Fright Night
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures | Release Date: August 19, 2011 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
64
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 30 Critic Reviews
Positive:
21
Mixed:
8
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
SalonMary Elizabeth WilliamsAug 18, 2011
Farrell looks like he's having the time of his 400-year-old life. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyKeith StaskiewiczAug 19, 2011
It ends up getting a surprising number of things right. Read full review
75
Washington PostSean OConnellAug 18, 2011
It stands apart from the rehash pack by accomplishing something rival remakes rarely do: It improves on the premise it has been handed, producing a modernized version of a decades-old story that's superior to its predecessor in virtually every aspect. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChroniclePeter HartlaubAug 18, 2011
Fright Night isn't quite a classic vampire movie, but it's refreshingly straightforward and self-deprecating. Read full review
75
USA TodayScott BowlesAug 18, 2011
Fright is way too quick on its feet to be slowed by clichés. David Tennant seizes McDowall's role as Peter Vincent, now a Criss Angel-style clown vampire slayer. Christopher Mintz-Plasse was born to play a high school nerd. Read full review
75
St. Louis Post-DispatchKevin C. JohnsonAug 18, 2011
It honors the original throughout, including a memorable nightclub scene and a surprise cameo that's a huge crowd-pleaser, while at the same time giving updates to make it fresher and better than ever. Read full review
75
Portland OregonianM. E. RussellAug 18, 2011
Fright Night joins "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" as proof that you actually can do this sort of thing correctly. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeWesley MorrisAug 18, 2011
The remake isn't openly nostalgic. In a sense, this is another sexy vampire movie. But Farrell does something special with the sexuality: It's simultaneously omnivorous, dangerous, and a hoot. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsAug 18, 2011
Plenty gory, but graced by a jovial sense of humor and an enjoyably guts-centric use of 3-D. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubKeith PhippsAug 17, 2011
The film's greatest pleasures come from Noxon's script - which puts the sexual chaos created by Farrell's attractive bloodsucker front and center - and from the performances. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertAug 17, 2011
As in the earlier film, this one dances always at the edge of comedy. It especially has fun with the Rules of Vampire Behavior. Read full review
75
Orlando SentinelRoger MooreAug 17, 2011
Fright Night can also boast of having the best vampire-villain in ages. The bushy-browed Colin Farrell was BORN to wear fangs. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyAug 18, 2011
A steady supply of spiky humor and a game cast keep this cooking most of the way, though the pacing could have been tighter and the film seems as if it's about to end two or three times before it actually does. Read full review
70
The New York TimesA.O. ScottAug 18, 2011
The old "Fright Night" was both self-aware and effectively scary, and if this one seems to prefer gruesome digital effects to old-fashioned bump-in-the-night spookiness, it still succeeds in keeping the audience both tickled and anxious. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderJ.R. JonesAug 18, 2011
This remake is good fun, aided in no small degree by Colin Farrell's strutting, dead-eyed performance as the bloodsucker. Read full review
70
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzAug 17, 2011
It's a somewhat goofy movie that also manages some real scares. Best of all, it makes excellent use of an element of vampire stories effective since Count Dracula confronted Van Helsing in Bram Stoker's novel: I know that you know, and I also know there is nothing you can do about it. Read full review
65
MovielineMichelle OrangeAug 18, 2011
Fright Night glides into its first climax with some funny touches but without building much structure or suspense. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam LaceyAug 18, 2011
The new version is mildly entertaining with some fun performances. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaAug 18, 2011
With the exception of a few stakes and crosses jumping from the screen, some bloody sprays here and there, and one creepy, claustrophobic car ride, the 3-D glasses are a hindrance, not an enhancement. Read full review
63
Rolling StonePeter TraversAug 18, 2011
Menace and mirth can cancel each other out. But the combo clicked in 1985's Fright Night (banish the 1988 sequel), and it clicks again in this frisky 3D remake. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineEd GonzalezAug 17, 2011
One of the minor triumphs of this Fright Night remake is Farrell's coolly assured performance, a cocksure spectacle of masculine virility far more intimidating to his character's victims, male and female alike, than the razor-sharp fangs Jerry uses to munch on human neck meat. Read full review
60
EmpireHelen O'HaraAug 29, 2011
Funny and scary - and sometimes both at once - it lives up to the original, even if it fails to surpass it. Read full review
60
Boxoffice MagazineNick SchagerAug 18, 2011
With a similar brand of self-aware playfulness, retains its predecessor's sturdy narrative foundation. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanAug 18, 2011
You'll need a taste for nostalgia to really appreciate Fright Night, which knowingly blends Eighties cheese with Nineties snark - a combination that works better than it sounds. Read full review
60
Time OutBen KenigsbergAug 18, 2011
Thankfully, the 3-D is surprisingly well-used, not just for arterial spray but to accentuate the constraints of the mega-bland, housing-bubble architecture of the characters' neighborhood. That anonymity is the real horror show. Read full review
50
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottAug 19, 2011
While this nouveau Fright Night does a reasonable job of maintaining the fun spirit of the original film, between the blood splatters and vamp stakings, it never builds on what the original had to offer -- and thus never quite makes a convincing case for its own existence. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovAug 18, 2011
Fans of the irritatingly limp and relatively toothless Twilight series may actually find their tormented inner selves fondled to exquisite, precoital perfection with this slick and gleeful adaptation of the classic Eighties vampire-next-door flick. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezAug 18, 2011
There's an irrelevance to the movie that the filmmakers, hard as they try, can't quite shake - something awfully square about the picture: It would have played a lot better a decade ago. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliAug 17, 2011
Aside from some cosmetic changes, little of what this Fright Night offers elevates it above the classification of "unnecessary." Read full review
38
New York PostKyle SmithAug 19, 2011
Feeble comic one-liners and slow pacing combine for a routine fangfest in this remake of the 1985 film. Read full review
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