Fright Night (R)
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This came out in 1985, but I didn't see it until 2023. Over the course of the movie I went from thinking I'd rate it "meh" to "meh and a quarter" to "meh and a half" to, finally, "meh and three quarters". So what I'm saying is it grew on me as it progressed, but never to the point that I could actually see myself rating it even one smiley.

It begins with a very bad vampire movie on TV, starring an old actor named Peter Vincent, who also hosts the TV program, "Fright Night", on which the movie was playing. It's being sort of watched by a high school student named Charley Brewster, who's more intent on making out with his girlfriend, Amy. But then he sees a couple of guys moving a coffin into the house next door, and soon becomes obsessed with the idea that his new neighbor, Jerry Dandridge (Chris Sarandon), is a vampire. Of course he's right about that, but he has a hard time getting anyone to believe him. Not the cops, not Amy, not his annoying friend "Evil" Ed, not even Peter Vincent himself. But eventually they all come to realize the truth. (Well, except the cops. We don't see them again after the first time Charley tries to convince a police detective that Dandridge is a killer.) Oh, also I should say Dandridge has a roommate named Billy Cole, who is not a vampire, but obviously is an ally of Dandridge, and whatever he is, I'm pretty sure he's not human, either. Anyway, Dandridge decides to kill Charley for his meddling, which doesn't really seem necessary, considering no one was ever going to believe him. It seems to me that if Charley turned up dead, Dandridge would be the only suspect. And if he hadn't started harassing Charley, probably no one would have ever started believing him or help him against Dandridge. So yeah, I don't think the vampire is particularly smart. But no one in this movie is.

I won't say how it all ends, and I've left out a lot of details, because I don't care that much about any of it. I'm glad to have finally seen the movie, but I don't think I'd ever want to watch it again. There's also a sequel, which I have no interest in seeing. And a 2011 remake that I saw some years before I saw this, and I liked it a bit more than I did the original.