Remake, reboot, reimagining, whatever you want to call it, Hollywood is regurgitating at a rate faster than a feline fur ball fetishist.

Luckily, some are better than others, like the current FRIGHTNIGHT (M) the revamped vampire pic from 1985.

A quarter century on it follows the original Tom Holland story of a nosferatu neighbour in suburban America.

The suburb here is in Las Vegas, a superb stroke, for what better locale for nefarious nocturnal than the day for night atmosphere of the notorious gambling town.

Teenager Charley Brewster (Anton Yelchin) hooked up to the high school horn bag, Amy (imogen Poots) is striving to put his nerdy past behind him, but best buddy and neo nascent nerd, Ed, (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) convinces him that the guy who has just moved in next door to Charley and his mum, (Toni Collette), is a bona fide bloodsucker.
Colin Farrell cuts a fine figure of a fangster with bad boy aplomb, and while his character, Jerry, goes for the jugular, the tone of the film aims for the jocular.

In a star turn, David Tennant plays a showbiz occultist and magician who gives a van Helsing helping hand to our hero when, quite literally, all hell breaks loose in the Nevada neighbourhood.

CGI take a back seat to story and character. Marti Noxon, long time scribe of Buffy the Vampire Slayer series has written a smart and sassy update of the script and director Craig Gillespie, whose feature film debut was Lars and the Real Girl, proves he’s no one hit wonder.

(c) Richard Cotter

15th September, 2011