Guilty pleasure: Fright Night | On Demand

HELL ON WHEELS Farrell rides into the night.

There’s little point in feeling nostalgic about the original Fright Night, a 1985 cheesefest that’s scarier for its hairspray budget than anything in the film. This enjoyably goofy remake, directed by Craig Gillespie (Lars and the Real Girl) and scripted by Marti Noxon (TV’s Buffy), is hardly bloodless; it even kicks off the action with an elaborately drawn-out sequence in which the protagonist (Anton Yelchin, more likable here than in Like Crazy) attempts to intervene in a kill. Colin Farrell is entertainingly exasperated as the vampire next door, while David Tennant’s Vegas showboat proves far funnier than Roddy McDowall’s washed-up TV host. What’s more, the 3-D is effectively used (time to buy those glasses for home viewing)—not just for arterial spray, but to accentuate the contours of the bland Vegas-exurb housing development where the hero and his foe live. The spatial creativity only enhances suspense, clarifying the characters’ vantage points and hiding places. The movie is a fun house that’s genuinely fun. (Available on VOD, DVD and Blu-ray Tue 13.)