In the days of our youth true belief and faith are easier to come by. We embrace what we are told with confidence and we don’t typically over-analyze fantasy. It isn’t until adulthood when skepticism creeps in and we begin to question the world around us. We know there is no Santa; we know that mysterious noise in our home is not a ghost, but rather some burgeoning problem we cannot afford to fix. Fantasy is no longer reality and it has become nothing more than an escape from the doldrums of adulthood. But… What if, perhaps, some of our childhood myths ARE true? What would you do then?
This is the question asked by Fright Night, the 1985 vampire flick written and directed by Tom Holland (who, I must note, went on to co-create one of the all-time greats, Chucky). In it, Charley Brewster (played by William Ragsdale) is a teen on the verge of adulthood. He loves watching his favorite horror show, Fright Night, and making out with his girlfriend (the two not being mutually exclusive), and when he spots the new neighbors moving what appears to be a coffin into their basement, his youthful imagination takes hold and he must discover what’s going on. After a not-so-subtle attempt to enter his neighbor’s basement followed by not-so-subtly witnessing the murder and disposal of a young woman by the neighbors, Charley finds the days of his childhood, and his life, are numbered when the devilishly suave vampiric neighbor, Jerry, (Chris Serandon, of Princess Bride and Nightmare Before Christmas fame) aims to protect his secret by any means necessary.
The gang's all here... to Die!
As vampires go, Jerry is a run-of-the-mill creature of the night, utilizing many of the pop tropes of vampirism. The only difference between him and a hundred other imitation Draculas is the fact he eats apples. On the surface, Jerry’s mainstream vampirism can be seen as mundane and even lazy writing. But I venture it’s less low-effort or not trying to reinvent the wheel, but rather a means to sow disbelief in everyone around Charley.
See, until Jerry starts really going after Charley, nobody around him believes vampires are real because of how Charley describes Jerry, which is straight out of a cheesy horror movie. Even Charley’s best friend, the snarky geek Evil Ed (played by Stephen Geoffreys) thinks he’s nuts, but plays along because Charley is desperate and there’s money to be made (a whole $8!). Charley is the boy who cried wolf and is dismissed as a kid with an over-active imagination.
Jerry, making vampires sexy before Robert Pattinson
A big part of why people think Charley is imagining things is they know he’s an avid fan of Fright Night, the weekly late-night horror movie hosted by the “as close to Peter Cushing you can get without hiring Peter Cushing” Peter Vincent. Peter is in the twilight of his career and has just been fired from his Fright Night gig. Charley, however, with his youthful lack of skepticism, believes Peter is really the vampire hunter he plays on film, which, after some bribery from Amy, he pretends to actually be and he arranges a visit with Jerry to prove he’s not a vampire.
Charley is shocked at a minor and slightly confusing twist in the story.
This visit is the turning point in the film when Charley’s blind faith is rewarded and Jerry is outed as a vampire. It also switches gears slightly and shifts the focus to charley and Peter, which I thought was an interesting choice. At this point Charley has been validated. Now it’s up to him to kill Jerry and survive the night. Instead of focusing solely on that, however, the story splits into A and B plotlines with Charley trying to rescue Amy and Peter grappling with his identity. Who is he? What does he have to offer the world if the one thing he’s good at, being a legendary vampire hunter in movies and TV, is no longer needed? The first time he tries to live up to his schtick and confronts Jerry with a cross, it doesn’t work and Jerry notes one has to have faith in order for the cross to work. This isn’t meant as faith in God, but rather faith in one’s self. Peter is world-weary, he’s old and has been beaten down by adulthood; he doesn’t have the youthful blind faith Charley does. So, when he tries to use the cross, he doesn’t have the conviction to affect the situation. But when Charley uses it, it does work because he believes in what he’s doing.
Amy gets a glow up.
For adults seeing is often believing. Peter doesn’t finally believe in himself and the situation around him until it’s almost too late, when a freshly-turned Evil Ed is trying to kill him. Now it’s all very real for Peter who finally successfully uses the cross on Ed, burning an “X” into his forehead. When Ed redoubles on Peter in wolf form, Peter defends himself with wooden table leg, stabbing Ed through the heart. As he sits with a dying Ed (in a scene that’s almost heart wrenching), his self-confidence is renewed and he realizes what he must do. He must embrace who he is and be the person he knows he can be. He needs to have faith in himself, because if he doesn’t, a lot of people will die.
This sidetrack into Peter’s substory really helps drive the point home about the importance of faith in oneself and confidence in your convictions, even when it seems absurd. Throughout the film Jerry works to tempt Charley et al away from their beliefs. He’s like the snake tempting Eve with the apple in the garden of Eden (an allegory made visual when we see him eat apples), he thrives when those around him believe he’s normal. If you have some kid come along who, being more attune to a world of fantasy, sees through his façade, he can’t maintain his vampiric lifestyle of looking suave and feeding on many beautiful women. He needs a shroud of doubt to surround him at all times, which is easy to do when everyone around you is an adult who no longer believes in monsters.
While it’s not a perfect movie, I think Fright Night is a much deeper movie than some give it credit for. On the surface it appears to be a run-of-the-mill cheesy 80s monster movie. But if you give it a modicum of thought, you see it as a well-crafted morality tale. Not morality as in “be good or else,” but rather “be true to yourself or else.” Hold on to that blind faith of youth and believe in yourself and your convictions. Because if you don’t, you just might find yourself at the wrong end of a pair of fangs.