Hello everyone, welcome back to the Underrated Movie Podcast.

This is a podcast where we discuss films that are underrated, underappreciated, and ones that have slipped on the radar and passed most people by.

Today we're going to be talking about the 2011 remake of Fright Night, directed by Craig Gillespie and starring Anton Yelchin and Colin Farrell.

I am your host Derek Mcduff and for this spooky Halloween themed episode I am joined by a spooky guest and that would be Jason from the Dads from the Crypt podcast.

How's it going, man?

Good.

Excited to be here on this I Call it Highly podcast.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Glad.

Glad to have you.

You know, before we get too much into Fright Night, what do you want to let the people know about yourself and about dads from the crypt?

Yeah, I host a podcast slash YouTube channel All the dads from the crypt.

Me and two other spooky dads, we started off reviewing Tales from the Crypt episodes and young people that worked on the show, writers, actors, directors, etcetera.

Then, you know, after a couple years we ran out of episodes.

So now we're doing episodes of Creepshow and Black Mirror and Twilight Zone.

And we're also doing like movies.

We do have like theme months.

So we did like Jaws and shark movies all summer.

And we kind of, you know, skipping around a little bit, but we always have a good spooky time.

Keep it light and fun, give a little questionable dad advice here and there as best as we can.

No, no parent is perfect.

Another, are we?

So we're just again, try to have fun.

We have some amazing guests, great friends, and then people like in the industry that worked on some of your favorite movies rated or highly underrated or highly overrated?

It's up to you to decide.

But and then we just actually had a 30th anniversary screening of Tales of the Crypt, Demon Knight.

Then we had a ton of people that worked on the movie there, the writer, producer, some of the actors, but we also had the Q&A with Billy Zane and Ernest Dickerson.

And that is on our podcast feed and our YouTube channel, Dads from the Crypt.

Yeah, that's good stuff.

Everybody listening should definitely go check that out.

But yeah, thank you again for joining me.

And then this, this one Fright Night, the the remake is I'm excited to talk about it here, here in spooky season because, you know, I think it's a movie that I've fought for since first seeing it was pretty underrated.

And you know, when I reached out to you about talking about a spooky movie, this was definitely the one I wanted to talk about most.

What's So what's your history with, you know Friday Night, both the remake and the 85 original?

Yeah, so for some reason I never really saw, like I saw the memes and the clips and everything of the original for a long time before I actually saw it, sat down, saw.

I don't remember when I first sat down and saw it, but it wasn't, it wasn't on my regular rotation as a child for whatever reason.

I think actually, if anything, I was scared of as a kid of the box art.

I remember that one in Return of the Living Dead 2 have very similar box arts and they also remind me of the Liberian ghost from the original Ghostbusters in the opening scene.

Like they all kind of like that.

That freaked me out as a kid.

So somehow I like associated all three of those things.

So I thought this movie was actually in my head as a kid.

I thought this was very, very scary.

So I probably wasn't until like my 20s.

I finally got around to seeing this, the original, and I appreciate it for its 80s campiness and the effects, but it wasn't like my favorite, favorite movie.

It's good, but you know, it wasn't like, Oh my God, this is like part of my life movie.

You know, some movies just take you differently.

For me, Sleep Boy Camp is that that kind of like so bad.

It's good movie that just becomes part of my DNA.

You know, once you watch it, everyone has those kind of movies.

So I appreciate the movie for what it was and, you know, for it's, you know, for being of its time and especially the effects.

Effects are very, very good in that first one.

I remember when this one came out, it's kind of towards the tail end of the reboots cycle we went through in the mid 2000s, early 20 tens.

Some reason in my head I thought that this movie came out earlier.

I thought it was more like 2008, 2009.

I was kind of surprised how that came out.

2011 except I because I think Nightmare and Elmshake movie was like 2010.

Yeah, I think 2010.

And then Friday the 13th, I want to say was 2009.

If I'm yeah, I came out like a year before, but the the number and Elm Street one really killed all the like the remix so that that was kind of mill in the coffin.

And then this came out afterward.

Those probably in production, they're probably working on it.

So they probably couldn't stop that train.

But so yeah, I I remember I saw it on video.

Obligatory for like a block to see it because as a horror fan, but honestly couldn't remember much of it.

I've never been a big Colin Farrell fan, so again, I I just wasn't too into it.

Yeah, that's kind of my background.

I didn't really remember much about the remake.

I saw it once around the time we came out on, probably on the right like the physical Netflix back in the day.

Gotcha.

Gotcha.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Back when that was still a thing, yeah.

So that that's my history with it before I get into the current watching.

Yeah.

So yeah, exactly what did you think then going back to it and and watching it re watching it for this?

Yeah, so we did.

So on my podcast, we kind of correspond at least one movie a month with AT shirt that the company Fright Rags comes out with because, one, we love their T-shirts and two, they give us, they sponsor one video a month.

Not much, but just a little something.

Yeah.

And they were doing Fright Night.

I'm like, OK, let me just revisit.

So we revisit Fright Night and it was good to watch again.

I had pretty much the same opinion of it as I normally do.

And then when you suggested this as the movie, I was like, I don't remember being very fondly, but I'll do it, you know, I'll give I, I was here.

I'll give any movie a second chance.

And I actually really enjoyed this.

I was really pleasantly surprised.

I mean, definitely had some of the trappings of that time, like the overuse of CGI, especially on blood effects.

Well, I thought this was a really solid remake.

I know Anton Yelchin is a really, really good actor taken the way, way too soon in like the time of his career.

I think the Penguin movie or the Penguin TV show really turned me around on Colin Farrell because.

When?

He gets into an actor like that, especially a bad guy.

He's actually really good.

Yeah, really chunks around him.

And there is a stacked cast cast in this movie that I really appreciated.

And, you know, I like it wasn't a carbon copy of the original.

I mean, the basics are the same, but they did enough, I felt to change things up somewhat justified its existence.

It wasn't like drastically different, but wasn't like exactly the same.

Like, you know, again, I'm on Elm Street is kind of like the low benchmark of like, really unnecessary.

Why are we doing this?

I felt like this one.

Again, they had a great cast, a great director, and again, they had a good enough of a script that you know, was different enough and fit a better tone for a modern remake.

Yeah, yeah, I'm glad to hear you a lot.

You had such a good time with it because like I mentioned, you know, this has always been one of my kind of not my favorite, but always this has always been a really big contender for me.

For I might not, I might not watch it every year at Halloween, but I always think about it at least.

And I actually saw this one before I saw the OR the original can.

I didn't really grew up with I wasn't really big on horror films growing up.

And so I would have been like 21 when this movie came out and I was working, you know, my first job at a theater at the time.

So I I was seeing everything that was coming out.

So I was like, all right, I'll see this movie.

You know, I was already a big fan of Anton at the time.

You know, I like Colin Farrell and I think this is this is really, as you mentioned, he's a really good villain.

He's good in a lot of stuff, but like when he kind of like walks in to this villainous role, especially when he can like weaponize his good looks.

And I think like him being like a sexy Las Vegas vampire who's just kind of like bringing home strippers and stuff like that so we can turn them into vampires.

I'm like that it what could possibly be a better use of Colin Farrell?

So I thought that was a really cool angle.

And like you said, this is not a beat for beat remake, which is a lot of times my favorite remakes are the ones that do a little something different.

Because if you're just remaking the movie exactly the same, you know, like psycho or something like that, the psycho remake.

It's kind of like, why even do this?

You know, like I just watched the How to Train your Dragon remake and that's a really great movie.

I love the original and the new one.

I was like, this is just the same movie.

Like why I'm why am I gonna watch, like watch the original other than I'm seeing it in the big screen again?

Yeah, I love the original Hot Changing Dragon and I'm just like completely boycotted the the the new one exactly for that reason.

Yeah, it's it's weird.

The changes are so, so minute and minor, but here like it is very much taking that same general theme of the the 80s movie and giving it a new spin.

Like you said, there are a couple things that don't age super well.

There's a couple beats in this where I'm like, oh wow, this was really the age where you can tell it's from 2011 because this is like right when they're like, we got to make everything 3D.

There's a couple things that come at the camera that don't look great, but overall I I really enjoyed it.

You mentioned Farrell, we mentioned Yelchin.

Also Toni Collette scream Clean Queen is in this.

Not just scream queen, but scream mom.

Yes, yes, she's always like a great scream mom.

And so it was really good to see her doing that again in this movie.

And then also David Tennant.

You know, I thought it was really cool that they're like, oh, this is kind of a modern vampire, but not modern in the way where they're like, it's like Twilight where they're reinventing everything and like making the sparkle.

He's still like an old school vampire, but living in a modern society.

And the same way they have like kind of like, like here's a modern vampire hunter.

You know, he's this kind of that once again plays into the the setting.

I love the setting of Vegas, you know, a city that doesn't sleep, that comes alive at night.

That's a perfect setting for a vampire movie.

And having him be this kind of like Vegas showman who is convinced that he saw something when he was a kid and he made it all up and he built his whole career on that.

But he's still got all these relics and stuff like that.

But it's all, it's all part of the illusion.

I I really loved the unique dynamic that this movie stops up for making an excuse for a vampire to exist in the modern world and all the characters that would surround him.

What do you think of the setting?

All the ways they make it unique like that.

Yeah, I definitely love that it took place this like really cookie cutter suburb.

Yeah.

Like I, I thought there was going to be a joke of like him breaking into the wrong house because he can't tell any of the houses apart.

Like, I thought that wasn't a funny joke.

It felt very like Weeds, if you remember that show that was around that time.

And then, yeah, Vegas is I think that would have wanted more like, like I wanted to see like they probably don't have the budget for this kind of thing, but more like Colin Farrell's Jerry, like going on the the Vegas trip or something like that, you know, picking up like a Bachelorette party to feast on or something like that.

That's almost the kind of like places they could have gone that probably would have been taking away the focus of the movie.

But yeah, I, I really, again, I, I like when they when the remake kind of does that, where it, it's the core concept, but puts it kind of a different place.

So again, the original takes place in the very just John Hughes suburbia and and puts it like in the complete in the very specific place.

And I did like David Tennant's like Criss Angel type of Peter Vincent character.

Yeah, he's so good.

And you know, you kind of forget that he's not in a lot of the movie.

He really only shows up in in the back half, but he's so good in it that you think he's along for the whole ride.

So I, I was, I was really a fan of his and he's got a background presence in that first half, but I love when he kind of comes in and then I love especially that showdown that they have at the end.

I thought that was another really smart use of the vampire mythos.

There's all these interesting turns and twists, but that showdown they're having at the end where he's shooting the floorboards above them because they're they're underground and Charlie's got the shotgun and he's these pillars of light are coming down and you see a couple of the vampires get roasted and they're using that to like protect themselves.

I thought that was really cool.

I thought there was this whole stand off scene where Colin Farrell as Jerry is asking to get into the house because it's that vampire trope of, oh, you can't get in unless you're asked.

And he's like, hey, can you, can you give me a six pack?

And he's kind of like, hanging out the door and weaponizing that politeness that I feel like is in a lot of horror movies that reminded me almost of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo when he's just like, you know, the fear of being rude is all is more driving than the fear of getting murdered.

And that, of course, comes back when, you know, he's trying to get Toni Collette to.

He's like, oh, yeah, your son's been harassing me.

Call the authorities.

And she's just like, oh man, like I've seen so many horror movies and like, how is this going to go?

She's not going to doesn't believe them.

So she's going to let him into the house right here.

And then I, I love that she's, she's like, no, call the authority.

She's like, my son is being crazy, but I he's still my son.

I trusted more than this guy.

And then he just blows up their house.

I thought that was such a cool turn.

What did you think of the way that they used the vampire mythos to kind of give you these interesting set pieces like that?

Yeah, I thought it was very smart actually I'm I really loved Peter Vincent's like gallery a stuff he quote got on eBay, which is a funny idea because that's probably how that would happen.

It was just selling random antiques on eBay and just the production design on that case.

On all those cases, everything was really cool.

All the different weapons they pick up and yeah, I like that.

Like they sure like it.

It's not just oh, you touch like a state 2 vampires torso and then and that kills them.

You have to actually really get to the heart, you know, and and when the girlfriend character Amy gets turned and Charlie puts a stake in her but and kind of disables her, but not enough to kill her.

She's like you miss.

He's like, I know, like he he wanted to, you know, slow her down but not actually kill her.

So it's it's interesting.

It's almost like a a bit of a game of chess, the kind of know what how to manipulate the vampires.

And then the whole thing with the fire suit at the end was pretty smart too.

Yeah, that was such a great moment.

I had forgotten when he's just sitting there in the beam of light and they can't get to him.

And David Tennant is Peter is starting to turtle bed and he's smoking and it's like, all right, how does he get out of this one?

And then he, you know, lights the fire suit on him and and gets in that way.

That was really cool.

I also love the bit where he's going up against the Christopher Mintz Plas character, his very shitty friend, I will say.

And he's got he like he's trying to decapitate him because, you know, that's one way to kill a vampire, you know, take the head off and he's like, yeah, heads are hard to chop off and he can't.

He's kind of like, you know, he makes a Pez dispenser out of him, to steal a phrase.

I I really love that.

It's, it's really smart because it uses that all those tropes and everything that we know so well.

I I also love the beat where Amy is running from from Gary and he she grabs a gun with silver bullets and shoots and he goes werewolf because it's like, yeah, it it makes sense that Peter Vincent would also want to protect himself from werewolves, but that doesn't help you in this situation.

I feel like that's a piece of the mythos that, you know, someone like that would probably confuse like, OK, cool, these silver bolts will stop them.

No, no, they won't.

So that was that was a nice little touch there, I thought.

Right and then she grabs like a goblet of waters like vampires.

So then throw some water on the whole water on his face.

Yeah, yeah.

And there is some there is some good stuff where Colin Farrell goes, I guess I'll say Ferrell like where he's like becomes this like vampiric monster, you know, much like they would in the 80s.

One, that's the one I think they carried over well was when they kind of vampire out and they get these like long faces with that are ugly and the big mouth.

And of course there's that one.

And there's the one where he's like burning up at the end, kind of like the money shot where he's just like looking in this camera and it's like about to be destroyed.

I thought all the a lot of the practical effects and a lot of the a lot of the CG, not all of it, but was pretty be cool to see that kind of like monster style of the vampire.

Yeah, again of the time that this came out, it's fine.

I, I would rather have practical.

It's to me, practical effects because they're tangible.

It's even if it's not perfect, even if you have to hide like it with like a camera move or something or like have a quick cut, it's still real.

Even if you know, even if you know it's still, it's, there's still something tangible to it where like when it's when I can tell it's more CG than realistic, you just know they're just like it's not, it's just, it just feels really fake and artificial, like in a very literal sense.

So I'd rather I'd rather have a shoddy looking practical effect than like a very good looking digital effect because again, at least my brain knows the tiny, the imperfections is what makes me feel think it's more real than the perfect, the seemingly perfect digital effect.

I'm not saying you can't digital, you can't use digital effects at all.

But like you know, I like it more on the stable side.

Yeah, I agree.

And I like when you blend a lot of digital and practical, say that a little bit here, but yeah, I would have liked to have probably seen a little bit more practical too.

And yeah, this movie has shown its age a little bit.

But for the most part, I I I think it's really good.

Mostly works for me, you know, and something else that I think was really good about those scenes that has aged really well is I love the sound design.

I love the way that these vampires sound because I guess D Bradley Baker, you know, who's a very prolific voice actor, would do all of the shrieks.

And because like when Jerry gets like water thrown on him and he's like essentially boiling and making all these horrific sounds, it sounds so good.

I I was really a fan of that.

And I totally agree.

And also like there's that song that there's a cover of 99 problems that plays over the the end credits.

It's funny because I like sometimes I'll put in a song I like and look for covers of it on Spotify.

And you know, I'm, I'm a big fan of the Jay-Z version, but I was curious what other people, how other people covered it.

And there's like almost like a Blues grass cover and I don't know why, but a Blues, a good Blues grass cover of a hip hop song really kind of hits.

Is a really good one of gin and juice out there.

And I don't know, there's something really fun about it.

So I didn't know it was associated with this movie.

So it was really fun when that kind of came up.

Yeah, I love it when you're watching a movie and you're like, yeah, the credits start to roll and you're like, that's what this is from.

Okay, I feel like that happens to me.

That happened to me a lot when like I would go back and watch a lot of these movies from the Ox or something and I'll be like, huh, I did not know that that was from Twilight.

That's a banger, you know, or something like that.

So yeah, I I always, I always definitely appreciate that.

So, you know, some good music, some good sound in this one for sure.

And also I think some really great cinematography.

I think the stand out shot from this, there is a really long shot when they are all the heroes are kind of gathered up in a car and they're being chased by Jerry.

And there's this, the camera is just kind of like swiveling in a circle around them in the car.

And it's this long unbroken shot that goes for a few minutes.

There's like a, you know, motorcycle that gets thrown in the back seat and you're seeing all the reactions is all these characters are kind of realizing that he's a vampire.

I thought that was really, really well done.

Did you have any thoughts about that scene in particular or just kind of the way I mean this movie was shot?

Yeah, I I do.

I do like how dynamic a lot of the camera shots were.

I liked, I love a good uncut scene and that was interesting, except that everything outside the car was like painfully digital, even though it's at night and they're still, they're trying to cover things up.

You just, people just aren't reacting correctly.

Like when he when he literally throws bike or bike into the car like you like they don't like quite react to the they react to like the jolt, but they don't react to like the tire coming to them as well.

Did you ever see I think it's God of men?

What are the men?

Oh.

Children.

Children of men.

Yeah, children of men.

Yeah, it did have that deal, yeah.

Yeah, I think I feel like that's what they're going for.

But that movie did the whole thing.

Like everything that happened outside the car was for real happening.

So like this is kind of like they're trying to do something kind of like that, but they're not doing the but they're kind of using CG to cheat on everything on the outside.

So I I give them points for trying and it'll look cool and I love like good unbroken shots like that.

The one that I I did actually really like and it is did use a lot of digital effects was the elevator shot where Charles is, is just kind of looking out over Vegas.

It's it's, you know, obviously like they're CGI ING the Vegas scenery, because then it's they turns or cuts to the outside of the elevator.

You can see the Vegas skyline reflected on the elevator.

He's going down.

It's kind of a cool shot, but I overall do like how this film shot.

Yeah.

And there was a few shots that I really loved where you would look into like either a reflection or like a security camera or something And you would see one of the and or you would rather you would not see one of the vampires there.

You would just see like the the door closing on its own or like someone being lifted up or something.

And then the character would kind of like look usually in one the same shot would kind of like look past it and then would see the actual physical vampire.

I thought that was that was always a nice touch.

I felt like those those beats.

Yeah, definitely.

I like that.

And then there's the one shot where one team wear is coming back to Peter Vincent.

Peter Vincent isn't sure if he's a vampire or not, so he doesn't look in the mirror.

Yeah, yeah, that was, that was really cool.

Just another way that this movie really plays with the the lore really well.

And, you know, Speaking of like lore and bringing stuff back.

I loved that Chris Sarandon cameo.

Did you catch that?

Yes, yes, of course.

Yeah, Yeah.

That's great.

So it was, yeah.

That's one of the things where I think that that's a really good way to do a cameo because like I said, when I first saw this, I knew who Chris Brandon was, but I didn't really know that he was Jerry and the original or anything.

So it didn't it didn't Take Me Out of it.

But after rewatching, watching the original eventually and then rewatching this one, I was like, oh, that's so cool that they have him in there.

I love when remakes, you know, sequels will pay homage to their roots like that.

I think that that was really cool, yeah.

Without.

That movie.

Without calling like too much attention to it, like you could have put any actor in there and it wouldn't have changed the scene, but it just adds an extra layer.

So it's he's not like, oh, hopefully he didn't bite off more than you could chew with this guy.

Like some something really.

They've been really cheesy, right, like always.

Strange that that scene in the Hollywood H2O or Janet Lee, Jamie Lee Cruz's mother plays like a school secretary or something like that and comes up to Jamie Lee's characters like.

If I may give you some motherly advice.

Like, yeah.

Yeah, that's a bit fringe.

Yeah, but they they did it just just right here, I think.

Yeah, I, I, I was a fan of that.

Any other thoughts that you have just kind of about the movie in general?

Yeah, I, I really enjoy, I think the director he's, he never really put his filmography together, but he is kind of really good, that list of movies he did.

Really good and really eclectic.

Yeah, he did.

Lars the world.

Real girl was like his breakout.

He did.

Let's see, I Tonya.

He did Cruella, Pam and Tommy.

The miniseries actually really, really good.

Dumb Money was really fun.

Yeah, and he's got Supergirl coming out.

He's, he's, he's going to be the director.

Of.

Yeah, he is so.

I am very excited.

For him, yeah.

Yes, you're right.

I I was bummed for that in general, but now I'm like really, really excited.

That's very cool.

Yeah.

He's he's the perfect director for that.

Yeah, he's he's like almost like a journeyman David Fincher, you know, like he gets started in music videos and kind of like every none of these movies, not a lot of these movies are ones that you think of like these really a tour driven movies.

But I think they're all incredibly solid.

And I I would think this one, this one really is too.

I was AI was a really big fan of it.

And, you know, going back, it's kind of weird to like stitch together these very different movies.

But, you know, he's I think he's one of those guys who can do it all.

So really excited to see what he does with Supergirl because it seems like James Gunn is just getting people who's like, hey, do you have an interesting take on this character?

All right, you know, you, you want to make Clay.

He's like, goes to like, what's his name?

The the horror director.

He's like, you want to make Clayface?

I'm spacing on his name right now.

James Watkins.

OK, Is it James Watkins?

OK, Well, you know what?

OK, it's because it's a great.

Mike yes, that's right.

Yeah, that's oh, man in the lake.

If you want the movie that's going to fuck you up, watch either lake.

That movie, it's still.

OK, OK, OK, noted Michael Fassbender.

A really intense role, but.

But yeah, back to the cast a little bit.

Toni Collette I just love.

She's just always so much fun.

And like, I always think of her in The Sixth Sense as just being like a mom that's just trying to hold it together.

And it's the campus she's really good in.

And Hereditary is like, yeah.

Hereditary.

Jeez, how did she not get an Oscar for that one?

I'm still mad.

At her.

I know, I know.

And Nightmare Alley was really good.

Velva Buzzsaw's interesting, I'll give it that.

But yeah, she's been she is a sneaky good horror career.

And then also Vince Plaza, like he he had that moment of just like playing like little bad guy shitheads, but he's really, really good at it.

It's like in this in the kick ass.

Yeah, no, he's great.

And we have a little Difranco.

Reunion from Superbad.

Yeah, yeah.

I just watched together with Dave Franco and his wife.

I'm blinking on her name.

Allison Brie is really good.

I really like that.

If you like body horror movies, I recommend that.

And then Imogen Boots.

She's always a good time.

She was in the Black Christmas remake, which I actually I kind of like that movie.

You just don't think of it as a Black Christmas remake, right?

That permit was way too far from its roots.

Gotcha.

And suffers from it also.

I was just going to say it's nice when she shows up.

And also just like, I think just, I don't know, just one of the best names in Hollywood.

Like I just, I'm like or recognizable names for sure, Yeah.

Definitely one of those like, makes like your lips go in the way that, you know, it just kind of rolls them ores off your tongue.

And she was also in green room with Anton Yelchin.

Right.

Yeah, one of his last movies, but.

I will say I never liked the guy who plays Charlie in the original.

I think Anton is much much better than this.

I always thought the guy in the original is way too whiny.

I think overall he he is definitely a better better suit for this character.

And yeah, it's it's crazy that he played Kyle Reese because him and Michael Bean do act and look very similar.

Yeah, Yelchin was somebody who taken way too soon, just this really incredible rising star who I don't know he could do it all, you know, like I think he's, I know that people don't love that Terminator movie.

I think it's actually really underrated.

I think he's incredible in it.

I think he's always really good, whether he's doing like a smaller indie or, you know, doing movie where he's playing check off or he's doing something like this.

I think he always brings it in in every role.

If anybody wants to check out, there's a really good documentary about him called Love Antoshia that is heartbreaking and beautiful.

That's just about his life.

I highly, highly recommend that.

But yeah, I think this is a role that is tough to pull off because I think you can very easily be whiny because I think it's it's hard to be in that role where you're like the one person who is like, oh, wow, this is this crazy thing is happening.

No one will believe me.

It's very easy to seem annoying in that I think, you know, a movie that comes around the same time that is also a loose remake of a another movie, which is Disturbia.

I think Shia gets a little bit whiny and annoying in that movie.

And it's just kind of like, shut up.

Whereas in this one, you're like, oh, no, no.

Like you are rooting for him.

You want.

You're like, yeah, I know what you're saying to the people.

You're like, I know what he's saying is crazy, but please believe him.

There is a vampire next door.

I think he's really good in this.

And then, yeah, like all the other actors that you mentioned are fantastic.

Of course, Colin Farrell just so, so good in this.

And then David Tennant as really just, I'm not a big Doctor Who guy, but I love him in a lot of the other stuff.

And this is no exception because I think he really gets that like kind of sleazy showman who at the end he but you, you, you can tell that he's got a more likable side to him.

And when at the end, when he kind of has that turn and goes and helps him out, it doesn't feel like it's out of left field.

It feels in line with that character.

Yeah, I I was definitely a fan of all of the performances in this from pretty much all the.

Listed cast.

I was reading, I was reading the IMDb and I always say take everything you read on there with a little bit of grain of salt, right?

But one of the items was that they when they were developing this for a couple years and one of the actors that they had they're interested in having playing Jerry the vampire was Heath.

Ledger Oh, wow.

OK.

It's one of those things like if he was, if you know, if he was still alive after, you know, and how big he probably would have gotten after The Dark Knight and winning an Oscar and anything, would he still have done this movie?

What would that performance have been like?

Like that sounds terrifying.

That's that's really interesting.

Yeah, but again, I don't know if he would like after that.

He'd been like too big to play this kind of role.

Yeah, because this is this is like a relatively small movie.

It's the movie.

It's budget is about 30 million in and in 2011.

That's like, you know, it's it's not a small budget movie, but it's definitely the low side of that kind of mid budget movie, which, you know, as I've kind of lamented before, doesn't really get made super often anymore.

Right.

And unfortunately, though, this it doesn't really, you know, make its money back there.

It, you know, makes a little bit more than its budget.

But after, you know, PNA and everything, like, it definitely was a loss.

It it did OK critically.

Like it has like a 71 or 72 on Rotten Tomatoes.

So definitely one of those movies where it's like, yeah, it did fine.

It did well enough to get like a directed DVD sequel.

People liked it well enough but never really got remembered over the years.

Why do you think this one kind of just was a little lukewarm and failed to hit with people?

Yeah, I think a couple things I, like I said, I think, I mean, about a year after the Nightmare on Elm Street kind of killed the idea of the reboot.

I think people just had real fatigue and we're just not interested in it.

I don't know if, again, Colin Farrell had any real star power.

And I think Anton Yelchin was still kind of a newcomer at the time.

I guess he'd done Star Trek already, but I don't think he's ever been like a big draw.

So I think that's a lot of it.

I can't remember doing the Thing Remake come out around this time too.

Is it the same year?

Being remake that I think it might have been the same year or the you know the thing, I guess.

Yeah, it is, It is.

Let's see, it's like, I guess it's technically a sequel too.

Yeah, 'cause the old one is the the 80s one is actually technical, the remake.

But yeah, this is the thing.

It's still called the thing, which is annoying.

It's 21, it's a sequel, but it's still a horror movie with the exact same name, you know?

Right.

Yeah, yeah.

Because for a lot of reasons, in fact, you know, we're all digitalized over.

I think this came out like two or three years before.

I think it probably would have done better.

I don't know if I don't know if it's still been the hit.

I think the original Friday night is just so of its time that like I don't know if people are really going to come out and support it a new version of it because they love the original so much.

So I think it's one of those things.

So I think it's just a mixture of all those.

But I do think if it would come out before the nightmare, I think maybe not the same year as the thing.

I think it'll probably would at least slightly better some more.

Yeah, yeah, I, I didn't agree with you.

And I think, you know, it's one of those.

I don't even know if I realized this was a remake at first when I first saw it until working at the theater.

And a couple people mentioned like, oh, I'm here to see the Fright Night remake and like, oh, remake.

That's interesting because it is such a 80s culti horror movie, right?

So that's always a dangerous proposition when you're remaking something.

And I think you run into the same problem when you're making like these legacy equals to these films that are a little bit more cult hits because it's like, yeah, OK, you're you're appealing to one very specific group that loves this thing, but it doesn't have a huge wide appeal beyond horror fans.

And the people that it is appealing to are kind of like, hey, this is a sacred thing to us.

You know, if they love the 80s Fright Night, they might be like, why are you ruining it with this new version?

So I do think, yeah, it had a hard Rd.

where it had to, it kind of had the worst of both worlds where it's like, yeah, you've got some name recognition maybe, but not for not a wide heel.

And the people who might recognize it might refuse to watch it, like you talked about with like the How to Train Your Dragon Ring make.

Obviously this is a very different situation, but I think I and I appreciate the horror fans, but they can be a very particular bunch sometimes.

Yeah, yeah, we are definitely in particular, and I'm just looking at the release dates.

So this movie Fright Night came out August 19th of 2011 and the thing came out October 14th, so about a couple months apart.

And August is kind of like the doldrums of movie a movie.

Like after all the hype from all the summer movies, if this was an October release, I I know that they're not going to put up against the thing.

But again, if it was another year, if I had like more October or at least more September, you know, when things are starting to like cool off a little bit, I think probably would have been positioned a lot better.

But I, I think the thing really is taking up all the air.

And then I think people were just kind of pissed off about it.

Even like just the whole concept of it.

I think people were a little bit like The thing is the kind of movie that's such a secret movie that like to even try to touch it is like sacrilegious.

Where I feel like the fright night is just kind of like it's more on the camp factor that like I'm more forgiving of or The thing is just like considered by many such a perfect movie, right?

I think it was already like primed to be a little bit anti, you know, these kind of movies.

Yeah, Yeah, I I would definitely agree with that.

And one of the last things that you want to mention was that this movie I was just looking up is a it's a Touchstone movie.

People listening to be aware, you know, Touchstone is just a label that they would put on Disney movies when they wanted to release a Disney movie that was not very Disney presenting.

Like this is obviously not look like a Disney movie, but Disney still wants to make all kinds of movies.

And so for a while before they owned Fox and all these other places, they would just slap Touchstone on something this and it was just like, I don't know, for me, it's that's kind of a nostalgic thing, especially if when it comes to like horror movies, you've seen that like kind of like little lightning bolt logo.

The fact that this was a touchstone, which is a label that Disney does not use anymore.

Was this was this nice to see?

I don't.

Do you have any feelings about Touchstone at all?

Yeah, actually I had like a hit of nostalgia because I'm like, I can't remember the last time I've seen that logo on the on the modern movie because I very much remember that being like, oh, like we're going to put this on the movie that like it was like like big that kind of those kind of movies that like are kind of family friendly but have a little bit of edge, like Turner and Hooch, right is not the one that kind of comes to mind, but like it's family stuff, but a little bit more adult.

So yeah, I was a little surprised by that as well.

Yeah, cuz this is would be like kind of towards the end I think of them using this, this label, I guess.

I guess, you know, they they stop a couple years later.

It goes from, I'm just looking up right now.

It goes from 84 is when they have the first touchdown movie in 2016 is when they have the last one.

So yeah, it was it was just nice.

Yeah.

It was just nice to see that for me.

And actually, I I was waiting for something to happen during the credits because, you know, at the end of the original evil ad comes back, you know, or at least I thought like, you know, the year, so cool Brewster moment at the end.

And like in this one, they're like laying there and he's like, Oh, nothing's ever going to interrupt us again or whatever.

I'm like, oh, is he just going to put people like in the pop up again?

And he didn't.

I was really surprised.

Yeah.

And especially this is like the era of that.

Yeah, I wonder if they did it and it didn't test very well or people were annoyed by it.

Who knows.

I was making his character like and at least one more like popping bit.

But yeah, no, he, yeah, that was, yeah, interesting because, you know, he he it kind of shows up at the beginning is kind of the person who gets the events kicked off and then comes back for that one scene and then that's about it.

But you know, he's he's great in it.

Like you said, this is a really in that middle of his run of just being like little shitheads, which I feel like culminates a couple years later with him playing himself, being a real shithead and this is the end.

I thought that was, that was a great little culmination to that.

But like I said, love, love this movie.

I'm really glad we got to talk about it.

And I just had one more question for you before we get out of here, unless you have any other things you wanted to throw out about Fright Night?

No, I think we covered it again.

I was very pleasantly surprised.

I put this at the top of the remakes you know of like post 2000, you know, to the the 2000 tens.

Nice, nice.

I'm glad to hear that.

Well then, that that leads perfectly to my question, which is, do you have a favorite horror remake?

You know what's what's 1?

And it doesn't have to be from this era.

It could be any horror remake.

But you know what's What's a horror remake that did it right?

Like there's the OK, there's the Holy Trinity, I think of horror remakes and they all come out within a couple years of each other in the mid 80s with like major, you know, effects is they're all like the Thing, the Fly and the BLOB.

You know, those were all three very, very, very good movies.

They're all remakes.

And I think the trick is I think all those the original movies came out like at least 40 years.

I guess maybe, I guess probably they're all 50s movies.

So about 30s, I think a movie has to be at least 30 years old to like really qualify or to settle enough you don't want to do a remake.

But I think you know, when you the, the leap from the 50s to the 80s is like so huge where you look at the in like culture from the 80s to the 2000 tens.

It's not as wide as I think from the 50s.

Like again, the thing, you know, it's an all time classic.

The the flies again is 1 of Cronenberg's best, at least most accessible movie.

And then the BLOB is one of my my personal all time favorite movies.

It's just it's the first I think contemporary movie horror movie I really saw because I was watching like older movies like the Frankenstein's, the Godzilla's, the Draculas, those kind of movies from like, you know, way before, you know, I was even alive.

And that was like one of the first modern horror movies that I saw Mercy on TV.

And it's just so violent, but fun.

And the effect, there's a couple shoddy effects, but overall they're really, really, really good.

Kevin Dillon and Shawnee Smith are just excellent and like they're teenage like era.

It's Chuck Russell, I think, coming right after doing Dream Warriors.

OK, Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

And I think it's a freak Darabont script and it's just, it's just so great.

It's a really, really good movie.

You can't go on with any of the three of those, but the third, The BLOB, is definitely the most under underrated if you want to go on that route.

Of those, I definitely think it has a resurgence.

If you talk to anyone that's actually seen that one, they'll sing its praises.

Like, I don't, I don't think anyone I know that's actually seen it has ever said like anything bad about it.

And yeah, sorry, I think I lost my train of thought, but go ahead.

But yeah, I know because I was just saying, I know my dad, he would always tell me that when he was a kid, he was so afraid of the original 50s BLOB movie.

And that's one of those ones you watch.

You're like, this is all right, this is what scared you guys back then.

All right, man.

But yeah, I need to check out the remake.

Because yeah, it took like this really cheesy movie that, yeah, for the time I've been scary, but like, no, it goes hard.

It goes really hard.

Like, it kills kids left and right, which, yeah, in the really shocking ways.

Yeah, and I think those 80s movies definitely hold up a lot better than a lot of the 50s movies because, you know, you watch the the original BLOB, you watch the original thing.

You're like, this is pretty slow.

This is not that spooky, you know?

And then you watch their respective remakes and like they're like the thing, you know, like the the 80s thing the Carpenter won.

And he clearly has a real lot for the thing cuz he like he puts it in Halloween, like they're watching it on TV couple years before he makes it.

And it's just that movie got torn apart upon release.

Like people hated it, did really bad at the box office, critics hated it.

And now it's like an icon of horror.

And it's still holds up to this day much better than I think it's it's remake slash reboot, which is interesting that I think this fright, this Fright Night movie, you know, you mentioned that you got the thing which comes out around the same time, just a couple months apart or weeks apart.

And I feel like it speaks to a trend where they really stop remaking things and are instead doing like continuations or reboots or like things that are.

A legacy.

Legacy, yeah.

You know, like I think of like the Halloween, David Gordon Greene's Halloween trilogy, which I have very mixed feelings on and how that's the.

First one.

Yeah, the first one was solid and then it went down real fast.

But my theory is the second one's actually really good if you just took out everything that happens at the hospital.

OK, OK, that's fair.

That's what evil does not die.

The third one is all kinds of bad.

Yeah, third one's really rough.

It's interesting because I think the one movie that has come out that has been like a straight up horror remake in recent years that I was a really big fan of was the 2024 Nosferatu from David Eggers.

I I love that movie.

What did you think of that one?

I liked it, I think.

I haven't seen it since I saw in the theater and I think I do need to watch it again.

I liked it plenty.

I think just knowing the plot, the first half seemed really slow because you just kind of knew all the beats that were going to happen.

I love the production design, everything about it.

I think I was just kind of like, OK, let's move along a little quicker.

I do think if I watch it again, I think I'll go down a little bit better.

I just haven't had a chance.

Yeah, yeah, I know.

I appreciate it very, very much.

And then, and then we have the new Frankenstein coming out in like 2 weeks.

I'm really that, yeah, some of the reviews have been a little bit mixed.

So I'm just kind of hoping that like once the public sees it, we get a better feel for it.

But I'm going to say it either way.

Yeah, I, I mean, I'm definitely going to check it out either way.

It's, it's one of my most anticipated movies of the year.

I I love del Toro and this kind of just seems like something he's been working towards for his whole career.

So I'm just like, you know what, like let's let's go.

Like I, I don't think I can do any better than a Del Toro Frankenstein movie with Oscar Isaac.

Like that's pretty spoiled.

That's great.

Just let him cook.

But yeah, thank you so much for coming on, man.

This, this has been an absolute blast.

Before you go, where can people find you?

Where can the people listen to your podcast?

All that good stuff.

Yeah, thanks for having me on.

This is fun.

And I I like my perception of movies to be challenged.

So if it's a movie that like I don't remember fondly or I've never seen or anything, I like having excuse to watch them.

I wouldn't, you know, I'm pretty, you know, when you have your own podcast, you got kids and jobs and everything, you know, things are pretty busy.

So it's nice to be, to be pushed to watch something.

Well, I'm glad to hear that because that's kind of whole.

That's there I go.

It's kind of the whole thing I'm trying to do here is to get to people that will re evaluate some of these movies.

So I'm glad.

I'm glad it worked.

You're you're doing the work of the film gods.

As far as dads from the crypts, we are on that moniker on Blue Sky Threads, Instagram, YouTube, and we also are dads from the crypt talk on TikTok and we post some fun little videos there a lot of like throwback tales in the crypt clips and stuff on TikTok.

So if you're into that kind of thing, we have a really fun following on Instagram as well.

Those are my our two biggest.

And then again, we post all our stuff, the audio on all the usual podcasting streams and then three videos we post on YouTube again.

We did sleep away camp all throughout September, all four movies.

And then what did we do?

We did the new VHS movie, VHS Halloween last week.

This week we're going to do Evil Dead 2 and I think we're doing the Frankenstein remake.

So we have all kinds of fun stuff to come.

Check it out.

Very cool.

Yeah, you guys have some good stuff.

I was just listening to your episode on Deep Blue Sea the other day and love.

That yes.

I had a great time with it.

That was so much fun.

Yeah, that's that.

I love that movie.

Yeah, anybody out there who might be listening to the first time, you know, thank you guys for checking this out.

Can find Underrated Movie podcast on all the social medias just by looking up Underrated Movie Podcast.

Go to underratedmoviepodcast.com to check it out and check out some other stuff that I do as well.

I also do another podcast that is released whenever there's a new Marvel thing called Infinity Stones and Dragon Bones.

You can also find bonus episodes of that on my Patreon.

Patreon.com/underrated Movie Podcast and I also do a whole bonus podcast over there.

I'm in between seasons right now, so I'm doing the bonus episodes of Infinity Stones.

But next year I'm going to be looking at Amadeus in depth, talking about it in 15 minute chunks on a podcast called Amadeus.

And then I also do a on every other Friday, do a podcast with my buddy Damien called Midnight Film Society where we look at films for more recently released films, TV shows, stuff like that.

It's a more conversational, just type whatever you would watching thing.

And then yeah, you and the Patreon, if you want to go over there, we there's options for 1/3 and $5 that give you different levels of stuff.

And I wanted to shout out we just got a new patron, James Shell.

Thank you for signing up.

So you guys sign up, might reach name out here on the podcast or if you're, you know, write a nice review, might do it do that as well for you.

So love to hear from you guys.

Love to see you show up on the Patreon, all that good stuff.

But yeah, until next time, I've been Derek Mcduff.

And thank you, Jason, for joining me.

Thanks for helping.

Me.