Anyone up for the Fright Night remake? (1 Viewer)

[TravisR]

Just off the top of my head, remakes are the reason why I own the original version of The Stepfather, the uncut version of the original My Bloody Valentine and the original Piranha & first three Friday The 13th movies on Blu-ray. I don't think any of those remakes topped the originals but I'm glad they came out because it ended up in me getting movies that I did want.

 

Like Bryan H said at the top of the thread, I think it's fair to expect a special edition DVD or a Blu-ray of the original Fright Night when the remake gets released. And even if the remake is the worst movie ever made, fans of the original are going to win just because a remake exists.

 

[Kevin M]

I know that not all remakes are trying to bank on the reputation of the original as a great many of the younger audiences today have the film memory of a gnat....but some are definitely banking on the name recognition, to say that it is never the reason is simply not true. However I also think that another reason for the massive influx of remakes is just the studios being lazy and not wanting to pay a higher dollar for new material......I can only assume that older material is somehow cheaper than paying newer screenwriters for their scripts, it would help make sense of the shear amount of these do-overs as of late.

 

 

Anywhoo............Fright Night...........here's one of the things I don't get, The original film's basis is that the kid loves watching creature features like we used to have back in the 70's and 80's (here in St. Louis we had "Saturday Night Shocker" & "Creature Features") and enlists the help of the Host of his favorite horror show "Fright Night" to help wit da Vampire slayin.................but how many of these shows are on anymore, not many that I can think of. I mean the movie is called Fright Night BECAUSE of the Peter Vincent's spook show....what are they going to change it to? A comic book store? A video game store? Kinda looses a bit of it's charm if a comic book store register Jockey is going to help you.......without the show it is just Lost Boys IMO.

 

[TravisR]

Originally Posted by Kevin M

I mean the movie is called Fright Night BECAUSE of the Peter Vincent's spook show....what are they going to change it to? A comic book store?

I didn't even occur to me that Peter Vincent's career wouldn't sorta make no sense to kids today. Sadly, I think having him run a comic book store would almost be as foreign or antiquated to the teen/young adult market as a late night horror movie show.

 

[Zack Gibbs]

Peter Vincent is a Vegas magician in the remake. I could see his show being called "Fright Night," but I don't know if it is.

 

[Kevin M]

...........A Vegas magician. So kid's today can't identify with let alone even know what a "horror show" is but they are down wit da magicians!! Yep, that's about what I would expect.

 

[Kevin M]

Oh man..........here's what Peter Vincent (David Tennant) looks like in the remake:

 

 

[Joe Karlosi]

Originally Posted by TravisR

On a similar topic, I enjoy The Thing From Another World, The Fly and The Blob but I do think that their 1980's remakes are better.

But did you ever notice these are always the three few horror/sci-fi films that fans usually cherry pick? But this was way back in the 1980s, not 90s/00s/2010...! That's three remakes out of hundreds! I'm sure other fans can name a few more, but....

 

[Joe Karlosi]

 

Originally Posted by TravisR



I didn't even occur to me that Peter Vincent's career wouldn't sorta make no sense to kids today. Sadly, I think having him run a comic book store would almost be as foreign or antiquated to the teen/young adult market as a late night horror movie show.

But the thing is, all older movies should be viewed according to their own time setting. When a kid today watches FRIGHT NIGHT, he should put himself in the frame of mind that "This story takes place in 1985". It's like when you watch an old Western of the 1880s, do people think it's supposed to be occurring in 2010? Not every friggin' movie people watch should need to take place in 2010.

 

Even if a kid today can't relate to having his own "Horror Hosts On TV", it doesn't matter. The movie itself sets up the scenario that there's this guy Charlie who watches a TV show called Fright Night, and with a host named Peter Vincent. Just like I didn't live in biblical times, but I can watch and enjoy a film about Romans and arenas, and some guy camed Julius Caesar.

 

[WinstonCely]

Originally Posted by TravisR

On a similar topic, I enjoy The Thing From Another World, The Fly and The Blob but I do think that their 1980's remakes are better.

 

I think that Scorsese's Cape Fear was way better than the original, but as others have stated, it's very rare for a remake to be as good or better than the original.
 

 

[TravisR]

Originally Posted by Joe Karlosi

But the thing is, all older movies should be viewed according to their own time setting. When a kid today watches FRIGHT NIGHT, he should put himself in the frame of mind that "This story takes place in 1985". It's like when you watch an old Western of the 1880s, do people think it's supposed to be occurring in 2010? Not every friggin' movie people watch should need to take place in 2010.

 

Even if a kid today can't relate to having his own "Horror Hosts On TV", it doesn't matter. The movie itself sets up the scenario that there's this guy Charlie who watches a TV show called Fright Night, and with a host named Peter Vincent. Just like I didn't live in biblical times, but I can watch and enjoy a film about Romans and arenas, and some guy camed Julius Caesar.

I'm not saying that a 15 year old would watch it today and be totally lost. They'd be able to follow the movie but they'd have no point of reference for horror movie hosts (hell, I'm in my early 30's and the only movie hosts that I remember are from USA Up All Night). Presuming that the remake is set 'today', it wouldn't make sense to have a character doing a job that really doesn't exist any more. Just like in the original Fright Night, they wouldn't have had a 1950's-style greaser or a 1960's-style hippie because it would be completely out of place for the time.

 

[Bryan^H]

Originally Posted by Kevin M I'm a Dr. Who fan, and David Tennant was the reason the remake sounded pretty good to me.

Why a magician? Why not make Peter Vincent a horror movie celebrity like Rob Zombie? I don't know I guess that sounds bad too.

I think the more you change the story from a really good horror movie, you may end up with a barely average horror movie.

But like I said, the trailer will show me everything I need to know. So until then I won't make any more assumptions.

 

[Kevin M]

Perhaps I am being too hard on remakes as I too like some remakes better than the original, however as has been pointed out none of these remakes have been made in the last two decades.

I'll even add one that has not yet been mentioned: Philip Kaufman's Invasion Of The Body Snatchers (1978), The reason I identify with the remake more so than the original is, I think, that the core idea had been changed from a metaphor for fear of communism in the original to fear of intimacy in the remake. The 70's "Me" generation had fostered a disconnect from close personal relationships in favor of meaningless one night stands as well as a general fear of rejection metaphor in the film....it was a play on the idea of becoming distant from those around you (a topic that plays well today in this cellphone, Internet dating, isolated connection world we live in, we are more "connected" with each other than ever before but we are at the same time more separated than ever before) and I guess I could personally identify with that idea more than the fear of communism as I didn't grow up in the 50's when McCarthyism was in full swing. I mean I can understand the idea in the original and I do love the film but I can't really identify with it on a gut level as I didn't grow up with that in my life.

 

So perhaps I am being less accepting of the changes made to these countless remakes because I still am able to personally identify with the settings and mindsets in the originals as I lived in those times. Today's kids did not, they can understand the settings but not personally identify with them.............so......Peter Vincent: host of late night horror show becomes, Peter Vincent: MINDFREAK....or whatever.
 

 

I still dislike the mass of remakes but none of my bitching will stop them and as long as the originals are still around I have nothing to fear, I just hope today's kids take the time to check out the originals as they are, in most cases, well worth the time.

 

[dpippel]

Originally Posted by Kevin M
 

 

[Joe Karlosi]

 

Originally Posted by TravisR



I'm not saying that a 15 year old would watch it today and be totally lost. They'd be able to follow the movie but they'd have no point of reference for horror movie hosts (hell, I'm in my early 30's and the only movie hosts that I remember are from USA Up All Night). Presuming that the remake is set 'today', it wouldn't make sense to have a character doing a job that really doesn't exist any more. Just like in the original Fright Night, they wouldn't have had a 1950's-style greaser or a 1960's-style hippie because it would be completely out of place for the time.

Actually, when I saw FRIGHT NIGHT theatrically in 1985, I was 23 and to me, that era of "Horror Hosts" seemed kind of old fashioned already. That is, growing up in New York. There wasn't anything like that too much anymore, really, in NY in the mid-'80s.

 

No, they wouldn't have had a '50s greaser when they made FRIGHT NIGHT in 1985, but let us remember that FN was an original film; it wasn't a remake where they were trying to "update" anything.

 

And that's another thing about this new "update". Don't they understand that the title FRIGHT NIGHT refers to a horror TV show? And do they know that the character's name (Peter Vincent) is a tribute to Peter Cushing and Vincent Price? No, they probably don't... but they'll just use the same film title and character name anyway, though.

 

[Kevin M]

I mean........if they had went with the old horror movie star thing then a better choice would have been Bruce Campbell* now wouldn't have it?

 

But it seems that movies nowadays can't have anyone over the age of 38 in them anymore.....not in a hero role anyway.

 

 

 

* A role he already did in My Name Is Bruce anyway.

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

I hate it already.

 

My utter disdain over this news has rendered me unable to type anything else.

 

[Malcolm R]

I just hope perhaps this remake is an opportunity for them to re-release the soundtrack from the original film. My cassette is pretty much worn out.

 

[Kevin M]

Ah, Enigma records.....I still have my old Fright Night & Terminator Brad Fidel vinyl LP's..................anyone remember LP's?

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

Have them transferred onto CD's.

 

[Bryan^H]

"I'm gonna end him, or he's gonna end me"



.....And I'm gonna skip this movie completely.