For this year’s 31 Nights of Horror Challenge, the Day 12 prompt was Horror Comedy. There are many flicks that could fit this prompt, but I had to choose one of my favorites mainly because I see myself as a kid in the movie Charlie who is obsessed with scary movies and vampires. Directed by Tom Holland, the original Fright Night (1985) is a true classic and one in my collection of DVDs.

Storyline

Horror movie-obsessed Charlie discovers that his new neighbor (Chris Sarandon) is a vampire—and worse, his neighbor knows that Charlie’s aware of his true identity. Naturally, Charlie enlists the help of a washed-up actor who hosts his favorite late-night horror movie TV show (played by a perfectly bumbling Roddy McDowall) in order to slay the beast who’s ruining the neighborhood.

Our Thoughts on Fright Night

An enjoyable horror film about a young kid who thinks his next-door neighbor (Chris Sarandon) is a blood-thirsty vampire, so he enlists the help of a TV vampire expert to exploit his neighbor’s dirty little secret. Scary, fun, and surprisingly witty and self-referential in the vein of self-aware comedy-horrors such as “Scream,” this nice motion picture piece is bloody and often quite funny. Good special effects for the time.

7 out of 10

Trivia

One of the life-masks of Roddy McDowall taken for the Planet of the Apes franchise is visible in Peter Vincent’s apartment.