jerry Dandridge is a, you know, I guess a well, uh, you know, well-dressed, good-looking
03:10guy, kind of really nice, um, a very charming guy. So, of course, nobody believes that this
03:16guy is a vampire, except for poor Charlie Brewster. And Charlie Brewster tries to tell his
03:22friends, both Amy and, uh, Ed Thompson, who goes by the name of Evil in the movie,
03:30um, tries to convince his friends that his, uh, this next-door neighbor is a vampire. Um,
03:36ultimately, he ends up going to Roddy McDowell, and, uh, he tries to convince Roddy McDowell's
03:43character, Peter Vincent, um, that this guy is a vampire. And Roddy McDowell, during this,
03:50the span of the movie, is a, uh, horror movie. He was an actor, he did several older, uh, horror
03:59movies, but now he is a, um, I guess a host of a TV series called Fright Night. And, uh,
04:06he goes to Peter Vincent, hoping that Peter Vincent, uh, marquee as being a vampire slayer,
04:14hopefully he can come over and, uh, to his house and slay this vampire. Um, yeah. Uh, ultimately,
04:22what ends up happening, uh, as a spoiler for anyone who hasn't seen this movie, uh, what ends up
04:28happening is both Charlie and Peter Vincent have to do battle at the very end, uh, against the evil of
04:36Jerry Dandridge. Um, so that's a brief synopsis of the movie. Um, my opinions of the movie, it's
04:43actually a pretty good movie. It's probably one of the best movies of this, of this formula, um,
04:50from the 80s. Um, it's certainly got that good element of the fact that you've got one character
04:57who knows something about what's going on with another character and nobody else believes him.
05:02And that's the very worst part of it. And, uh, Jerry Dandridge, uh, as I mentioned, he's very
05:08charming, uh, very well presented. And it's, it's funny how they always have, like, he's, uh, there's
05:15a scene, for example, in the movie where, um, I guess this, uh, prostitute or this girl, um, goes over
05:24to Jerry Dandridge's house and, uh, Charlie is watching, watching her through the window. And then
05:31he watches as Jerry proceeds to look up at him and bite the poor girl. Well, it's not the first
05:38girl
05:39that disappears. And, uh, when he starts seeing these girls on the missing persons reports on the
05:45news, he puts two and two together and thinks and realizes that Jerry Dandridge is in fact a vampire.
05:52It also does help the fact that, uh, Charlie Brewster does see, you know, vampire related stuff
05:59throughout the movie. So, I mean, Jerry's, uh, hired help. You see him, uh, boarding up and painting
06:06up the windows. You also see a coffin being carried down into the cellar. Probably a good hint that
06:12there's a vampire next door. But, uh, great movie. It's definitely a well-written movie. The acting for
06:18the most part, and I say for the most part, is actually pretty good. Um, Amanda Bierce does a pretty
06:25good job of being Amy Patterson. Uh, you know, the girl next door. Not necessarily the girl next door,
06:30but that kind of character. Um, the one thing I have problems with Amanda Bierce in this movie is
06:36the fact that they try to, they try to portray her as a very sexy, uh, sexy girl. Um, ultimately
06:44she gets
06:45turned at the end. And, uh, again, for those who haven't seen this movie, I probably spoiled it for you.
06:50But she ends up getting turned in the end. And they, for some reason, she gets bitten, turns into a
06:57vampire. And then, I guess the vampire trait is that your hair grows long. Because she has short
07:04hair through the entire movie. And then when she turns into a vampire, her hair is all of a sudden
07:10redder. But it's also longer. I don't know how. And it also, it also seems as if her breasts are
07:18bigger.
07:19It's baffling these, the science behind turning into a vampire. Um, the, the one problem I have
07:26with this movie, if anything, is the character of Stephen Jeffries. And he plays in this movie,
07:33Ed Thompson, um, who, although, although his name is Ed Thompson, most of the movie goes by the name
07:39Evil. I guess that's his nickname. But Evil is probably one of the worst, if not the worst,
07:46sidekick in a movie I have ever seen. I don't know what it is about this character.
07:52It probably, the writing, I don't think is all that bad for the character. But his delivery
07:57of the lines is horrible. And I don't know if it was the director's doing. But at some point,
08:04it seems to me like, um, Jeffries was trying to say a line. And I don't know if the director
08:11said,
08:11hey, whoa, whoa, hey, wait a minute. That doesn't sound annoying enough. Can you make it a little
08:16more annoying? Because, I don't know, every, every line that Evil has in this movie, he manages to make
08:23it horrible. I just, the acting is terrible with him. Um, I don't know if that's intentional. But,
08:30uh, oh man. That is probably the hardest part to watch in this movie, is any lines that,
08:35uh, any lines that Ed Thompson Evil says in the movie. Um, the movie, I think, holds up pretty well.
08:44Um, granted, it does seem a bit dated with certain aspects of the movie. Uh, there is one scene where,
08:51uh, Charlie, as well as, um, Amy, go to a night, a dance club, uh, trying to flee from, uh,
09:01Jerry.
09:01And Jerry ultimately ends up running into Amy during the dance, or during the middle of the dance
09:09crowd. And they start dancing, and some of the music is, is a little, it's a little hard to listen
09:15to. It's certainly a little dated. Um, I would say aside from that, though, it's a strong movie. It's a
09:21very good, solid movie. Especially one, especially for a movie, uh, to watch around Halloween. It's
09:28definitely, in fact, I actually watched this, um, probably a couple of days before Halloween.
09:34But, uh, it's, it's a great movie. Um, the special effects are, for the time that this movie was
09:40released, again in 1985, a very solid, uh, special effects. Some of the special effects are a little
09:47off with the wiring, and, um, I guess the blue screening. But the prosthetics are top-notch.
09:54Um, all in all, a great movie. Definitely a movie you'd want to see. Um, on my scale,
10:02on my spot-o-meter of, uh, movies, I'd probably put this movie at sitting at around six. Six or
10:10seven.
10:11Uh, a very good movie. Certainly it has dated aspects to the movie, but a very enjoyable movie
10:17nonetheless. Um, this DVD, just quickly, is not the first release of Fright Night. I believe this is a
10:25second-released Fright Night. Um, feature-wise, it doesn't really contain all that much. Certainly no,
10:31uh, just basically trailers, subtitles, and, uh, alternate languages. Would have been nice if they
10:38had a feature, but no doubt something that they would be including in a, I want to say double dip,
10:45but this probably will be a third release down the road where they will probably give us a couple
10:49of features or behind the scenes. So I hope you guys enjoyed it. Uh, that was a spot at the
10:55movies
10:55at Fright Night. Well worth a watch, if I would say, if you haven't seen it. Um, and, uh, I'd
11:03give it a
11:03seven. So I hope you guys enjoyed it. That was a spot at the movies, and today we were looking
11:09at
11:09Fright Night. And I'll see you guys next time. Later.
11:20I'll see you guys next time.
