Fright Night

Being a fan of Doctor Who, I have followed David Tennant's career since he left the role - and there was this photo I saw, of a banner for a stage show, with an almost unrecognisable David Tennant, bearded and with his shirt open to the waist, in tight leather trousers, holding a ball of light between his hands. It looked intriguing, to say the least!
It seemed that David Tennant was starring in a remake of a classic horror film called Fright Night. I'd heard of this film, but never seen it (I'm not a great one for horror films) even though the original starred another favourite actor, Roddy McDowell.
To be even more topical, the remake starred the young lad who played Chekov in the new Star Trek film - only without the Russian accent - as the kid who nobody believes when he says there's a vampire living next door.
So I watched the film, and enjoyed it - and one day my Young Man was standing with me at the Co-op checkout when he spotted the original version of Fright Night among the cheap DVDs.
Well, we had to have it.

With apologies to David Tennant, it is the far superior film. Roddy McDowell is magnificent as the star of old horror films who is reduced to introducing them on TV - and he's a complete charlatan. He doesn't believe in any of it. He's just an actor playing a part, until the kids get him involved with the real vampire. The modern version gave David Tennant as Peter Vincent a back story about his family being killed by vampires, so he knew they were real from the beginning - and it really didn't work so well. I think it was better, too, that there was only one vampire in the original, with his creepy minion - it really didn't need a basement full of them.

So, although Roddy McDowell never wears tight leather trousers, in all other respects, his is the film to watch!