Frightnight (2011)

Film of 2012 #7
No Spoilers

Another 80's film that got remade to the 2000's, in all honesty the original was cheesy horror comedy with more campness than anything else and in all honesty it was not the greatest film in the world it was quite like Monster Squad great through nostalgia. So the remake stars a fairly strong cast with Colin Farrell, Anton Yelchin, David Tennant, Imogen Poots and Toni Collette. Now it is actually the kind of remake that I can go with, it takes what is a good idea and expands and takes it in  new and interesting direction.

The basic premise is still the same with a vampire living next door to a teenager but they take the characters a lot further than in the original and they also make them quite different in some cases. They do however maintain the basic story and they have a couple of nice references to the original film.

This is the best kind of remake it is not shot for shot it is not just a simple rehash of the original film they take a good idea and expand and explore new and modern ideas. I give this a good 3 stars, while a good remake the film still has some flaws but really worth seeing if you get the chance.

Monster Squad (1987)

Another film that after I started watching I realised that I had seen it many years before, this film is much loved especially amongst the Horror fans who see themselves as the protagonists and I have to say that while I was never that way as a youngster would love to go through what they do in this film as it is awesome.

They have all the bad guys from the Universal Classics with Dracula, Frankenstein, Wolfman, the Mummy and the Creature from the Black Lagoon. The Monster Squad itself is a strange group with what we would today class as nerds the youngster, the fat kid and the geek leader, strangely with the school cool guy thrown in as well.

This is an awesome film with many references to the classics including and awesome scene from Frankenstein with the little girl, there are also a couple of awesome quotes from the film with the T-Shirt at the start "Stephen King Rules" and "Wolfman has Nards" two classic quotes for me and make the film even more enjoyable as fans can throw them at each other long after the film has finished.

I am going to say 4 stars for this film, while I had a blast watching it there were a few issues with effects and some of the acting, however on the whole a film well worth seeing and a recommendation especially if you have any love for the Universal Classics or wanted to be in a cool gang as a small child.