But Isn’t What We Thought It’d Be, Either
After a slew of teasing pictures, DreamWorks has finally unveiled the trailer for upcoming horror remake “Fright Night” starring Anton Yelchin, Colin Farrell, adorable next-big-thing Imogen Poots, Toni Colette, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Dave Franco, and Chris Sarandon. And the verdict?
Well, it certainly opens playfully, with Mintz-Plasse trying to convince Yelchin that something’s amiss in the neighborhood and the latter criticizing his inappropriate vampire name (even if we heard a similar joke in “True Blood” a couple of seasons ago). But seeing as Tom Holland’s knotty, underappreciated original was a fun time that didn’t take itself too seriously, it’s a bit of a disappointment that the latter half of the trailer takes everything with such a straight face, showcasing some intense and contrived modern horror scenes and a sinister Farrell.
What’s even weirder is that we don’t see David Tennant’s Peter Vincent. Like, at all. In the original film, the character was a midnight movie host who the teen protagonist enlists in fighting evil; in 2011 he’s a flashy Las Vegas magician. Either way, it’s probably going to add a fair amount of humor to the enterprise, so the character being entirely missing from the trailer doesn’t bode well.
So does the preview reveal the real tone of the film or is it a marketing scheme to get the teens in the seats? We’re hoping for the latter, as director Craig Gillespie has never been too businesslike with his films and we’d hate to see him waste his talents on a generic studio picture. There’s a sliver of hope once the trailer starts hitting the generic buttons, though — a brief shot shows Yelchin breaking into the vampire’s house, referring to an iPhone app titled “How To Pick A Lock” — which may be hinting towards something that has some humility, despite what the rest of the trailer may lead you to believe.
One way to find out, and that’s to check it out on August 19th.
Additional reporting by Drew Taylor.