Given the plain tropes at play, the alternate feels prefer it may from virtually any ’80s film. We’ve obtained the great lady, the great nerdy boy, and the boy who’s slightly too nerdy to be the hero. The great nerdy boy suffers an indignity, however it’s simply sufficient to permit us viewers to sympathize with him, to tug for him even when he’s being sort of a jerk to his girlfriend.
Nevertheless, Fright Night time goes additional to counsel that Brewster’s nerdiness is an effective factor. The movie makes him a horror nerd, an aficionado of the knockoff Hammer movies that starred Peter Vincent inside the movie’s universe. Although he has to get among the particulars from Ed, Charley’s information of horror permits him to acknowledge that Jerry Dandridge is a vampire and that housemate Billy Cole (Jonathan Stark) is his acquainted. He’s additionally the one who will get the thought to trace down Peter Vincent to assist combat Jerry. On this context, Charley actually is cool sufficient to be our hero, whereas McDowall’s fearless vampire hunter seems to principally be comedian reduction.
In fact Fright Night time isn’t the one ’80s film to make a nerd a hero. However whereas movies resembling Revenge of the Nerds construct to a climax by which the nerd is validated by having intercourse with a lady (whether or not she needs to or not; see, once more, Revenge of the Nerds), Charley is portrayed, surprisingly, as an really first rate individual.
Charley initially ignores Amy’s makes an attempt to maneuver his hand out from underneath her shirt after which will get offended at her when she has to push him away. He whines about how he at all times hears “no” from her, however the movie doesn’t concentrate on his indignation. As an alternative Holland cuts again to Amy to seize her response, damage and uncomfortable by Charley’s bullying. It’s at that second that Charley stops and realizes what he’s accomplished and apologizes, a real rarity in ’80s nerd motion pictures. Charley’s nerdiness permit him to point out respect to Amy and to defeat Jerry, however Fright Night time provides us a extra conventional—and tragic—’80s nerd in his pal, the appropriately nicknamed Evil Ed.
Internal Evil
Like good man Charley, Ed initially performs like one other mainstay of ’80s motion pictures: the man who’s even nerdier than the principle nerd. Actor Stephen Geoffreys leans into his character’s disagreeable qualities, his shrill cackle and aggravating smile, each on show when he’s launched within the movie laughing at Charley’s poor math grade.
But for all his tough edges, Fright Night time additionally finds some elementary decency in Ed, most clearly within the care he reveals towards Charley. Although Charley insists on calling him “Evil,” a nickname he detests, Ed agrees to assist his pal by explaining vampire guidelines resembling by no means inviting one into your own home (a rule that Charley instantly discovers his mom has violated). Additionally like Amy, Evil worries about Charley’s psychological properly being. Each Amy and Ed rent Peter Vincent to “examine” Jerry, a ruse meant to point out Charley that his neighbor is nothing to concern.
