October 30th

Fright Night (1985) directed by Tom Holland

The hook of the movie -- a kid discovers his new neighbor is a vampire -- is pure fun.  I think the best scene in the movie is early on, when Jerry sneaks into Charlie's house to kill him.  It's pretty much every kid's worst nightmare: the monster is real, he's in your bedroom, and mommy can't help you.  It's tense stuff and Charlie and Jerry's lopsided fight is quite scary.

Charlie, the hero of the show, is a fellow horror geek and a huge reason I think this movie has stuck in people's minds for 27 years.  Charlie's the type of horror geek we horror geeks kinda wish we were.  He's the type to first recognize the vampire infestation / zombie apocalypse / werewolf killings because of his extensive and unique (but socially unacceptable) knowledge.  Better, he's the type that absolutely refuses to stop trying to defeat the evil even in the face of disbelief and ridicule and a really super-strong monster who wants to kill him.  Would that we all had such opportunity to prove to the normal people that we're not proto-serial killers just because we have a few Freddy pictures hanging on the wall...

Jerry, though physically strong, has a number of really big Achilles' heels.  He has all of the typical vampire weaknesses -- crosses, holy water, sunlight, stakes -- but they seem to really, really bother the poor guy.  Just one poke in the hand by a wooden pencil is enough to make him cry and run home.  I propose that an anti-vampire suit would be ridiculously easy to construct.  You could become an unbeatable god in the vampire community for under $20.  Those demonic slaves of the night would cower in mortal terror at your very sight.  All you need?  A few dozen boxes of toothpicks and some glue.

Watched: blu-ray from Twilight Time.