Fright Night , opening tomorrow , is a bit of a revelation . You expect a schlocky low - budget remaking of a 1980s furor revulsion comedy , and instead you get a fun , thrilling , character - driven summertime motion-picture show . And much of the credit goes to scriptwriter Marti Noxon , former showrunner on Buffy the Vampire Slayer .
We were golden to interview Noxon a couple of times recently , and she told us about making vampires scary again . She also talked about Steven Spielberg ’s involvement in Fright Night , and the secrets of doing repulsion - comedy that does n’t fall flat . Spoilers ahead …
How to bring back scary psycho - killer lamia
Everybody involved with this plastic film talked about bring back the chilling side of vampires , says Noxon . “ That was something that really appealed to me , ” she adds . “ I loved Anne Rice when I was raise up , and obviously I wrote my fairish share of the sympathetic lamia [ on Buffy ] , but I was hungering for the more vicious predator … I really like a badass vampire . I wish kind of the theme that they ’re just fundamentally soulless huntsman . So that was definitely the idea behind the Jerry character . There ’s no humanity to appeal to … We did n’t tilt into the estimate that he ’s cause a very romantic soul . Not this one . [ laughs ] ”
And fortunately , they wound up with a pretty terrifying - depend vampire , in Colin Farrell . He ’s “ such a magnetic variety of [ role . ] He ’s got that variety of furrowed brow that always looks so apprehensive , ” and you require to console him . “ He kind of lures you in … like a venus flytrap . ”
Instead of being overtly camp , the movie has playfulness with the thought of a lamia , but in a slightly more knowing mode . Twenty years on , everybody know vampire lore already , so you need to have some “ instant at the estimation that we ’re all well steeped in this culture . And the guy ’s got to be smarter than your average vampire . He has a dissimilar cover in this pic than a heap of current lamia movies . He does n’t malinger around in a long duster looking pale and moody . ”
She also powerfully objects to the idea of vampire walk around during the day , which is “ not coolheaded . I did this for a support , too , and dusk is okay with me . ” But not broad daylight , Noxon insists .
Noxon say that part of the appeal of a entirely evil vampire in these troubled times is that it ’s an evil we can defeat in a flash — it ’s not an ambiguous evil , it ’s a clear - cut one . Getting to see something so evil get demolish is “ a nice reprieve from the things you ca n’t in reality puzzle out . ”
The good predators are grim
One of the striking thing about Fright Night is that it does n’t take in out the uncertainty about vampire for too long . moderately quickly in the moving picture , we know there are lamia , and so does Anton Yelchin ’s character , Charlie . Noxon says this was a deliberate choice ,
in part because you ’re not going to hide that ball for very long . We all know what the movie ’s about . And it was interesting , because it was one of the things that Mr. [ Steven ] Spielberg answer to in my draft is that we dispense with a fate of the “ Having coffee tree and utter about whether this is actually perish on ” scenes , and just got justly into it . And once the predator is on the open , we do n’t actually take a stack of downbeat . It ’s just pretty relentless . Early on , we ’d talked about the fact that we wanted the vampire to be like the shark from Jaws . And once you know there ’s a shark , you know there ’s a shark . [ Laughs ] So we just dilute to the pursual .
Why humor make the horror shivery
One reason she was excited to take on this celluloid was because she call back “ the dextrous balancing act they did between real funny component part and genuine scary parts . I bed the kind of soma - up of suspense you get from comedy repulsion , and I had n’t had a chance to compose in that voice very much since Buffy . So it was super fun . ”
append Noxon : “ What ’s really interesting about the kind of humor that I wish to spell is , it ’s very character - driven and it ’s intend to be discarded . I do n’t really write jokes , you get laid ? ” She was lucky enough to have a director , Craig Gillespie , and a cast who really “ got it , ” and manage to play the humor in an unpretentious way that made it funnier . “ Going to theaters and hearing people really be storm by the fact that it was funny was really fun . ”
And one of the swell things this plastic film does , on several occasions , is Yankee-Doodle the rug out from under the hearing . There are a few jolting surprises that really do catch you off safety . Noxon articulate it ’s vitally authoritative to try and do this , particularly when you ’re working in a genre where “ the figure are so familiar . ” There was some debate among the production squad , she adds , about whether it was okay to take a few liberties with vampire lore to make some surprises possible — and in the death , “ you have to step back and say , ‘ Dude , none of this would really go on [ anyway ] . ' ”
Steven Spielberg was heavy involved in this film
Noxon was surprised by how much of an interest Steven Spielberg took in this motion picture . “ I was told that he just sometimes takes an interestingness in the modest movies at Dreamworks , because they ’re just sort of fun for him , and a reversion to puerility favourite . He ’s just a masses consumer of pop acculturation . ” She say Spielberg “ gave a lot of feedback , and work with the director and came into the redaction room and he was great . I was so shocked when I actually was summoned to fill the real him . ”
Among other thing : Spielberg puzzle out with film director Craig Gillespie on the plastic film ’s storyboards , and paint a picture a few shots in the film . “ It ’s a lilliputian affair , but there ’s a great shot where they cut outside of the house , and you see a photographic camera flash in the window , and for some reason it ’s really eerie . He would gear stuff like that . You had these small moments that had this sort of Amblin cutaneous senses . ” But at the same meter , Spielberg was positive enough that he did n’t feel the need to make changes just to put his fool on it , when stuff was already working .
The popular girl is not a shallow jerk for once
One of the cool thing about Fright Night is that the mellow schoolhouse politics are less simplistic than what a lot of other films portray . Charlie ( Anton Yelchin ) leaves behind his nerd friends to join the democratic kids and start dating a hot democratic girl identify Amy ( Imogen Poots ) . But instead of get out that Amy is trivial and stupefied , we actually give away she ’s much cooler than we realized — and she in reality get it on Charlie for being a nerd — even as Charlie learns to apprize his grind root all over again .
We call for Noxon about that , and she articulate :
One of my favorite appearance on TV was Freaks and Geeks , and I get it on how [ on that show ] , there were times when poele crossed foeman lines and it was n’t exactly what you expect . In truth , I think what I was seek to write about was sort of becoming a whole person , integrating all the parts of yourself . It ’s overly simplistic to say it ’s the story of a kid becoming a man . It ’s the story of the child realizing he does n’t have to choose between the part of him that can run with the popular gang , and the part of him that can quote the Prime Directive . And if he can do both of those thing , he ’s actually move to be a much more whole — and deadly — person . Because in the conclusion , a slew of his geek skills are what help him prevail . But it ’s also that he ’s become a strong , braver soul and having his lady friend in his life has made him more confident . It ’s not all just one thing .
Why is Peter Vincent now a Vegas magician ?
In the original Fright Night , Peter Vincent is a late - nighttime tv set repulsion host , something which does n’t really exist any more . “ We do n’t use media the same style any longer , ” say Noxon . “ The worldly concern in which old horror movies were recycled again and again and again , with a cheesy lamia host or what have you . That ’s all locomote by the wayside . We consume and then we move on . ” So one of the fun things about this project was “ coming up with a modern - sidereal day equivalent . ”
And meanwhile , Noxon had already thought about setting a supernatural movie localise in Las Vegas , because she ’d been there help out during the presidential effort . “ I spent a lot of time in the suburbs there , and I noticed every other menage there is give up . This is a Earth where people log Z’s all day and work all night . There ’s a huge ephemeral population . If I were a monster , I would totally move here . ” And then the producers approached her about Fright Night , “ and it was like , ‘ Ooh , here it is . ' ”
And Noxon did some more inquiry , and found out that Penn and Teller have a huge collection of occult objects , and are sort of mythbusters . “ And that pass to the idea of a guy who might get it on a lot about vampires and mythology and might be one of these Vegas wizard . ” This gave rise to the idea of Criss Angel - case magician fictional character , represent by David Tennant .
Noxon says she did n’t spell the part for Tennant specifically — she did n’t know who would be playing the part , but she was captivated when she happen out . “ He ’s so skilful in the movie . There are a couple of scenes that he and Anton [ Yelchin ] improvised that are so funny . They could have just gone on for days . He ’s such a just , wonderful role player and he completely committed to it . He ’s really in it . They are a great team . I would not be sorry if I had the opportunity to spell them again . ”
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