The first two dozen or so times I saw the film FRIGHT NIGHT
(1985) I had absolutely no idea how much of the image I was missing. This was
the 1980's and the way you saw a film that you did not catch in the theater was
either a television broadcast or on a VHS tape. In my house we owned the pre-record
of FRIGHT NIGHT because everyone loved the movie.
The first time I saw the film in widescreen it was a bit of
a revelation. It was shot in the 2.35:1 aspect ratio and all that extra image
pointed out just how carefully and smartly director Tom Holland had used the
screen. Seeing the full picture explained the length of certain sequences and
showed lots of detail that would have made the film an even bigger hit with me
when I was a teenager.
The other night I rewatched the film for the first time in
probably 20 years. It was the first time in a long time I've had the urge to view
the film because I honestly think I burned myself out on it long ago. But
having recently picked up the excellent British Blu-ray of the film (because I
just had to see all the extras on it) I cracked it open and checked it out for
the first time in decades. Luckily, it stood up very well. FRIGHT NIGHT is
still an excellent horror film that takes vampires and their mythology in fresh
directions, modernizing things to make them scary in new ways and bringing a
sense of realism to just what it might mean to have a blood sucker move in next
door to you.
Special props to the excellent score which had somehow slid
away from my memory as one of the great, moody joys of the film. The music is
phenomenal and marks another high
point in composer
Brad Fiedel's career. I can actually imagine just listening to the score on
it's own which is something that I can't say about a lot of music done for
movies in the 1980s.
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