Fright Night 3D Box Office & Set Visit Report

Fright Night 3D Box Office & Set Visit Report
Early box office report on the Fright Night remake, and a look back at our visit to the set where we interviewed Colin Farrell, Anton Yelchin, Imogen Poots, and FX makeup man Howard Berger of KNB.
By:stacilayne
Updated: 08-21-2011

 

 
 
 
The Help certainly didn't need any assistance at the box office this weekend. It's easily #1, making for some merry maids indeed. Holdover Rise of the Planet of the Apes is hanging in there, and it looks as though Spy Kids: All the Time in the World will be claiming the #3 spot, with Conan The Barbarian and even The Smurfs behind, leaving Fright Night looking decidedly un-scary and bloodless to boot.
 
I was on set when the Fright Night remake was being filmed in Albuquerque, NM., last year. Hopes are always high on set, but everyone's learned to be pretty guarded and to cover their statements in this Age of Info. Star Colin Farrell did that to some extent — I'm just glad he didn't keep everything under cover… the fit and fine actor was donning a pair of vampire fangs, and not much else, when I interviewed him. He rocked a pair of skintight jeans and left his washboard abs on display… somehow, I got my questions out.
 
But that was later. First, members of the press got to watch him switch from bad-boy to bad-guy at the turn of a hair as he joked with his fellow cast-members, then turned the evil up to 11. As Jerry Dandridge, an ancient vampire who moves in next door to a teenage boy (Charley, played by Anton Yelchin), Farrell isn't playing it feral. Dandridge is a dandy and charmer, easily seducing the significant women in Charley's life (girlfriend Amy, played by Imogen Poots; and mom Jane, played by Toni Collette). Dandridge turns Ed (Christopher Mintz-Plasse, "McLovin" himself) into Evil Ed, and gives Vegas lounge act Peter Vincent (Dr. Who's David Tennant) a run for his chips and all the while, Charley is snapping at his heels.
 
Farrell figured prominently in the scenes we saw being shot. Especially the ones with gunshots… in a standoff moment with Tennant, he said (revealing the American accent he'd be using in the film), "You look bigger on TV, Peter Vincent. Welcome to Fright Night… for real." Two gunshots followed, but we couldn't really see how the scene would play out. The next part we saw was the moment when Amy reveals her secret to Charley. The actors are on the floor of a dusty tomb set, his head on a tape mark, she with knee pads as she kneels on him wearing a filmy white negligee. She says something into his ear. Sounds like a seductive threat. He pushes her away, hard. Between takes, the two joke with each other, but there seems to be tension. He messes with her, and she says, "Stop it. That's not funny, Anton." She pauses. "Wait… can you see up my dress?"
 
While Jerry Dandridge is more like "a shark" (see: our interview with Farrell), Poots said she fancies the glittery vamps. "I'm fascinated by them vampires. I see the fascination with Twilight, which is obviously something very current now with my generation, and I enjoy seeing how that genre has affected people and why: the concept of the forbidden lover in your life, and how that embodies itself in a vampire. It's fascinating and I'm happy to be part of it."
 
Farrell offers, "Jerry’s a male, who’s designed in the film of being comfortable within his own skin, and has a certain obviously omnipotent of being a vampire that they’re not aware of. But there’s (I hope) a strong kind of energy that comes off from his presence, and that’s unnerving to Charley for reasons of protection of his mother and his girlfriend Amy. There’s not the kind of romantic illusions in this that there was in the original, in regards to Jerry and Amy particularly. The Amy character in the original was very much modeled after the Mina character from the vampiric folklore of (Bram Stoker’s) DRACULA, which has been used in many vampire stories – not [ours]."
 
But in case you're wondering, the filmmakers and actors were concerned with making sure there was plenty of levity and that it came out in the story at the right intervals. "I think strikes a good balance between comedy and the reality and horror of the situation," said Yelchin. "It's funny because he's freaking out, but when you see jerry tear into this young woman it's not funny at all - it's terrifying. but I really do think it's very well structured in the sense you get both. it's funnier when you're playing the reality of the situation without trying to be funny, but there is definite humour there. The first film was so, so campy, and more to me about the horror genre, but the original does strike a balance between being campy and funny and, at the time, kind of scary."
 
Having seen the film, I have to agree the balance is well struck. For more on Fright Night, please check out our links to the following:
 
 
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