I suppose a film that serves as little more than two hours of pure schlocky entertainment doesn’t really need a whole lot of special features to make it worth your while. And that seems to be the philosophy that the folks behind the Fright Night Blu-ray seem to adhere to. The viciously violent perfectly B-level movie is enough of a romp on its own and the few special features provided are just enough to complement it.
Fright Night is a remake of the 1985 classic wherein Jerry Dandrige (Colin Farrell) moves in next door to Las Vegas teen Charlie Brewster (Anton Yelchin) and his mom (Toni Collette). Unfortunately he’s a vampire. Things get really messy when Charlie’s best friend (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) and his girlfriend (Imogen Poots) are brought into his wicked web and Charlie needs to enlist the help of famous Vampire expert and Las Vegas illusionist Peter Vincent (David Tennant) to defeat the demonic Jerry. While in theaters the film draws much of its cheesy charm from the excessive use of 3-D effects the high-def picture on the Blu-ray still managed to communicate the ridiculousness of it all. Of course if you’re lucky enough to have a 3-D television I’d suggest you use it to watch this film. There’s nothing quite like spurts of blood jumping out at you.
As for the features as I said they’re rather slim. If you’re looking for a director’s commentary you’re out of luck. Then again I doubt it would be hard to figure out why Craig Gillespie made any of the choices that he did. Visual gags abound and when in doubt blood and fire are always good for a shock or two. As for featurettes and videos the best options of the five selections have to be the mini-documentary called Peter Vincent: Come Swim in My Mind. It’s the best part of the Blu-ray but mostly because Tennant is the best part of the film. A close second is the full unedited copy of Squid Man the film that Charlie and his best friends made as tweens in the film. It’s really a few minutes of Yechin and Mintz-Plasse goofing around like schoolkids but it’s endearing and entertaining. They had to actually make it there’s no reason we can’t enjoy the pieces we didn’t see in the movie. To top this all off the disc offers a “How to Make a Vampire Movie” guide which is cute but not all that interesting and the requisite blooper reel which is always fun. It also includes a Kid Cudi video but there’s nothing exciting about that in the time of YouTube and Vevo.
Essentially the only reason to pick up the special edition 3-D Blu-ray DVD combo pack is if you have the means to watch the film in 3-D. Otherwise you’re better off the with regular old run of the mill Blu-ray. And believe me this film is just as much fun in that format.
