Usually, I manifest a considerable amount of distain for what the entertainment industry so casually with the inappropriately applied term of re-imagining. In the vast majority of cases this is a polite euphemism for a near total lack of originality and imagination. As with any sweeping generalization there is the proverbial exception that proves the rule. One instance of this is the movie under consideration here; ‘Fight Night’. It does what a remake is supposed to accomplish, provide a fresh take on a familiar story. One common trope used in both thrillers and horror a flick is the deadly menace living next door to the innocent protagonist. The serious side of this was magnificently explored in the Hitchcock classic ‘Rear Window’ while the more horrific potential was examined in the 1985 flick ‘Fright Night’. The original featured the heinous vampire played by Chris Sarandon moving next door to a sexually frustrated teenage boy and his single mother. With the help of his girl friend and a host of a horror show on local television, he tracks down the creature of the night to kill it. This new presentation of the story preserves all of these underlying elements but manages to give it a twist that is consistent with many of the affectations of the modern horror flick. While updating the look and feel of movie the filmmaker managed the laudable task of not only retaining the humor inherent in the original film but guiding towards a darker content. In effect changes in the presentation and overall mood of the film transformed it into an entirely different work. It is as if the filmmaker was an innovative chef that took a familiar recipe tweaking it to the delight of the audience. You can readily ascertain the elements derived from original but that serves only as the scaffold for something better or at least different from the 1986 version. This variation of ‘Fright Night’ is capable of standing on its own as a darkly twisted horror comedy. At least here the vampire is not some angst ridden bad relationship choice for a moody teenage girl. He is a cunning predictor that is extremely hungry.

Charley Brewster (Anton Yelchin) has finally grown out of his nerdy phase and is working his way up the social structure of high school to the upper echelon. One tangible benefit of this social elevation is finally managing to change the social dynamic with his friend Amy (Imogen Poots) bringing then to the verge of hooking up. She is beautiful, popular and smart; previously factors that placed her way out of his league. Life is starting to progress favorably until a strange man, Jerry (Colin Farrell) moves in to the house next door. Charlie’s best friend Ed (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) notices that an inordinate number of their classmates are turning up missing. Considering they live in Las Vegas, a city with a large, transient popular, there is nothing that would normally pique the interest of the authorities although Ed was unable to let go and mounts his own investigation. In a way that really should happen more frequently in stories like this Ed is soon captured by his prey and Jerry turns him into a vampire. This is one of the first distinct modifications in the flow of this story; it is not at all about whether or not Jerry is a vampire, this tale is crafted to take a much different course. This film is more concerned with survival than vindication. After converting Ed Jerry begins to cover his tracks by getting close to Charlie’s mother, Jane (Toni Collette). He tries his best to intervene admonishing Mom to not invite Jerry in but this well aged vampire is far too resourceful to let that impede his intensions. Ripping the natural gas line from out of the lawn he causes the house to explode in a ball of fire. The Blu-ray/3D version of this film is spectacular when it comes to the sound field, the rear speakers go beyond the usual ambience providing a solid three dimensional audio stage. The 3D version has the usual dip in resolution and clarity but the standard Blu-ray offers an amazingly crisp use of the full 1080p resolution.

Charlie, Amy and Jane are on the run but as this is a youthfully oriented project Mom is diverted leaving the teen couple to fend for alone. Realizing they are in way over their heads so they seek the advice of the local horror film show on TV, Peter Vincent with the tenth incarnation of Doctor Who, David Tennant reinventing the role created by Roddy McDowall. He is a fake as a Goth vampire hunter but he does have a vast collection of actual occult artifacts. He is understandably reluctant to help not believing their story of a powerful vampire hunting then for a snack. It turns out that Jerry is the type of vampire that prefers to keep a victim around taking his time to drain them over several nights. This is a very useful plot device since it allows primary characters to be ‘infected’ yet remain in a salvageable status. This allowed for a more satisfying ending and an opportunity to pace the film for a cohesive narrative and superior character development.

As mentioned use of the technical specifications is truly special even considering all the big budget flicks being made this one stands out. This is due largely to the inherent directorial styling of Craig Gillespie. His tightly constructed movie demonstrated how you cannot always predict the quality of a current project solely on the merits of previous movies. Gillespie’s resume had a notably lackluster film prior to the, ‘Mr. Woodcock’. Since then he has been applying himself to stylistically more sophisticated films. This progression included the quirky dark comedy, ‘Lars and the Real Girl’ and the critically acclaimed Showtime original series, ‘United States of Tara staring the talented Ms Collette. Gillespie is one of the few directors on the scene currently that understands 3D is one tool in his repertoire to tell the story at hand. Instead of trying overly hard to show off the use of depth by contriving to thrust cylindrical objects out the screen’s plane this movie had a more natural feel to it; one where 3Dis organically infused contextually in the film. The result is reimagining a camp little cult classic as a darkly humorous film.