I have noticed a growing interest in Hollywood to remake treasured eighties movies recently. The formula is obvious, tried, and true. You take something with an existing fan base-an old movie, a book, TV Show, or comic book, and adapt it to the big screen as both a general "crowd pleaser" and an acceptable film to hard core fans. I get it. It's also getting a little old.
So, I noticed on Facebook a persistent ad for the remake of Fright Night. For those that have not heard of it, Fright Night is an eighties teen vampire movie with a slight comic twist. I was prepared to write a film nerd tirade about the futility of adapting a period piece. However, I watched the trailer and the film looks impressive. Now, so did the trailer for Congo in the early nineties, and wow, there were Godzilla movies better than Congo. Colin Farrell will be the vampire in the new version, and I think his performance may very well make this version a good movie.
I still am annoyed at Hollywood for it's near aversion to new material in recent years. It seems as if the motion pictures industry hates the idea of an original idea. It just banks on the assumption that we have a more interesting medium, and can just snatch any good story, put a pretty face on it, put great special effects in the film and boom, you got a blockbuster. From a fiscal perspective, the current attitude is right. This formula will make people buy tickets, because of the half-hearted enthusiasm it evokes in us. "I don't know if it will be any good, but man I still want to see it." How many times have you said that before going to a movie lately? Hollywood must be trying to market to people who grew up in the eighties, and still like the films they grew up with. Maybe the new tendency to remake eighties movies is just a take on the same old formula. However, it does little to prove that we can tell great, original stories as artists working in the medium of film.
From the trailer, my one main bitching point is that there is no Peter Vincent. The Peter Vincent character was a horror host which the film's main character watched every week. Those of us who grew up watching horror hosts such as Dr. Paul Bearer and Joe Bob Briggs connected to the films hero because he was a horror fan like us. True, horror hosting is dead today as far as I know, but the Peter Vincent character was a huge part of the original Fright Night's charm. It will be hard to imagine another version of Fright Night without Peter Vincent. The character did also have a lot in common with Peter Cushing, who played Dr. Van Helsing several times (Dr. Van Helsing is the vampire killer who defeated Dracula). You can read more about him here.
I do enjoy watching remakes to a point, so I'm not a purist. I like seeing how a new group of people reinterprets the same idea. Fright Night just has so many unapologetic eighties moments and endearing characters it's hard to replicate, and perhaps not even desirable to do so. It seems like something that for now at least should just be left alone. However yes, my curiosity is peaked and I want to go see it.
Now I heard about a remake of Red Dawn recently. Yes, Red Dawn, a mid eighties film about the Russians invading the United States. Yup. I'm preparing my angry tirade about this as we speak.
No comments:
Post a Comment