Welcome to Day 16 of Spooky Season!! Today, I’m sharing my next installment of Original vs. Remake! Since it was Spooky Season, I was originally going to compare the 2 Halloween films. However, I love the remake so much, I was worried that the article would be too biased and that’s not what I want these breakdowns to be. So, instead, I decided to compare the old and new Fright Night. Both films follow, Charley Brewster, a teenager who finds out that his new neighbor is a deadly vampire. In order to save his friends and family, Charley seeks the help of famous vampire expert, Peter Vincent. I hope you enjoy and let me know which one you prefer! (REMINDER: like most of my articles, this series is all a matter of my own opinion! I don’t speak for anyone but myself!!) (MAJOR SPOILERS!!!)

As always, I like to start off with our protagonists! When it comes to our main character, Charley Brewster, both William Ragsdale and Anton Yelchin gave out perfect performances. William superbly brought out the nerdy, paranoid and scared teenager vibe. Anton was great as a nerd trying to be one of the cool kids. In this case, the advantage has to go to the original for me. The original Charley was truly a kid worth rooting for. He genuinely cared about what Jerry was doing and who he was hurting. I just hated how remake Charley turned his back on his friends just to be popular and get the girl of his dreams.

When it comes to Charley’s girlfriend, Amy, however, I have to go with the remake. Imogen poots’ Amy was a real ride-or-die girl who stood by Charley’s side no matter what he was going through. Amanda Bearse’s Amy was easily annoyed and kind of self-centered. Every time Charley was distracted by something, she took it as a personal offense and always made it about herself. However, I do respect that she paid Peter Vincent to try and help Charley. Speaking of Peter Vincent, time to discuss the great vampire hunters! I do really love both portrayals. Roddy McDowall’s Peter was a once-famous actor desperately clinging to his glory days, but he was such a coward when it came to dealing with real vampires. David Tennant’s Peter was a man who hid behind his performances, humor, and booze in order to cope with his parents getting killed by a vampire years ago. Both characters are very sad, yet devilishly entertaining. Honestly, it’s hard to pick one over the other, so it has to be a tie for me.

Now, it’s time for our antagonists! Of course, we start with the ever so charming Jerry Dandridge. Although, Colin Farrell did fantastic at making his character blend in more with the modern times, Chris Sarandon just perfected that classic suave vampire demeanor. Both characters lose cool points for kissing underage girls, of course. I’d say Chris’s Jerry did better at leaving an impression, but Colin’s was a f***ing beast! I guess I’m torn on these two as well. Now we move onto the last character known as Evil Ed! Now, when it came to the original Ed (Stephen Geoffreys), I really questioned why he hung around Charley all the time. They really didn’t seem to like each other, and Ed just tagged along for the ride when he really didn’t have to. Remake Ed (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) on the other hand was an idiot, but he really cared about his friends. Original Ed’s laugh is straight-up iconic so I had to mention it here.

Now that we’ve gotten the characters out of the way, it’s time to focus on the stories themselves. Now, the main plot points are pretty much the same, so this comparison will be on minor details. I do wish that the remake didn’t exclude Jerry’s ghoul friend, Billy Cole, but I do understand he wasn’t really needed in the remake. In the remake, Jerry was making his own vampiric tribe, which I do think is cool. I just think that Jerry and Billy had great chemistry and I was looking forward to seeing that in the remake. Also, as always, I have to mention the films’ pacing. There were admittedly a few moments in the original film that felt like a standstill and that always knocks a point or two off from me. When it comes to the vampires, I think it was especially clever for the remake to set the film in Vegas. It was a perfect way for Jerry to blend in with the Vegas locals who sleep during the day.

Now we’ve reached the films’ final battles. This is one of those times where I believe the original’s pacing comes to a bit of a standstill. It takes forever to get from point A to point B. Now, the special effects in the original film are absolutely superb and worth mentioning. When it comes to Ed’s death or “death” scenes, there are thing I love from both films. In the original, I love the different stages we witness as he’s transforming from a wolf back to human. In the remake, I LOVED how when Ed disintegrates, we see Human Ed again for a split second. Both scenes were very emotional and I think very well done. Now, the defeats of the head honchos. The special effects in the original were, once again, very epic, but it just took forever. I’m all for an epic fight, but it seriously loses my attention after a while. With the remake, again, I love how we see human Jerry for a split second before he completely falls apart.

Well, this may be extremely controversial, but after tallying up everything, I’ve declared the remake the winner of this round! Both films have a special quality that I’ll always hold dear to my heart. I guess there were elements in the remake that I just prefer over the original. I hope you’ve enjoyed this round of Original vs. Remake!