Fright Night (1985)

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:27):
Welcome to Fright Night. O. Wait, that's not right.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
Welcome to another horrifying episode of Bill and Ashley's Terror
Theater on the Marquee. This week is nineteen eighty five's
Fright Night. Join us right after we get back from
practicing saying in the mirror, you're so cool, Brewster all
that after these ads we have no control over.

Speaker 1 (00:49):
Welcome back.

Speaker 2 (00:49):
I'm Ashley Kaufman, joined as always by my co host
and Terror bil Bria Bill Darling.

Speaker 1 (00:54):
How are we today?

Speaker 3 (00:55):
I'm great, Ashley because this episode is one of my
favorites and of course star in it.

Speaker 1 (01:02):
You know that's very fitting for you.

Speaker 4 (01:04):
You took all my quotes, by the way, so.

Speaker 3 (01:08):
We are obviously so excited to talk about this movie,
which is a big, huge favorite for both of us
and as well as our special guest, a three peat
guest I Believe, who is one of our favorite people
in the world.

Speaker 4 (01:21):
She is one of the editors and writers for slash
film dot com.

Speaker 3 (01:25):
She is one of the co hosts of this Ends
It prom podcast, and she's got three three count of
three articles in this month's issue, or rather October's issue
of Fangoria Magazine.

Speaker 4 (01:35):
This is bj Glengelo say hello, b.

Speaker 5 (01:37):
Jake, Oh hello, I'm so ready to talk about the
greatest part of my personality, which is my love of
fright tonight.

Speaker 2 (01:48):
I feel like you are our vampire correspondent, so I
can't see doing vampire movies with about you at this point.

Speaker 4 (01:54):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:55):
An honor and a privilege, one that I take very seriously.

Speaker 3 (01:59):
Love it awesome. And what are those articles that you
have in Fankuria, bj Sure?

Speaker 5 (02:02):
Sure so. I have a piece about Izzy Lee's House
of Ashes, which is an independently produced horror film from
one of the coolest horror short film filmmakers working today.
She's made like twenty She's incredible, and she finally made
a feature because she said, screw it, people aren't going
to give me money. I make my own movie, and
I think that that's amazing. I also have a bunch

(02:24):
of interviews with the cast and director of The Black
Phone two and an exclusive preview looking at Five Nights
at Freddy's two, including an interview with the director Emma Tammy.

Speaker 1 (02:38):
Ooh, my buddy Matthew Lillard.

Speaker 5 (02:42):
I wish I could have gotten Lillard, but they were like, no,
you're not allowed to talk to any the cast. This
is a preview, and we're afraid they're going to say things.
We were just at a.

Speaker 2 (02:50):
Random bar in Atlanta before Dragon Con last year and
he just walked in and the first thing I yelled
at him is I loved you in the Boola Brothers
Dragula Halloween Special, and was.

Speaker 1 (03:00):
Like, wow, I mean scream.

Speaker 5 (03:05):
He is such a sweet person. He comes to a
theater in la that I frequent videots quite often, and
he did a screening for a serial mom and it
was like the first time he had seen it in
many years. It was the first time his kids had
ever seen it. And he walks up. He just like
puts his arm around me and we just chit chat
like wor old friends. And I'm like, I don't know
if you're realizing that this is our first time meeting

(03:26):
in person, but I'm just gonna go with it.

Speaker 1 (03:29):
Yeah, he's so sweet.

Speaker 5 (03:30):
He was a nice guy.

Speaker 4 (03:32):
I was at Vidiots for Hackers early in the year.

Speaker 3 (03:34):
I was right after the fires, and he was there
and it was pretty great to see him, and he
was like incredulous at everybody who was there, was like,
why you guys here for this?

Speaker 2 (03:42):
He was launching a liquor or something, and when his
liquor party or whatever it was later the next day.

Speaker 1 (03:49):
So that was so much fun.

Speaker 5 (03:50):
And I have had both of them because he has
good is whiskey. Yeah, he's a whiskey. And then he
also has I think it's a scotch. That could be wrong,
but one of them is very much like D and
D themed, one of them is very horror themed, and.

Speaker 2 (04:02):
They're both pretty damn good. I was hammered by the
end of the night. I remember drinking a lot of
that and I thought it was great.

Speaker 3 (04:10):
Well, I'll just have to live vic curiously through you two.
I'll just watch you enjoy it. They come with stories
or something, right, is that?

Speaker 1 (04:17):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (04:18):
Yeah, the horror one comes with a like a little
micro story. It's like longer than a short story, shorter
than a novella. But it's by Mike Flan again, which
is very cool, very cool.

Speaker 4 (04:28):
Yeah, that's awesome.

Speaker 3 (04:29):
All right, So I think we do have some readings
from the Economic on today before we get started.

Speaker 1 (04:34):
Give it to us.

Speaker 3 (04:35):
So yeah, I'll get the ball rolling first off, the
news that we have not one, but two legacy slasher
horror franchises under the eight twenty four banner, in addition
to a twenty four you know, working on that Crystal
Lake show, which of course is related to the Friday
the Thirteenth franchise or the Jason Universe or whatever the
hell we're calling it these days. The news broke this

(04:57):
week that they actually, you are going to get the
rights to the tich Chainsaw Massacre as well, and first
up would be a series from JT. Molder, who is great.
We love Strange Darling, we love the Long Walk, Roy
Lee and Glenn Powell. Though apparently Glenn powellill not be
starring in the series as they're reporting, so I don't know.
He might just be a writer on it.

Speaker 2 (05:16):
I don't know, but I'd like some confusion, like when
Matthew McConaughey was in there and I was like, I
would just stay with this family.

Speaker 1 (05:22):
I don't understand what the problem is.

Speaker 4 (05:24):
You know, but it is fun that.

Speaker 3 (05:27):
Yeah, they're they're collecting Texans again for this franchise.

Speaker 4 (05:32):
How do you guys feel about this? Do you do
you excit? You're excited?

Speaker 3 (05:34):
Are you, you know, prepidacious about the Holy twenty four connection?

Speaker 1 (05:37):
A series?

Speaker 4 (05:39):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (05:39):
Yeah, I'm not sure how I feel about the series.
Actually that's a lie. I do know how I feel
about the series. So a dear friend of mine total
admittedly this is my writing mentor, Sess Sherwood. He wrote
the script for the leather Face prequel, but what actually
was shot compared to what was actually in the script

(06:00):
rip was dramatically different. If they were to use what
he originally wrote for that prequel and use that as
the basis of a series, I am all about it
because it was really, really fantastic. I am a little
excited that A twenty four has sexist chainsaw, if only

(06:20):
because I am not a fan of the Netflix reboot
that they did at all at all. And I know
a lot of people love it that movies got shooters
and defenders. I just personally am not one of them.
So I am excited to see what a different company
with a different approach to how they make movies, what
they're going to do with this. Glenn Powell being involved,

(06:41):
I honestly think that this might just be he likes
this movie, he likes Texas, and he also likes money,
and there's gonna be a lot of money. He had
in a Texas Shades sau series.

Speaker 4 (06:52):
Yeah, and I like that he's on his uh.

Speaker 3 (06:54):
I would compare it to with justin throat tip of like,
he's a handsome, super great actor, but I'll so he's
a writer on the side sometimes those certain thing. Yeah,
the only snake in the grass I feel personally with
this is just the same thing that I feel about
the entire company of A twenty four, which is that
they have this AI division thing that they're doing with Yeah,

(07:14):
not great, not great, and if they keep buying up IP,
I worry about what that means for what they intend
to do with that stuff. So that's my only trepidation
about it.

Speaker 1 (07:23):
Do they historically have series on.

Speaker 4 (07:26):
Yeah, they show twenty four series, right, I don't know that. Yeah, Okay,
I think has been Hotel my buddy Sam, that's that's
also A twenty four backed.

Speaker 1 (07:37):
Interesting.

Speaker 4 (07:38):
Yeah, they've already dipped their toes in that world before.

Speaker 1 (07:41):
I mean, I'm gonna watch it.

Speaker 5 (07:43):
Yeah, there's no question.

Speaker 3 (07:47):
Speaking of long running horror franchises that are never going
to die. Obviously, we had a huge weekend recently with
the Conjuring Last Rites and another James Wand franchise is
coming back from the grave or not so much of
a grave because a couple of years ago and the
last movie came out, it did really really well at
the box office. But in Cidias is coming back, there's

(08:09):
gonna be in Citia six, Lynn Chay is coming back whoo,
and she's gonna be starring alongside Amelia Eve in this
movie that Jacob Chase is going to be making, who
co wrote the screenplay with David Leslie Johnson mcgoldric The
fore Nahmer, And that's gonna come out in August twenty
first of next year. There's also something to do with
this spin off thing called Thread and in Cidia's Tale,

(08:32):
which doesn't ever released it yet, but Mandy Moore and
Kamil Nanjianni was apparently involved with it. I didn't know
that was the thing until recently. How do y'all feel
about More Insidious? You can't hear it listeners, But actually
just threw her hands and it was like, okay.

Speaker 2 (08:50):
Okay, I mean, I guess is it a prequel or
is she Ghostlin or.

Speaker 1 (08:57):
Too many questions?

Speaker 5 (08:58):
I'll watch it, yeah, any questions. That's very much where
I'm at with it. Like I actually thought that Patrick
Wilson's take on it when he was directing. The last
one was pretty interesting. I didn't need that movie, but
it's you know, cool that it exists. Glad that he
got to do some directing. I think that's pretty neat.
I love Lynn Shay. I'm always going to be rooting

(09:18):
for her to do anything. I will watch her in
literally everything. But it is just sort of sad to
me because we are so sucked into this world of
IP that we're just not getting anything unique or original.
We're just going back to the same well over and
over again. And unfortunately, these movies do make like a
fuck you money, so they're just gonna keep doing it.

Speaker 2 (09:41):
I think that's why I like Weapons and Bring Her Back,
and like all these movies that are actually doing something
different have just been such signing stars for me this
year that when I'm like, oh, hey, guys, ready for
in City of Six, I'm like, no, okay, the Blue Door.

Speaker 3 (09:56):
It's too bad that we're not in the nineteen eighties still,
because if it or it wouldn't be these, you know,
endless necessarily wouldn't necessarily be these endless movies equals, but
we'd also have probably an insidious animated series Saturday Morning.

Speaker 4 (10:09):
Would you call it the Further Adventures.

Speaker 5 (10:11):
Yeah, oh, it absolutely would be.

Speaker 4 (10:14):
Hell yeah, that's my pitch.

Speaker 3 (10:17):
Another movie I just wanted to bring up because I
am super excited about it based on its premise alone
and the fact that it is going to be playing
here in Los Angeles's part of Beyondfest, and I can't
go because I had to make a Sophie's choice because
there's so much happening at Beyondfest this year, which I'm
sure I'll talk about on the Patreon later on. But
it is a paramount's primate from Johannes Roberts, the director

(10:39):
Forty seven Meters Downs, Traders, Prey at Night, Resident Evil
Bookom The Raccoon City, and It's a Killer Chip movie.
The synopsis is quote, home from college, Lucy reunites with family,
including pet Chip Ben. Ben contracts rabies during a pool
party in terms aggressive Lucy and her friends barricade themselves
in the pool, divising ways to survive the vicious Chip.

Speaker 4 (10:58):
Unquote I mean it's good Joe, It's good Joe.

Speaker 3 (11:02):
It's also link the Richard Franklin movie from eighty six,
so it's going to come out next year. It's almost
like a fortieth anniversary. But uh yeah, how do you
guys feel about Roberts. I'm actually in the tank for
Roberts the stuff, so I'm actually really mad. I'm going
to miss it.

Speaker 2 (11:18):
I don't do the animal Oh they're not you know,
they're not my favorite.

Speaker 1 (11:22):
I'm going to just be on the Chip side, don't
like kill the images.

Speaker 4 (11:25):
Who knows, maybe it's maybe it's a pro Chip movie.

Speaker 5 (11:28):
Oh yeah, I love animals running unk movies. I contributed
to this book called When Animals Attack that was put
together by Finess and Morgan. It's all about animals running
UK movies. I love these. I also do really love
Johannas Roberts. I am a staunch defender of his work.
He gets, I think, unfairly like shit on when he

(11:48):
is a guy who's making movies, who loves what he makes,
and it is palpable that he loves them. So I
know that this is going to be a fun time.
I feel like it's probably gonna be something in line
with like an alligator or like one of these like
kind of like Jaws Ribot movies, but are actually really awesome.
That's what I see from him.

Speaker 1 (12:07):
Yeah, that Mandy Moore is in forty seven Is that one?
The Mandy Moore forty seven meters down? Is that her?
But they get stuck in the cage down?

Speaker 4 (12:15):
Why does that sound right? But now I'm not I'm
blinking him.

Speaker 5 (12:17):
I think she's in that one.

Speaker 4 (12:19):
Yeah, I think it's so right.

Speaker 2 (12:21):
Yeah, that's one where they're swimming up with the flares
and it's just and I'm.

Speaker 1 (12:24):
Like, this is my worst nightmare.

Speaker 4 (12:29):
Oh, come on, it seems fine.

Speaker 1 (12:30):
Yeah, they make it up, just fight.

Speaker 2 (12:32):
I think, yeah, maybe the one gets it.

Speaker 3 (12:37):
I'm not done with the franchises. The franchise news keeps
her rolling because as we just talked about IP as
king Ip, Hell, there's gonna be but you know what,
this is a special IP that's honestly never died for
various reasons. But there's gonna be more Amityville horror. But
this time it's going to be coming to us from
the Conjuring Last Rights writers Ian Goldberg and Richard Nan
and David F. Samberg, the director of Lights Out, some

(13:00):
of the couple Shizam movies as well as Until Dawn
this past year, has signed on to direct it for
Amazon MGM Studios. Obviously, like there's been I want to
say countless, There actually is a count. I think it's
in the It's not triple digits, but it's.

Speaker 5 (13:15):
Close to it, right, pretty close.

Speaker 3 (13:16):
Yeah, in terms of how many Anmityville movies there are,
and of course in terms of official Amityville movies, whether
you want to count these are official or not, I
think it's a lower number, but still it's a lot.

Speaker 4 (13:28):
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (13:30):
I think the literal The only thing that that gets
me excited is that I really have been excited about
you know, Sandburg's last couple of movies. I really liked
Until Dawn, as you guys know. Other than that, I
don't know what else they could do with this.

Speaker 2 (13:41):
It's still so topical because like, even for me, if
a five bedroom, four bathroom, gorgeous house on the lake
was eighty nine thousand dollars, me and the ghosts are
just kind of have to figure it the fuck out
because times are tough all over.

Speaker 1 (13:55):
And over again.

Speaker 2 (13:56):
The haunting will happen because you're going to get people
like us, like what happened in here?

Speaker 4 (14:00):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (14:00):
What?

Speaker 1 (14:00):
What was it? A murder? But it's only eighty nine thousand.
It's fine, Fine, We're moving in Oh.

Speaker 5 (14:06):
Yeah, like Zellar's a cyst. That is an angle that
I would actually love to see explored of. Like the
housing market is so bad that people are just willingly
moving into haunted houses because it's that or we continue
renting until our eyes fall out, So I'm okay with it.
I do like David of Samberg quite a bit. I
loved his shorts before Lights Out. I think that he

(14:29):
is such a unique filmmaker and I've been really really
wanting him to get a win and maybe the soul
be it.

Speaker 1 (14:37):
I really liked Lights Out.

Speaker 2 (14:38):
I liked the short when I first saw it, and
I thought that the movie had really good creepy imagery.
Oh yeah, Like I remember after that movie being like
running to the other side of the room to turn
the lights on, like, huh, maybe she's there.

Speaker 5 (14:49):
She was creepy.

Speaker 3 (14:51):
Yeah, so figures crossed, you know, the sky's the limit
kind of if they've already had Amityville Toilet, Amityville Ghost
Shark or whatever.

Speaker 5 (14:59):
So yeah, Amityville VIBRAI real movie, Yeah, real movie that exists.

Speaker 4 (15:03):
That's the real thing.

Speaker 3 (15:06):
And I did want to just shout out because it
did feel like it got lost in the shuffle of
the news of this past week. But we had another
actor passed away who I really wanted to shout out.
Polly Holiday passed away this past week in Manhattan.

Speaker 4 (15:20):
She was eighty eight.

Speaker 3 (15:22):
She was best known probably for playing Flow and Alice,
also spinoff Flow. But of course I wanted to bring
her up.

Speaker 4 (15:28):
And you guys will appreciate this because she is Missus
Deagle and Gremlins, and I just.

Speaker 1 (15:33):
Thought she was that movie she.

Speaker 4 (15:38):
Hung in there, you know. She was also a stage actress.
She got nominated for a Tony for Big Mama on
the nineteen ninety Broadway revival. Kind of hanted roof.

Speaker 3 (15:47):
She was in Missus Doutfire and The Parent Trap and
all the presidents meant so she's been in a ton
of stuff. But yeah, I'll always think of her because
I always watch Grimins every year and I love her
Missus Deagle as as mean as she is.

Speaker 2 (16:00):
Just want to as I'm getting older, I'm starting to
be like, she's got some fucking points.

Speaker 4 (16:05):
Hey, that was an important Bavarian snowman.

Speaker 2 (16:07):
All right, I'm not getting into it again.

Speaker 1 (16:09):
I got that.

Speaker 3 (16:14):
And then finally my final bit here is something I
brought up or looked into for USh because I know
you appreciate it. The real life conjuring house is being
auctioned off this year on Halloween Day.

Speaker 1 (16:26):
How much is it? I'm kind of needy.

Speaker 4 (16:29):
I'm looking to see.

Speaker 3 (16:30):
I don't it's an auction, so I don't know what
they're starting the bids at, says realtor. Dot Com reports
that the eight point five acre property with the three
bedroom farmhouse in Harrisville will go up on the block
in a Mortgagees's Forecloser auction eleven am October thirty first.

Speaker 1 (16:45):
Of course, of course, on Halloween.

Speaker 4 (16:48):
It was built in seventeen thirty six.

Speaker 3 (16:50):
It was purchased back in twenty nineteen for the purpose
of turning it into a tourist attraction, but it's now
back on the market through Matt Rife is just.

Speaker 5 (16:56):
Going to be I was just gonna say, I was like,
Matt Rife's going to buy this too.

Speaker 1 (17:00):
Him and Zach Began's are gonna like lose all their
money over.

Speaker 2 (17:06):
Well, nobody's been able to stay in that house because
it has been on the market a couple of times.

Speaker 1 (17:10):
What's what's going on?

Speaker 4 (17:11):
What's going on?

Speaker 3 (17:12):
Yeah, it's like there's a there's a property in the
town where my family extended family lives, my mother and
cousins and such, in Middletown, Connecticut, which it has.

Speaker 4 (17:23):
A weird history.

Speaker 3 (17:24):
It like maybe used to be owned by an ex
Nazi or something, or like a weird you know, sort
of disgraced doctor. It's like right across the street from
where the mental hospital still is.

Speaker 4 (17:37):
Uh and uh.

Speaker 3 (17:38):
It's just a property that like no one is owned
for decades now. It's just sort of sat there but
not necessarily falling apart, but obviously not you know, kept
up and you.

Speaker 4 (17:47):
Know, sometimes the lights are on and nobody knows why.
Sort of thing we.

Speaker 1 (17:51):
Doctor giggles in there.

Speaker 4 (17:53):
Yeah, man, I'd love to say hi.

Speaker 2 (18:00):
I mean, while we're talking about real estate, if I
won that billion dollars last week, you would have known
because I would have immediately purchased David Lynch's house to
make sure some asshole doesn't.

Speaker 1 (18:08):
Go in there and ruin the artwork that is that house.

Speaker 2 (18:12):
Whoever buys that house, do not mess with it, Do
not ruin it.

Speaker 3 (18:17):
Please, Like we're all pleading at that. If you don't
know what we're talking about. David Lynch's home here in
La has been put up for sale now.

Speaker 1 (18:24):
And fifteen mil. What's the Lost Higway House.

Speaker 5 (18:27):
If you have seen The Lost Highway, there are three
like houses that I was like about. It's David Lynch's,
Paul Ruben's house, which I do know that a comedian
and podcaster Jamie Loftus absolutely lied and was like, I
absolutely have enough money to possibly buy this house just
so she could tour it. But his house is also
like a collector art you know, just masterpiece. And then

(18:49):
Jim Steinman's house when it was up for sale, It's
like so much of the artwork in that house was
done by the artist who did the Battle of Hell
album art cover, so like just these super big, like
massive art pieces and all this weird furniture, and I'm
just like, please just turn it into a museum, for
the love of God.

Speaker 4 (19:07):
Yeah please.

Speaker 3 (19:10):
I feel like, yeah, it would be so viable almost
in my mind that if somebody turned that David Dage
house into a museum, people.

Speaker 5 (19:16):
Would absolutely, oh, there's no question.

Speaker 4 (19:18):
Yeah, it wouldn't be a loss, it would be people
would go.

Speaker 5 (19:21):
It would become a pilgrimage location.

Speaker 1 (19:23):
Yeah. I was surprised that they put it on the
market so fast.

Speaker 4 (19:26):
I was like, really, yeah, yeah, Okay, well here's hoping anyway,
that's all the news from the economic on this week.

Speaker 2 (19:34):
All right, we'll be back with our feature film after
these miss ups from the grave that we have no
control over, and we're back.

Speaker 1 (19:47):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (19:48):
So we are all here today to talk about nineteen
eighty five's Fright Night, And I kind of want to
start with, like, what was everybody's first viewing and first
remembrance of this? Because this movie opened my eyes to
a lot of different things.

Speaker 3 (20:05):
I you know, I've talked about this with you a
lot of ash, which is there's so many movies in
my life that I feel that they fall into one
of two categories, which it's either like I have a
crystal clear memory of seeing them for the first time,
or they've always been in my life so long that
I don't remember. And I feel like this one kind
of falls into that category. I must have seen it
when I was pretty young, because I just knew about

(20:26):
it growing up, and there's no point in my life
where I can remember not.

Speaker 4 (20:30):
Knowing about it, if that makes sense.

Speaker 3 (20:32):
But then again, it may have just been a pop
cultury sort of like the visage of you know the
poster Amy's you know, Vampire or shark Mouth, you know,
being in my head since I was a kid, because
of video stores and you know, whatever artwork around. I
do think that it didn't crystallize for me as like, oh,
this is one of my all time favorite movies, probably
until college, you know, when I must have revisited it

(20:53):
from watching it on television or something as a kid,
and you know, had the impetus to do so because
I remember liking it or remember being drawn to it
or whatever. And then it was around that time where
I was like, oh, this is absolutely brilliant and I
can't get enough of it and it gives me all.

Speaker 4 (21:08):
These warm feelings that I love about the genre.

Speaker 1 (21:10):
Are these feelings?

Speaker 3 (21:11):
Yeah, well yes, but yeah no, it's it's I think
it's one of those. It's it's like definitely something that's
just sort of in my blood.

Speaker 5 (21:18):
Day Oh boy. How the real question is how open
and vulnerable am I in discussing fright night.

Speaker 4 (21:27):
Uh you're amongst friends.

Speaker 1 (21:28):
Oh I'm gonna be.

Speaker 2 (21:29):
I already warned my husband. I was like, you're gonna
hear some shit.

Speaker 5 (21:33):
So I was very lucky. I know, I've discussed this
on the show before I was not denied any access
to film as a child, so I watched a lot
of horror movies, movies that were probably a bit more
mature than what I was ready for at very young ages.
And so a lot of my formative views on the
world and myself are completely formed by horror movies that

(21:55):
I watched a little too young. And I watched Fright
Night for the first time, and I was ten or
eleven with my babysitter, who, again, my babysitter at the
time is like a twelve or thirteen year old girl,
because that's yeah, nineties, that's how that worked in the nineties.
It's like, oh, we just have one slightly taller child
watching the younger child. True, but we watched Fright Night

(22:18):
together and something completely came over me when I saw
Christopher Sarandon as Jerry Dandridge. That has completely changed me
on a molecular level. He is specifically the reason why
it took me as long as it did to recognize
that I am a lesbian and not a bisexual person,

(22:39):
because I was like, it doesn't make sense, though, how
can I be gay if I would like give a
limb to hang out with Jerry Dandridge. I don't understand.
It took me a very, very long time to figure
out things, and it is solely because of him. I
love this movie so much, and I've watched this movie
more than any movie else that I've ever seen. I

(23:03):
truly do not know how many times I've seen this movie.
And of course I used this podcast as an excuse
to watch it again because I'm not gonna not. But
this movie, also, as I've gotten older, has become a
movie that speaks to me and my experiences so much
more deeply than I could have ever anticipated it would

(23:26):
when I was ten years old. But this movie is
part of me. It lives in my bones. It is
part of my DNA.

Speaker 2 (23:34):
Oh I love that I remember renting it because of
the cover. Oh yeah about ten or like my mom
was like, you know, get whatever you want.

Speaker 1 (23:43):
And then I.

Speaker 2 (23:43):
Used to have the double like the ring, the double
v VHS's, and I could like record and save the movies,
and I saved this.

Speaker 1 (23:52):
One and I watched it like every frecking day.

Speaker 2 (23:56):
I was like eleven, like I am missus Jerry uh,
missus Jerry Dandridge.

Speaker 1 (24:02):
I was so into.

Speaker 2 (24:03):
I was because I mean, he's just off being humperdink
for kids my age and be like, oh, that guy.

Speaker 1 (24:07):
I was so into him.

Speaker 2 (24:09):
And it was also a point where watching the movie,
it was the first time I went, oh, but maybe
he wouldn't be into me, you know, because I was like, oh,
and that like we really started to open up a
whole different like genre of being like, oh, okay, so
I'm kind of into the fact that maybe he's gay
with this guy. I kind of like that too, And

(24:30):
it just really started this whole like because he's just
so delicious in this and he's into Amy, but then
he's like not really into Amy, and I'm like, this
is very interesting for my.

Speaker 1 (24:39):
Little ten eleven, twelve year old brain.

Speaker 2 (24:41):
I really started to feel like it opened my mind
to the differences of sexual, you know, relationships and differences
between you know, younger people, because I was like, Charlie
fucking who who cares about Charlie? And it's just so
interesting the different the different like stages that Amy goes through,

(25:01):
because I feel like, while I'm watching this, I'm also
going through those stages with Amy, like that by the end,
I am this like sexual, big mouth monster ready to
take on the World, and I just it was It's
a lot, and I've just never stopped watching it.

Speaker 3 (25:13):
Can I say, I love that you guys are talking
about this, and meanwhile I'm thinking about my experience with this,
and I'm like, you know, I guess I always has.

Speaker 4 (25:19):
I've always had a real big relation to Charlie.

Speaker 3 (25:22):
Because uh uh a guy who just can't get laid
because he keeps getting distracted by loving movies.

Speaker 4 (25:28):
I mean, I don't know.

Speaker 5 (25:30):
I was gonna say. It was like, have you had
had a young woman topless in your bed, going Bill,
I'm ready and you're too busy snooping on your home.

Speaker 3 (25:38):
Any that time when she put on Frost Nixon And
I was like, no, wait, yeah, I would see that.

Speaker 2 (25:46):
Yet the obsession with Jerry, like it bores on veristic,
like he's spying on him constantly, He's glued to the
window and she's in bed like let's go, and the
whole scene she literally strips down for him and he's
not paying attention. And I mean I was like, we're
trying to say something here. Whether or not Tom Holland
knew what this was going to become, it evolved to
so much more for so many people than just what

(26:08):
this story started as, and you know, the interpretation of
teenage anxiety or something deeper your own desires, Like Jerry
becomes this symbol of forbidden sexuality and Charlie just can't
look away, and neither can I. And it's a little scary,
but I'm also like really into it.

Speaker 5 (26:25):
Oh yeah, I mean there's I'm a firm believer that
there's no such thing as a heterosexual vampire. They are
all queer in some way. This movie far more obvious.
I'm sure we'll talk about it, but it gets compared
with like The Lost Boys a lot because they came
around on the same time. Both movies extremely homotic. But
where this movie is very different is that there is
also a lot of out queer actors in this movie.

(26:49):
Stephen Jeffries famously did a lot of gay porn when
he stopped doing horror movies, Roddy McDowell very famously gay,
Amanda Beer's legendary lesbian and legendary, these like very gay
actors that are sort of infusing their characters whether they
want to or not. Because obviously Jerry's relationship with Billy

(27:09):
Cole is super gay, but even outside of that, you
have these characters that are supposed to theoretically be playing
straight and they're all real gay about it because they're
just gay.

Speaker 2 (27:21):
It makes their roles, like retroactively complex when you watch it,
you know, all these years later, with what their careers
have gone on to do or their personal lives.

Speaker 3 (27:30):
Yeah, but I think I think this is a blessed
production in that way in terms of it attracted all
of the right people at the right time and you know,
really came together in that sort of movie magic fashion
of as we said in retrospect, it even makes more sense,
and you know, it has more resonance, and it has
all this layers to it that you know, it starts
with layers and then it has more and more and
more layers as the years could continue. So it really

(27:51):
does feel like one of these movies that just you know,
was always going to happen in some fashion, and it
just all the pieces came together, all the stars aligned
his time. Do we want to get the plot out
of the way before we continue.

Speaker 2 (28:03):
Yeah, Okay, So Charlie Brewster is your typical suburban teen
and a horror movie fanatic, which is why we all
kind of see ourselves.

Speaker 5 (28:09):
In Charlie a little totally.

Speaker 2 (28:11):
One night, he notices something off about the new neighbor
who just moved in Jerry Dandridge. She's charming, smooth, he
wears great clothes, and he's probably a vampire. Of course,
no one believes him, not his girlfriend Amy, not his
best friend Evil Ed, not the police. So in desperation,
Charlie turns to washed up horror host Peter Vincent, who
might be Charlie's only hope in surviving the night. So
that's the basic pot But like, underneath all the vampire

(28:33):
camp and creature feature in Nostalgia is a story soaked
in sexual tension, queer coding, and confrontation with the other,
which is my favorite part of it, Like, ooh, Chris,
Savanna is just like this other who's just so seductive
even the like I think this is one of my
favorite movie moms of all time.

Speaker 1 (28:50):
That then she was like, honey, what's gone? You sleep?
But do you want to value? She's very cool.

Speaker 4 (28:55):
Literally.

Speaker 3 (28:56):
My only complaint about this, and my one criticism about
this movie is the mother drops out.

Speaker 4 (29:01):
I really want to see her more.

Speaker 5 (29:03):
She's working night shifts.

Speaker 1 (29:05):
Lady, You're goddamn right, I'm inviting him in for tea.

Speaker 5 (29:09):
Charlie Dorothy Fielding she has she reminds me so much
of the mom in Just Friends, like Ryan Reynolds mom
in that movie. Oh my God is that actress's name?
Because I love her so dearly, but there is sort
of this like kind of flighty energy to her. But
she means well, but she absolutely is not fully were

(29:34):
Julie Haggerty, that's the actress. Yes, we're like, the eyes
are really big, there's gasping when you don't need it
to be there, and you kind of understand exactly why
Charlie is the way that he is, because he's constantly mom,
I didn't have a nightmare.

Speaker 1 (29:54):
Value you want me to make you some hot cocoa.

Speaker 3 (29:58):
Because it's not ditsy and it's not a bimbo obviously,
and it's it's not farce per se, but it really
is that line that she walks so brilliantly that she's
on her own track. You know, she's got her own
business to deal with and oh that's nice, dear, you
know sort of stuff.

Speaker 4 (30:13):
Man. I love it well.

Speaker 2 (30:14):
I like so much of it is based in so
much realism, Like Tom Holland got the idea of just
from imagining a teen suspecting that his neighbor's a vampire,
and it's like, you know what, that's a pretty.

Speaker 1 (30:25):
Fun, interesting plot.

Speaker 2 (30:26):
But then to bring in like the Peter Vincent character,
which he had originally written for Vincent Price, right, how
come he couldn't do it?

Speaker 1 (30:33):
I didn't remember.

Speaker 3 (30:34):
I think that, you know, Vincent was obviously an ailing
years around this time. He probably could have done it.
But I think that maybe there was probably some sort
of issue with scheduling or this is some speculation on
my part scheduling or you know, maybe didn't get the
script in time sort of thing, or maybe his team,
you know, thinking about his health.

Speaker 5 (30:54):
I have an answer for this.

Speaker 4 (30:55):
Yeah, Okay.

Speaker 5 (30:56):
So the answer being is that at this point in
his career, Vincent Price was really sick of people type
casting him as like, oh, we need a cool poor guy,
let's have Vincent Price. So his team straight up just
stopped accepting any pitches like this. And he never said
outright like I wish they would have sent me this,
like because I would have done this. But it's that

(31:17):
seems to be the understanding from interviews that I've read
over the years that like after the fact, he was
a little bummed out that his team cut it off
before he even had the chance to say no to it.

Speaker 3 (31:27):
Yea, Holland met after the fact too, and they spoke together.
So yeah, that's too bad, but but it is great
to get you know, Roddy doing this as well.

Speaker 1 (31:36):
Well, they're lucky that they got.

Speaker 2 (31:37):
Like Chris Sarandon was an Oscar nominated actor at that point,
I'm pretty sure, and he was super skeptical, but he
was impressed with the script and Holland's his vision. He
really liked meshed with it, and he let him add
like depth, like the lost Love angle, Like letting actors,
oh my god, letting the actors just kind of have
input makes it all feel so much more personal.

Speaker 1 (31:58):
And that's how that's how you get those Oscar people, Holland.

Speaker 3 (32:01):
It's like Richard Donner started as an actor. He went
to a lot of acting classes. He had a small
acting career in the seventies, sixties, seventies, and I think
that really is where a lot of the strengths in
his filmmaking. But certainly his writing comes from, is that
he has a real keen, sharp observational mind, and I
don't know if you guys agree with this, but for
my money, I think other than Brian de Palma, I

(32:24):
would call Tom you know, the air to Hitchcock, you know,
because he really managed to capture not just you know,
the everybody's influenced in the film industry by helping Hitchcock,
especially if he make genre films, so you know, stuff
like his techniques and you know, Dolly Zoom's and all
that sort of thing was going to be seen and
countless filmmakers, you know, in the last fifty years. But
I really do think between De Palma and Hint and Holland,

(32:46):
you know, Holland really managed to capture that sort of
spirit of the great Hitchcock films, you know, which is
why he was able to make Psycho two as good
as it is. And you know, you can really see
what Holland learned from his writing career prior to this
with making stuff like you know, Psycho two and Cloak
and Dagger and even Scream for Help, which apparently he
didn't have a good experience with. And yeah, the rear

(33:09):
window of thiss of this movie is is just something
that you know, is such a great engine that everybody
can lock into if they've never seen it before, and
they go, oh, that's a great idea. And you know,
I think for me the cherry on top, which apparently
was the cherry on top for Holland as well, because,
as he liked to say, you know, a horror fan
finds out a vampire listening next door to him is

(33:29):
an idea. It's not a story yet, and he felt
that the story became alive when the horror fan goes
to meet the horror host and entreats him for his
help to fight the vampire. And yeah, really bringing that
element in of the TV horror host who's kind of
washed up himself and you know, down on his luck
in his own way, it really does make this movie,
you know, have that special sort of thematic resonance for me.

Speaker 1 (33:51):
I just see you can go, Joe, Bob Rice, it's
a vampire next door. I really need your help.

Speaker 5 (33:58):
Would help me, you'd be giving you a that's nice, dear.

Speaker 1 (34:08):
Yeah, what this movie does so perfectly.

Speaker 2 (34:10):
It kind of reminds me of what we talked about
when we did American Werewolf in London is when you
have the horror comedy, the ones that really work for
me are the ones that are horror throughout and then
have the comedy like meshing, because like we talked about
Idle Hands, and there's horror comedies that you know like, oh,
everybody's gonna be okay or this is whatever.

Speaker 1 (34:28):
I'm not really too worried about it. This movie is
horror horror.

Speaker 2 (34:31):
With a lot of funny stuff put in that by
the time you get to the third act, you're not
sure if everybody's going to be okay.

Speaker 1 (34:37):
You have no idea who's.

Speaker 2 (34:38):
Going to make it out or not, and you're like
genuinely worried for the characters.

Speaker 4 (34:41):
Yeah, and it's situational comedy.

Speaker 3 (34:43):
It's not going for gags, it's not going for parody,
it's not going for you know, bits. And I think
that's so important too, because this could have you know,
been fun but like lighthearted and you know sort of
like effervescent, you know, in a way that would make
it gettable almost And I really maintained that this is
one of the best. This is for me, is like

(35:05):
the quintessential vampire movie. If an alien came down to
Earth and said, what are these vampire things? This is
probably what I show them first.

Speaker 5 (35:11):
Oh yeah, I also love to on the comedy that
the only person who is kind of intentionally going for
bits is evil Ed and everybody in universe is like
real sick officiit yeah, because it's like now is not
the time for jokes, man, Like, we have serious business
to get to and poor Amy is just like my
boyfriend's losing his mind. But they are both trying to

(35:32):
be really lovely affirming friends of like, we don't want
to tell him that he's crazy, so we're going to
try to go on with this and kind of help
him through this, because clearly there's something going on here.
And it is because they are such like good friends
and companions to Charlie that they are eventually able to
see the truth of the situation, which I love. I
love that so so so so much. But when I

(35:53):
think about like the Air of Dracula, of like what
kind of vamp hire do I actually think has that charisma,
that inherent seduction, that perfect balance of intrigue and terror,
It is Jerry Dandridge and it is Chris Randon, like

(36:16):
no shade to the remake, but like get off that throne,
like you cannot do what he did because he is
There is something so captivating about this performance where it's like, yeah,
vampires are so scary and they are so cool.

Speaker 4 (36:31):
They're so cool.

Speaker 2 (36:32):
His little sweater that he's wearing in the nightclub that's
just like cut at just a little too open, so
it's all you can see his collarbones and it's playing
that give in to Temptations song.

Speaker 1 (36:43):
I was like, he comes in there like an absolute force.

Speaker 2 (36:45):
And again Charlie, whom h Charlie who.

Speaker 5 (36:49):
What's also interesting is so William Ragsdale, who plays Charlie,
I think is perfect casting because he is such like
a boy next door. All of the people in this
movie feel like real people that you would have gone
to school with. But I know that William Ragsdell beat
Charlie Sheen, like nineteen eighty five Charlie Sheen for that
role wild and I cannot imagine the film would not

(37:12):
work if Charlie Sheen were Charlie, Like it just wouldn't
you need somebody who's kind of pathetic, which he does
a great job at in this movie, because I don't
believe Charlie Sheen, even as a teenager, as pathetic, Like
that's a cool guy, no way.

Speaker 1 (37:28):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (37:28):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (37:29):
According to Holland's some of Holland's interviews on the discs
and another various sources, Charlie Sheen actually challenged Holland because
Holland told him right in the room apparently like sorry,
you're not going to get this, like you're great, but
you're not.

Speaker 4 (37:41):
Right for this.

Speaker 3 (37:42):
And Charlie she was like, well, why man, why you
know sort of thing like I guess Colin being a
first time director, couldn't articulate it completely, you know, to him,
but he knew, like he was just like what you
just said to MEJ was like, if you cast Charlie
Sheen in that part in this movie, it falls apart.

Speaker 2 (38:01):
Well, Charlie has that innocence, and I like, you believe
in his fear, he believe that he's losing it. And
you also would be super annoyed with him if he
was your friend, because he's just kind of screaming at
you all the time and you're like, I just need
you to calm it down.

Speaker 1 (38:14):
But it feels very real.

Speaker 2 (38:16):
Whereas Charlie Sheen, I just felt like, would have been like, oh,
look it's Charlie Sheen.

Speaker 3 (38:19):
Yeah, And I love that that what Ragsdale as Charlie
is able to be vulnerable. It's able to be anxious
and really paranoid and really you know, losing it without
ever feeling too pathetic to me, you know, because a
lesser actor in this part it would be that, you know,
Charlie who in a bad way of like, oh, get

(38:40):
this guy off screen because like, you know, who cares
what happens to him, you know, sort of thing. I
think he's able to keep, at least for me, he's
able to keep, you know, my sympathy enough that you know,
I still feel for him, even though, yeah, Jerry's awesome
and that vampire evil that's awesome. And I also wanted
to mention because we were talking about Stephen Jefferies a
little bit too. And I've always really found it remarkable

(39:01):
his character in this movie and his performance in this
movie for several reasons, but chief among them is that
he's playing an archetype, which I can't think of too
many earlier examples. I know that he gets compared to
Seal Minio and Rebel without a Cause, which I think
is maybe the closest, you know, because in terms of
eighties movies and in terms of the nerd, you know,
best friend or the social reject or whatever. Literally, it

(39:23):
feels like Steve Jeffries had played a version of that
character just before with Amanda Burse in Fraternity Vacation.

Speaker 1 (39:29):
You know, well it also dial nine seven six Evil.
It's kind of the same thing.

Speaker 3 (39:33):
Yeah, and it feels like that sort of you know,
pocket protector nerd kind of you know, stereotype, whereas Evil
Led never feels like that type of nerd or that
type of geek. But he still registers completely as, Oh,
this is the kid who wouldn't have too many friends
in high school for reasons which are a little more
difficult to articulate than oh he's socially awkward or oh,

(39:53):
you know, he's into too many weird things or something.
But yeah, he absolutely feels maybe the most real character
in this whole Oh.

Speaker 5 (40:00):
Yeah, and his performance, I think is so beautiful because
when we are introduced to him, he is so obnoxious,
like to a fault, and like, you understand why he
and Charlie are friends because they very much are kind
of these outsiders. They really only have each other. And
he's constantly putting on a performance. He's constantly trying to
do the bits, and then when it gets to his

(40:24):
you know, ultimately his seduction from Jerry Dandridge. It is
such like a queer elder to like like younger queer
person and he's like, yes, let me take care of you.
The look in his eye is so heartbreaking because you
realize that, like this kid really does feel very alone,
very misunderstood, very powerless, and is he's really scared, like

(40:46):
and he's always been scared, and he's actually showing us
how scared he is. And by taking down all of
like those walls he's built up with comedy and you know, aggression,
you just see how how little he is like and
you are reminded that these are teenagers, their children, like
these are kids, and oh god, like I truly can't

(41:09):
imagine anyone else in that role. He's so perfect.

Speaker 2 (41:12):
He like he resonated with me a lot because I
feel like in high school I kind of felt like
I was that kid, always screaming about horror, always being loud.
And I think he's the tragic character of this film
because he's he's out castid, he's mocked by others, even
by Charlie. And when Jerry seduces him, like you said,
it's not with violence, it's with empathy, you know, Jerry
sees his pain, his isolation and offers him freedom, you know,

(41:34):
you don't have to be afraid anymore. And there's something
just so sad about his transformation because sure, yeah, he
becomes powerful, but.

Speaker 1 (41:40):
He loses his complete humanity.

Speaker 2 (41:43):
And in some ways it kind of mirrors the tragic
queer character trope that we see a lot, like oh,
the monster, uh oh, he must die for embracing their
true selves, and that he's, you know, the one of
the characters that dies in this, and it you know,
it's it's so tragic to me, and you just feel
so bad for him because I feel like by the
end you kind of are like, oh, what happened to Ed?

Speaker 1 (42:03):
Oh shit, he died?

Speaker 4 (42:05):
Yeah? Yeah? Or did he do well? But yeah?

Speaker 3 (42:13):
Even just the his line readings in this, like you know,
taking dialogue that again in less Rector's hands, something like
your dinner's in the oven. You know, it could be
just as nothing line like nobody gives a crap, you
know whatever, And instead you hear it his voice for
evil Ed, which is not in your voice. It's obviously
a character voice that he's doing. It's just you can't
unhear it. It's it's like, you know, indelible, and the

(42:34):
way that Sarandon you know, plays that moment in the
alleyway with him and just like laser beaming in on
like this.

Speaker 4 (42:39):
Is why, this is why I can get you.

Speaker 2 (42:42):
You know, I would have just been like, you don't
have to do the spiel, bite me, yeah, bite. But
it's also like the he doesn't does he turn into
the well we call that a werewolf. He he he
like evolves to a different type of I mean, I
guess so it is amy, but I mean, the vampires
in this are very scary. But like he goes to
Peter Vincent's house, he is, you know, admires this guy.

(43:04):
But now he's also like you, now I'm the one
who you're going to be afraid of, and I'm aware wolf.

Speaker 5 (43:09):
You know.

Speaker 3 (43:09):
Well, there's also that element too, which I love in
this movie of there We've seen it, you know, dozens
of times subsequently, We've seen it a few times before
this movie. But the idea of oh this, you know, creature,
this mythological thing that we all sort of colloquially realize
in real in the real world, is fiction. You know,
it turns out to be real and it's a it's

(43:31):
a common you know, trope in a lot of these
stories of like oh it turns out that this rule
is right, but this rule is wrong, or you know,
this sort of part of the mythology is accurate, but
this part is embellish. And that's just for the movies,
you know, all that sort of stuff, which is fun,
and it's always part of you know, each you know,
movies world building for.

Speaker 4 (43:48):
Its for itself.

Speaker 3 (43:50):
But I love that Holland really goes for a traditionalist
sort of Hey, every pretty much everything that you've seen
in the movies is true. Now we're not going to
necessarily negate any of it and or say, you know,
oh that's just Hollywood fiction or something. And I love
that you know, Ed in that scene is very much
like he feels empowered by that, and it's also darkly

(44:13):
you know, reminiscing on like the fact that he's turned
into this thing that you know, he's been a fan
of his whole life and that idea like I told
you so, almost like that sort of cosmic like you know,
we were all wrong and now you're going to get it.
This sort of thing which is has the extra layer
of like existentialist dread to me, you know, that idea

(44:33):
of if you ever sit and think about, oh, what
if any of this stuff was actually one hundred percent
no bullshit real, you know, because even when we talk
about stuff like The Conjuring or any of these based
on a true story movies, there's always that caveat of like, well,
it maybe happened this way and obviously didn't happen this way,
and it was obviously embellished this way, and all that
sort of thing. But I like that Fright Night really
does away with that pretense and says, you know what,

(44:54):
this is all real sort of thing.

Speaker 5 (44:56):
And it does play with a lot of different vampire mythos,
and I think seamlessly blends them all together because when
we see Jerry transform, he is a fruit bat and
bats and vampires I think are what people more commonly associate,
but the wolf is one that has existed even since Dracula.
Like when he says like, you know, listen to them

(45:16):
creatures of the night, What sweet music they make? Like
he's referring to wolves that are that are making sound.
So we're incorporating that sort of mythos, which I think
is really interesting. And then we also have like a
very classic one with Amy of she resembles the long
lost love that he's been spending eternity trying to find,
and all of it just works really really well together,

(45:37):
even though he's sort of cramming a lot of different
vampire stories together, but it just it just works for me.

Speaker 2 (45:44):
Yeah, it's like the hierarchy, like if you want everybody
to know what the rules of vampires are, it's kind
of like what you were saying, Bill, show them this
movie all the way down to having to be invited in.

Speaker 1 (45:53):
It's it's it's perfect.

Speaker 5 (45:55):
I also I love the using the threat of the
of the Cross and it's like this doesn't work if
you don't believe in it. I think is really fantastic.
And it takes, you know, seeing everything that he sees
to actually believe in the Cross to where it then
does become a little effective after the fact, which I
think is really really smart. I think it's very clever.

Speaker 3 (46:15):
Yeah, and it also all of this allows for the
film to eventually end up in almost like a cosmic
horror punchline with Billy Cole of like.

Speaker 4 (46:25):
What is he? You know, slime as wear.

Speaker 2 (46:30):
The effects in this are top Notch for nineteen eighty five.

Speaker 1 (46:34):
Oh, I love it.

Speaker 3 (46:34):
Well, this was Richard Edlund's company, basically the exact same
group retained from Ghostbusters.

Speaker 1 (46:40):
They they had just gotten done.

Speaker 4 (46:42):
Yeah, so it's.

Speaker 3 (46:42):
Retained because I guess Columbia Pictures wanted to literally I
think I don't know if they were called EEG or
Boss Films at this time, but they wanted to retain
them as a group because Ghostbusters had done so well
for them, and they didn't know when they were going
to want to use them next as a as an
effects team. So they were like, quick, we got to
give them something else, and so fright Night became that. Yeah,

(47:03):
I guess this is a good time for me to
just bring up that. You know, Fridnight has always been
equated with ghost Buzzers in my mind growing up. I
think just because the Columbia Pictures connection and obviously the
effects you know, have a real connotation to them. I
think that bat Jerry, the way that Batchery sculpted looks
almost like a terror dog to me.

Speaker 5 (47:20):
Totally.

Speaker 3 (47:22):
Yeah, that's radall William Cook, you know, doing his his
his magic. And by the way, I love all of
the behind the scenes stories that all the makeup effects
team talks about on this movie in particular because so
many of them like hurt themselves with ab smoke and acid.

Speaker 2 (47:37):
His mouth glued shut after eighteen hours of makeup?

Speaker 5 (47:42):
Could you imagine wearing glass in their eyes.

Speaker 1 (47:47):
For twenty minutes?

Speaker 2 (47:47):
But I'm like, thank you for your service because they
look fast so good.

Speaker 3 (47:51):
Yeah, it looks so fucking good. Yeah, no, it's just great.
And uh, I think that for Columbia's part, I don't.
I don't actually believe that they actually believe this is
going to be another Ghostbusters. But I do think that
there was some overlap there in terms of, like, well,
it's the next sort of comedy horror thing, and it's
going to be a summer release, and we're going to
put a pop song, you know, track on there with

(48:12):
the name and that sort of thing, and fright night
the song. Sorry, Jay Giles, you're not as catchy as
Ray Parker Junior.

Speaker 4 (48:17):
I love you, but aw, it's not as catchy. Come on.

Speaker 3 (48:20):
But yeah, So I think that these movies have always
sort of had that relationship.

Speaker 4 (48:24):
In my mind.

Speaker 2 (48:26):
I want to talk about amy a little bit, because
this is the female sexuality versus male sexuality and this
is very interesting because I think Amy's arc is a
fascinating one, especially when we look at it through.

Speaker 1 (48:35):
The lens of sexual dynamics.

Speaker 2 (48:37):
That the beginning of the film, Amy is presented as
the typical, you know, girl next door. She's supportive, she's kind,
shy and sexually withheld, and there's this whole running tension
between her and Charlie.

Speaker 1 (48:48):
He wants to have sex, Amy doesn't.

Speaker 2 (48:49):
It's very teen movie until it's not until we get
to Hello Jerry.

Speaker 1 (48:55):
And it's interesting to look at it. It's like Jerry, Jerry.

Speaker 2 (48:59):
Kind of offers being a vampire to Charlie and Charlie
kind of rejects him, so then he goes after Amy.

Speaker 1 (49:05):
So is it like, oh, Jerry didn't realize.

Speaker 2 (49:08):
Oh, I guess he's comparing her to his long lost
love kind of thing and kind of claiming her as
vampires do. And like when he bites Amy, it's not violent.
I honestly, little me was like, oh, gearing up for
this sex scene and then it doesn't happen. I'm like, oh,
he doesn't want to have sex with you. He just
wants to, you know, turn you. The bite is sensual,
it's slow, it's romantic. Her transfer, her transformation kind of

(49:31):
mimics the kind of sexual awakening for people around her age,
and you know, it's entirely instigated by Jerry and not Charlie,
like he's the one who unlocks something in her, but
it's on his terms and not hers, and the bite
becomes like a metaphor for sexual initiation kind of, and
the power dynamics are very one sided until she gets
the power later over Charlie. And I just thought that

(49:52):
was really it's just so cool to see a character
kind of go through all of that that at our
you know, twelve thirteen, our bodies are kind of going
through that change too.

Speaker 5 (50:02):
I also think the styling changes are so important because
when we are introduced to Amy.

Speaker 1 (50:08):
Outfit she wears her little overalls.

Speaker 5 (50:11):
And she has like her little bows that are made
out of yarn in her hair, like there is something
like so regressively youthful about her. And then after she
does have this awakening, it is v neck dresses, vava
voom hair. She is so sure, so sexy in this.
It's fantastic to see and it's also so fantastic knowing

(50:32):
who like Amanda Beers is and It's like this is
you're playing femme dress up. This is not who you are,
and I love that for you. But I do think
that there is something really interesting that gets into kind
of like a dicey territory for a lot of people
because they don't want to go there. But part of
why this this awakening happens for her is Amy's also

(50:53):
realizing I think a lot in this moment that Amy
likes to be. She's a little switchy. She likes to
be dominated, but also likes to do dominating of versus
what's going on with her and Charlie, like there are
no established roles. They're kind of figuring things out. She
doesn't want that. She responds better when she has clear

(51:15):
instruction of like yeah, to do. And I think that's
really under discussed, especially in teen movies, that like, maybe
this isn't working because you don't know how to sexually
communicate with her, and Jerry does because he's had hundreds
of years to figure this out. Well.

Speaker 2 (51:32):
Jerry represents a sexual maturity that Charlie hasn't reached yet.

Speaker 1 (51:36):
He's older, he's more experienced.

Speaker 2 (51:37):
He's more powerful, and that turns her on and scares Charlie,
because like we're saying, Amy starts all so passive, but
by the end of her transformation, she's assertive, confident, and dangerous,
and her final form is so hyper sexualized, with the
kind of agency that she didn't possess before, and all
of that came from Jerry. Like, Charlie, you could have
taken care of this in the first fifteen minutes of
the movie, but you were watching TV.

Speaker 5 (51:58):
Yeah, it very much. It does feel kind of like,
you know, like the seal has been broken, so to speak.
And I have no problem in binding is for myself.
But like the first time I started like really engaging
in sexual behaviors, I had sex very very young. U
was fourteen years old. But after I you know, did
that for the first time, I did have that flip
whereas like, oh, this is what it feels like, and

(52:20):
this is the power that can be found here, got it?
I like that and that's how I function. Like this
movie is so intertwined with my own sexual awakening and
discovering that about myself through Amy and like wanting to
be her, which you know, then of course as an adult,
I'm like, oh, it's because you're a lesbian and you
want to be a mand of beers. Duh, got it,

(52:40):
figure that out. But it's very much a thing like
my My views on my positionality and sexual relationships changed
drastically after I did it for the first time, which
is exactly what happens.

Speaker 2 (52:54):
To Amy and I because I also have a very
very not you know, not similar, you know whatever, but
having sex at a young age.

Speaker 1 (53:02):
And then that's when you watch this movie and you're.

Speaker 2 (53:03):
Like, is the film punishing her for embracing her sexuality
or is it revealing the fact that female sexual empowerment
is only allowed when filtered through male desire and that
is kind of like what was going on in here?
And that's when you're like, well, no, I figured this
out and I can be in control.

Speaker 5 (53:20):
Absolutely.

Speaker 3 (53:21):
I also love that the there's a real resonance too,
what you guys are saying with the way that sexuality
is portrayed in this movie as something that's very fluid,
as something that's very.

Speaker 4 (53:33):
Something that comes upon.

Speaker 3 (53:34):
You, that that that is all of a sudden there
and isn't necessarily an enforced you know, events which can
be you know, like the bite as you were talking
about Ash, you know, has that moment to it, but
I love that. You know, Amy's earlier transformation in the
club with Dancing with Jerry is done in cuts, and
it's done in these very subtle ways of you know,
changing even.

Speaker 2 (53:54):
Her hair gets bigger, bigger from whatever the callers pop.

Speaker 5 (53:59):
That's how you know it.

Speaker 4 (54:01):
The makeup changes, you know.

Speaker 3 (54:02):
And it's a similar way that Holland shoots or rather
edits the vampire transformations as well. It's not necessarily the
eighties style of wait for the fangs to elongate, wait
for the ari brows to turn, like all sort of
close ups and you know, insert shots and sort of thing.

Speaker 4 (54:18):
It's done in the cut.

Speaker 3 (54:20):
And obviously there is a big transformation moment in the
movie that is very eighties, which is Ed's transformation from
a wolf back to a human being. And I think
even that choice is really interesting too, in the sense
that we're not seeing man to beast, we're seeing the reverse,
you know.

Speaker 1 (54:34):
And and this crying I'm ying.

Speaker 3 (54:37):
And it's he's not looking on in horror. Yeah, he's
not like, oh God, this thing's about to change and
then kill me. It's you know, the the threat has
already happened. We're past that. This is more about, you know,
the revelation of this person's soul almost you know, sort
of thing of like, you know, this person's dying in
front of me, and they've been changed into this creature,

(54:58):
you know type thing that almost against their will, but
it's also part of them. And yeah, there's so many
layers to that. And yeah, again, the fact that he
chooses to do all of these creature effects and a
lot of these transformations in this certain way really again
is another element that makes it special.

Speaker 5 (55:13):
And I like that the transformation happens in those cuts
because I do think that it is reflective also of
just the sexual politics of this movie, in that so
much of the sexuality is also something that is meant
to be kept secret. The only one that is not
really secretive is that club scene that is for display.
That is a sign of power he is flaunting at

(55:35):
this point, the power that he has over her. But
everything else that we see is done secretly behind closed blinds.
Even when Jerry has his first big confrontation with Charlie,
he literally throws Charlie back into the closet and tells
him that this is a secret and that he has

(55:55):
a choice, But he doesn't have the choice any longer.
And when they're having this big commotion, Charlie knocks over
his photo of Amy and she gets punctured on a fence.
And that's exactly how physics works, is breaking that frame
that way. But it is so much about secrecy, and
when Amy is her like big sexual like prowess, that's

(56:18):
also done behind closed doors. And so when you see
this transformation happening in cuts, it's this reminder that we're
not always seeing everything. And I think that that's really
really intelligent.

Speaker 3 (56:30):
Yeah, and the fact that we're talking about a movie
that all, except for that club scene that you just mentioned,
takes place in suburbia, behind these closed doors of these
white pick offence style if there's no pig offenses in this,
but you know that idea of this, you know, traditional
white suburbia sort of area. And I don't know if
anyone's ever done this, but it feels like you could
double feature this with blue velvet in that way, you know,

(56:54):
continue of this, you know sexuality that is literally behind
the closed doors of Middle America.

Speaker 4 (57:00):
Sort of thing.

Speaker 2 (57:01):
Well, that's a sometimes when I go with Peter Vincent,
I'm like your camp, you're crucial and are you closeted?
Because he kind of goes through this whole. You know,
he's flamboyant, he's theatrical, he's dramatic. You know, he's leans
into the campy role and has a lot of energy
and his performance. But what's fascinating about his arc is, first,
you know, he's a fraud, he's just an actor. He's
not a real vampire killer obviously, But by the end

(57:23):
he steps into the role of like protector and mentor,
and like, maybe it's reading too deep into it, but
like maybe like a closeted man finding purpose through connection
and finally confronting the things that he fears the most,
and that's accepting, you know, like who you are, what
you are, what the world really is. And it could
be queer like closeted, or it could be the straight person,
like accepting like, oh, the world is so much bigger

(57:45):
than my little narrow mind.

Speaker 4 (57:46):
Yeah, well it doesn't, I think.

Speaker 3 (57:48):
On the disc there's a great interview between Brian Fuller
and The Man of Pears where Fuller is talking about
that moment of the transformation to people ed while Peter
Vincent watches and it almost acts as a doubling or
a parallel moment with you know, the transformation of eve
led into a vampire with Jerry, where it's like there's
this sort of more predatory, elderly queer man and then

(58:09):
there's the more you know, I could have helped you
by known sort of you know, closet queer man sort
of thing, and yeah.

Speaker 5 (58:17):
Yeah, it's having to come face to face because when
he kills Evil Lad, he's a wolf, so he's killing
a wolf. And then when he transforms back, you now
have the realization of, like, you've killed this young boy,
like you killed a child, and that is a lot
to process. But it is sort of this it's exactly
what we said, like, it is kind of this inverse

(58:38):
of what we saw with Jerry, where we now have
this queer elder looking sadly on this young boy and
knowing that like you actually by by freeing him from this,
you had to hurt him. And how hard that is,
like how hard it is to kill off those parts
of yourself metaphorically speaking.

Speaker 4 (58:58):
Yeah, and then there's the aid of it all, which
was in the air.

Speaker 1 (59:01):
Yes, well that's what I was going to say.

Speaker 2 (59:02):
It's no coincidence that the film came out in the
eighties during the AIDS crisis work game, and we're literally
being painted as predators or diseased. But in this instead
of condemning Jerry, the film kind of leaves space for
seduction and you big h I mean a big I can't.

Speaker 1 (59:16):
Say it ambiguity.

Speaker 2 (59:18):
And that's what makes it so powerful and enduring. It's
like whether they meant to do it or not, like
you did it and it means a lot.

Speaker 5 (59:25):
Yeah, yeah, I mean it really does. And I also
think too that there is there is something beneficial to
being a vampire, Like I don't think that this movie
paints vamporism as being this like ultimate horrible thing. It's like,
you know, because Jerry even says like I don't have
a choice, like I have no control over this, but

(59:47):
I have to do what I have to do to survive.
And we even see that there is something positive to
being a vampire. You can be powerful, you can be immortal,
you can have all of the thing that you're being
denied in your real life, and if you choose to
embrace that, like it's just a different way of living.

(01:00:08):
The only reason that it is seen as monstrous is
because it goes against the status quo. But Jerry's been
doing this for many, many years, and I mean there's
the politics of it that gets a little messy is
that he does it seems like he targets full service
sex workers and like that's super horphobic.

Speaker 1 (01:00:27):
Just easier. I guess if you're the vampire, get town,
you're hungry.

Speaker 5 (01:00:31):
Yeah, it's the eighties. I'm also not going to apply
like a twenty twenty five moral lens against a movie
that's older than I am. But you know, other than that,
like there is an argument to be made that like
he's not doing anything that's like holy terrible, Like how
is this any worse than the way that like a
lot of us live where you know, there are tons

(01:00:52):
of people being exploited to be able to help us
put food on our tables, and like we just don't
think about it that way.

Speaker 2 (01:00:58):
Yeah, the vampire ism in this as kinds of it
reminds me of like the forbidden Like it's about seduction,
crossing boundaries and craving what society says you shouldn't have,
along with being the direct metaphor for queerness, and it's
just everything that you know, they picket fence people are.

Speaker 1 (01:01:13):
Like No, absolutely not, and that's what makes you kind
of want it more.

Speaker 5 (01:01:16):
Oh yeah, especially go ahead, Bill, Sorry.

Speaker 3 (01:01:19):
Oh no, I was just gonna say I one hundred
percent agree with everything. And I've always loved the portrayal
of vamporism in this movie.

Speaker 4 (01:01:26):
Again, is this quintessential?

Speaker 3 (01:01:27):
What I feel is quintessential idea of the mythological creature,
which is that it is both predatory and.

Speaker 4 (01:01:35):
What's the word I want? Damn it? It's a good word,
and I lost it. I'm sorry.

Speaker 6 (01:01:40):
Is it ambiguity? While we're talking, I don't know talk
VJ because I've lost it?

Speaker 5 (01:01:51):
Is it alluring? Is that what you're looking for?

Speaker 4 (01:01:53):
Alluring is a good one. It's not the word, but
it's a good one. But yeah, aspirational.

Speaker 3 (01:01:57):
Aspirational is what I was trying to say, This idea that, yeah,
there's an empowerment element to it which is on display,
but there's also that I don't know if curse is
the right word, but it feels appropriate in the sense
that you know, there's a there's a melancholy to Jerry
that he lets through every so often, a little bit
in a couple of scenes, but certainly when he's threatening

(01:02:19):
Charlie in his bedroom and saying, you know, hey, I'm
going to give you a choice, so I didn't have
a choice.

Speaker 4 (01:02:23):
You know sort of thing.

Speaker 3 (01:02:24):
And it's that it's that little pin, you know, ahead
of a head of a pin, which you know could
easily tip over into end Rice's territory, which.

Speaker 2 (01:02:32):
I was going to say, you just almost brought up
my favorite GA couple, Louis and Lustadi.

Speaker 4 (01:02:35):
Yeah, right, right, But it doesn't go that far.

Speaker 3 (01:02:38):
And I think that's key, especially in this type of story,
in this movie, because we still want to think of
the vampire as a demonic, you know, entity of something
that like isn't is aspirational, but isn't necessarily you know,
hey why not you know sort of thing of like, hey,
what why don't we all become vampires? That sounds great,
you know, there is still this bloodsucker ye kind of

(01:02:58):
you know, parasitic element to it. And I think that always,
you know, that always feeds into the horror of the
movie for me too, which is the fact that like,
as much as I enjoy Jerry and Billy and eventually
Ed and Amy, it's never like, oh I want to
be I want to be in their side you know,
it's sort of thing of like, oh, like that may
not be a great existence.

Speaker 1 (01:03:17):
Well, no, you know, I'm like take me.

Speaker 5 (01:03:18):
The key to it, taking Jerry is that when they
do transform, like the vampirism in this is kind of
ugly like that, Like I love when they're not full
shark mouthed and you just see that some of the
teeth are just like really squared off his hairline, he
goes halfway back to its skull, like he turns into
like kind of like decrepit and gross looking.

Speaker 4 (01:03:41):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:03:41):
So that hand when he's pulling down the curtain my
fingernails right now.

Speaker 5 (01:03:46):
He's got like this like long cokenail going on, like
it's it's it's reminding you like no, no, no. You
might think that this is something that you want, but
you don't. Do you want to be gross like this?
But then you show me amy and it's like, yeah,
I do. Actually, that's is.

Speaker 1 (01:04:02):
My hair gonna grow?

Speaker 2 (01:04:03):
Are you gonna say that I'm gonna get ten inches
on my hair if I become a vampires?

Speaker 1 (01:04:07):
Yes? Please?

Speaker 4 (01:04:10):
Yeah? I love that tension.

Speaker 3 (01:04:11):
That's I think that's the best word for me, is
the tension between the Yeah, the attractiveness of it and
the repulsiveness of it. And that's something that's I think
is key to the vampire mythos, you know, and it's
something that keeps them fascinating and doesn't and again doesn't
tip over into the full on you know eventually where
we got to it Twilight of Like.

Speaker 4 (01:04:32):
You know, this is the skin of a culer Billow.
It's like, no, it's not.

Speaker 1 (01:04:35):
That's globe by j Low. Get out of here.

Speaker 4 (01:04:40):
Who wouldn't want to be you? Of course?

Speaker 2 (01:04:43):
Well it makes like and that's why this movie, like
when you say cult classic, this one is one for
a good reason. I mean it's fun, it's smart, it's sexy.
It's strangely sexy. When you are young and watching it,
you're like, oh okay. And then for queer horror fans,
it offers so much more than nostalgia offers recognition, and
it shows us a world where queerness exists beneath the surface.

(01:05:05):
It's seductive, you know, there's seductive and dangerous powers, but
it's also feared and it's not. It might not be
like an openly gay film, but the subtext speaks so
much volumes. It's like a time capsule. A fear of
repression and desire, and I think it's one of the
most important like queer horror movies of its era, of
our era.

Speaker 5 (01:05:21):
Oh yeah, there's no question. This movie resonates so deeply
with myself with so many people. And something else that
I don't think this movie gets enough credit for is
the fact that CHRISA. Randon is forty three years old
in this movie. Work all the time, Like whenever we
see vampire stories like this, the you know, main object
of desire is usually much younger than that is, somebody

(01:05:43):
who is still in like they have not experienced twink
death yet and so they are still young and sexy
and a sex symbol. And this movie allows a grown
ass man to still take that control. And I think
that that also is really cool because like, don't get
me wrong, I love the Lost Boys. I love them dearly,

(01:06:04):
but they are boys. Those are boys. Jerry Dandridge is
a man.

Speaker 4 (01:06:09):
The Birth movie was well, and it was.

Speaker 2 (01:06:11):
The first time I was like, oh, maybe like and
just like Amy, I'm like, I think I want a man.
I don't want this little boy. I'd like a man.
And then all of a sudden'm Lana Delray with a
fifty five year old guy smoking in my am I
you know, and I'm like, oh, I really I'm into this.

Speaker 3 (01:06:33):
Well, I mean the one of the just I guess
we were kind of talking about the Lost Boys connection.
One of the reasons that Richard Donner, who produced Lost Boys,
didn't end up making that movie was because he saw
Off right night and he said, it's been done, and
he made the right call to give it over to Schumacher,
who you know. Of course, this we've talked about, Ashy,
Thank God, did the great great stuff with it?

Speaker 5 (01:06:52):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (01:06:53):
Did this come out this? Wait?

Speaker 5 (01:06:54):
My year.

Speaker 1 (01:06:54):
This was a very strong year for horror. I feel
like eighty five.

Speaker 4 (01:06:58):
Yeah, yeah, well this is the middle of the decade.

Speaker 3 (01:07:01):
This was where, you know, the slasher boom had already
kind of petered out, but there were still vessiges of it.
So we had a couple of Slashers here and there. Uh,
you know, Friday the thirteenth was still going strong and
uh and obviously I very just started, so Armstream was
still going.

Speaker 4 (01:07:14):
But then, yeah, you.

Speaker 3 (01:07:15):
Had a lot of the creature features and uh and really,
you know, Holland loves to talk about how this movie
kind of brought back the Vampire because in his mind,
you know, uh, it had fallen into parody, and he
always cites, uh, what is it the George Hamilton Love
It First Bite movie as example, like this is where
vampires had gone. It's not entirely true. Obviously, Tony Scott's

(01:07:35):
The Hunger had come out in eighty three, a couple
of years before.

Speaker 2 (01:07:37):
Oh my god, can we cover that the three of
us at some point, please.

Speaker 5 (01:07:44):
With my other Sarandon because for the longest time, Yeah,
my bio on all social media used to say the
love child of Chris Sarandon and Fright Night and Susan
Sarandon in The Hunger.

Speaker 1 (01:07:54):
Oh that's so perfect.

Speaker 4 (01:07:56):
That's brilliant.

Speaker 3 (01:07:58):
But yeah, so it's it's not obviously, as we've talked
about on this show a lot of ash. You know,
there's a spectrum to these things. It's not cut and
dried as it usually is portrayed. But certainly I think
that this movie and it's oh and this brings up
something I wanted to bring up earlier, and obviously we
should talk about given the sort of aim of this podcast,

(01:08:19):
which is that you know, this was a huge step
forward in obviously the rise of geek culture, but obviously
also the horror fandom, you know, just giving that, you know,
some space and some time and not treating it as
you know, I think what nineteen eighty was fade to black, right, I'm.

Speaker 5 (01:08:38):
Pretty sure that sounds right.

Speaker 3 (01:08:39):
Yeah, yeah, and that was I'm not going to say,
a favorable portrayal of horror fandom.

Speaker 4 (01:08:44):
And then there's George A.

Speaker 3 (01:08:45):
Romeroz Martin, which you know obviously has a lot of
connotation with this movie too in terms of are they
a vampire next door?

Speaker 4 (01:08:52):
Are they not?

Speaker 3 (01:08:54):
And even in that movie it was presented as you know,
is this idea of like is it a mental illness
or like what's going on? So I think that this
is a big I mean, even me growing up in
the you know, late nineties, early two thousands and watching
this movie again as a budding horror fan because as
you know, as you know, I was restricted from.

Speaker 1 (01:09:13):
It first, huge sheltered.

Speaker 3 (01:09:14):
Maybe I was a big sheltered my parents need here's
your rosary beads bill?

Speaker 5 (01:09:20):
No thanks, Hey, you're making up for lost time now.

Speaker 4 (01:09:23):
Yeah. So but yeah, so I think that.

Speaker 3 (01:09:26):
This was a huge stepping stone even you know, however,
many years that was fifteen twenty years removed. You know,
how'd you guys feel about seeing yourselves reflected as like
horror fans in this movie?

Speaker 1 (01:09:35):
I love it. Yes, Why I do the things that
I do and why I am the way.

Speaker 2 (01:09:39):
If I could pick one movie to be like, oh,
I'm glad that this movie molded me to be who
I am today, a sexual deviant, it's this movie.

Speaker 4 (01:09:47):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:09:48):
I like as silly as it is, like when Charlie
is too busy watching Fright Night to actually have sex
with the girl who's like, I am literally throwing myself
at you. Yeah, I've been there.

Speaker 1 (01:10:02):
I've been Charlie.

Speaker 3 (01:10:03):
I've been Charlie, And I think there's such a feeling
of I mean, we've talked about sexual empowerment in this movie,
but there is that latent sort of theme of I
don't know, fan empowerment or you know, that idea of like, oh,
I'm the expert on these things, these movies, these lore,
this myth and therefore maybe I could survive you know.

Speaker 5 (01:10:21):
Oh yeah, it's very helpful. I feel like this is
the horror movie version of the thought process. I think
so many of like the true crime girlies have where
they're like I will never be caught in this because
I've listened to so many true crime podcasts, and that
is like the real world, like weird version of what
I think a lot of us are where It's like
there are so many things I've learned because I watch

(01:10:42):
horror movies that have become applicable to real life.

Speaker 2 (01:10:45):
Yeah, I know where every exod is. I'm always like,
I'm listening to people's convers and Ken's like, are you
ever listening to me? Fully, I'm like, yeah, I'm totally
listening to you, but I'm listening to them, them and
them also just in case any where shit's going on,
I gotta be ready.

Speaker 1 (01:10:58):
You never know.

Speaker 3 (01:10:59):
Yeah, uh and uh. We haven't talked about Brett Fidelle's score.
Really loved this score has.

Speaker 2 (01:11:06):
Come to me, come to me music that hi scynth
Yes please, yeah, I will absolutely Jerry and Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:11:15):
Apparently Holland heard his score for The Terminator and said, yeah,
I hied that.

Speaker 1 (01:11:18):
Guy, which is fantastic.

Speaker 4 (01:11:20):
This is a calling, yeah, really good call.

Speaker 3 (01:11:23):
It's a I think it's an example of an electronic
score for a horror movie which doesn't have the obvious
connotation of you hear it instantly and go, oh, it's
just plink some bloops, and.

Speaker 5 (01:11:32):
It doesn't sound like John Carpenter either.

Speaker 4 (01:11:34):
Like, h yeah, that's exactly what I'm trying to say.

Speaker 5 (01:11:37):
You're welcome.

Speaker 4 (01:11:40):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:11:40):
It has a real, you know, sort of texture to
it all its own, which is great. And then of
course the soundtrack album, which you know, amazing populated with
some really interesting choices.

Speaker 4 (01:11:49):
Sparks is on this album.

Speaker 2 (01:11:50):
It's very like when you hear any of the songs
from this you're just like, oh, I just want to
go home and watch fright Night.

Speaker 5 (01:11:56):
Yeah yeah, I king yes, Evelyn Champagne, I like that
is on my I have a playlist on Spotify that's
like songs that instantly improve my mood, and that's one
of them because I hear it and I'm just like, yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:12:09):
I love it, and I just let like anything that's
just so eighties is nostalgic anyway, but this movie like
nailed it.

Speaker 1 (01:12:18):
From the score to the soundtrack.

Speaker 4 (01:12:19):
Yeah yeah, I'm.

Speaker 1 (01:12:20):
Like, look out, top gun, Somebody's coming for your spot.

Speaker 3 (01:12:23):
Oh yeah, no, it does it because it's right there
in the middle of the decade. It carries this connotation
of sort of what the eighties culturally was kind of
aiming at in its pop culture, I feel, which is
this idea of like, it's not the fifties, but you know,
it's kind of hearkening back to that idea of oh
it's morning in America sort of thing, and actually it's not.

(01:12:44):
Actually behind the closed doors find all this stuff that
we're trying to put in front of ourselves as you know,
our country or as America, there's something else going on
behind it. Which, Yeah, that tension in that resonance really
just always appeals to me.

Speaker 5 (01:12:57):
Big, same, big, same.

Speaker 4 (01:12:59):
So what going forward? Like do you guys.

Speaker 3 (01:13:04):
See a lot of Fright Night in you know reflected
in movies after this, you know sort of thing of
like the influences that it had. And it's funny that
it never really became a franchise. It did, but it didn't.

Speaker 2 (01:13:16):
You know, I can't remember the second one, but I
remember thinking I liked it.

Speaker 1 (01:13:20):
I thought the main vampires was sexy.

Speaker 5 (01:13:22):
Yeah, the second one's even gayer. That's possible, it is,
but I think it's because the second one was really
hard to find. For many years, it was hard to
track down, so it's never really been able to have
the generational cult following the way that this movie has,
so I think that's probably something to do with it. Also,

(01:13:44):
the remake, like it did well, but it didn't explode
the way I think some of the other remakes of
the late aughts twenty tens did, so I think that's
part of it. I think people genuinely just love this
original one so much that they just can't be bothered
with the other ones. I didn't like.

Speaker 1 (01:14:03):
I didn't like the Colin Farrell. I think it's just okay.

Speaker 2 (01:14:07):
The whole time, I was just like, I don't know
what I'm done. I'm just gonna go watch right.

Speaker 5 (01:14:10):
Now exactly like And also they almost killed Chris Rannon
on that set, so like how dare dare? But yeah,
I get why people like that one. I truly do.
But it's it's too straight for me, Like it really is.
Like that's the issue that I have with the with
the remake.

Speaker 4 (01:14:27):
And speaking is a straight person.

Speaker 3 (01:14:29):
It's too straight for me, Like it's it's yeah, yeah,
something that I feel like for me, it's really the
as much as I love him, the oh God like
on his name doctor who.

Speaker 5 (01:14:40):
Oh, the David Tennants character, Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:14:42):
I just don't see that resonance at all in that character.
I love him, he's fun in the movie, but uh,
turning him into a Chris Angel type.

Speaker 5 (01:14:50):
I think that's I think that's a big part that
also doesn't is why that movie doesn't work, because like
Fright Night does feel timeless for as eighties as it is,
it feels timeless because a lot of these horror host
characters like a Peter Vincent definitely still exist in this form,
like your Joe Bubriggs. There are so many like public
access channels that still have their horror hosts really still

(01:15:12):
around around like they're all still around. But people that
are this like hyper specific like Chris Angel MindFreak type,
they don't exist anymore. They're just Chris Angel. And so
so that doesn't really I think work as well. But
I will say I do think that Anton Yelchin does
a fantastic job in that movie. I think image In
Poots does a great job in that movie. But the

(01:15:34):
script itself, I also don't like the digital vampires something
they look as good. So it does become this thing
where it's like, yeah, I see what you did here,
and like it's not bad, but I just would rather
watch the original one.

Speaker 4 (01:15:45):
Yep, agree exactly. So yeah, I guess unless we have
any closing thoughts.

Speaker 2 (01:15:51):
I'm just really thank you so much for coming on
with this, because I really wanted to get into the
weeds and I felt very comfortable doing it with you.

Speaker 5 (01:15:57):
Oh well, thank you for inviting me to talk about
you know, my baby. I love this movie so so
very much and I will never pass up an opportunity
to talk about it.

Speaker 3 (01:16:07):
Yeah, and I think that I hope that it just
the love for it, in the appreciation of it, and
it's legacy will continue.

Speaker 4 (01:16:14):
I think it does.

Speaker 3 (01:16:15):
As you guys have already said, even though this isn't
a huge ip for anyone. It's not got a million sequels,
it's not got even a million remakes, you know, it's
just sort of I think it's what you said.

Speaker 4 (01:16:26):
It's this first one. It's original, is so.

Speaker 3 (01:16:28):
Special and so well done that it's really difficult to
continue or improve upon it. Do we have our recommendations?

Speaker 5 (01:16:35):
I do.

Speaker 2 (01:16:36):
I'll go first. My recommendation is a Nightmare on Elm
Straight too, Freddy's Revenge, because if you want to talk
about some of my favorite queer horror from the same year, Baby,
I'll go watch Freddy Too. I love it so much.
It was such an interesting turn, like for that to
be the second movie in this big franchise, and like naysayers,
you go fuck off. I love Freddy Too.

Speaker 5 (01:17:00):
Freddy Too also very much love the Scream Scream Queen
documentary about Mark Patten. I have a booklet essay for
the Blu ray release on that. But I think that like,
that's the ultimate double feature, is watching Freddy Too and
then watching Scream Queen.

Speaker 2 (01:17:14):
That I was going to say it when you were
saying it now, I was like, I'm going to save
my thing for the end, because I think that's the
best double feature that I could think of.

Speaker 3 (01:17:21):
With these two films, I have two, one that I
actually recommended, one which I slightly recommend just for my
own interests, in my own proclivities. As I said earlier,
Tom Holland made this movie in part because he had
such a bad experience. I'm working with Michael Winner for
Scream for Help, which I recently did see for the

(01:17:42):
first time, and it is, I have to say, fascinating
if you're an all fan of Tom Holland's even if
you're a fan of Michael Winners, which what's wrong with you?

Speaker 4 (01:17:49):
But okay, sure.

Speaker 3 (01:17:51):
You're a big death wish fan, check it out because
it is an interesting b side to frid Night, almost
in terms of it's about a young teenage girl who
thinks that there's a killer living in her house. And uh,
there's also lots of burgeoning sexuality elements in that movie,
which are a lot more sleazy than Fright Night. So
it's something to check out if you're if you're at
all curious, I guess it's not necessarily great, but it

(01:18:13):
is entertaining in its own way. But if you're want
to stay on the vampire track and you want, you know,
really sort of that quintessential feeling of sexy vampires we've
talked about on the show before, we probably will again.
But Bram Stoker's Racula the Francis wort Coppola. Check that
out if you haven't before, because if you want great effects,
great performances, costumes, music, you know, it's all in there.

Speaker 1 (01:18:35):
Kana reeves.

Speaker 4 (01:18:39):
Harder.

Speaker 1 (01:18:41):
This is upsod I have.

Speaker 5 (01:18:44):
I have two recommendations. The first one this comes from
the same year. This is the silly Flip side of
Fright Night. It is nineteen eighty five's Once Bitten, starring
a very young Carr.

Speaker 1 (01:18:56):
I love Once.

Speaker 5 (01:18:58):
It's such a such a good time. But I do
love that it is totally the inverse because we have
Lauren Hutton playing this like, you know, centuries old sexy,
older vampire lady seducing this virginal high school student. There's
also just a lot of really interesting queer things happening
in this movie. There's a great scene where they go

(01:19:19):
to one of those like telephone dating bars and there's
like a visible like trans woman. Granted, it's like a
little bit of a punchline, but I watched it with
my wife Harmony, and we were dying. We're like, who's
this diva? I love her? Love So I love One's
Bitten as kind of like the silly inverse of what
Fright Night is. And then another movie, This is not
a vampire movie, and I think it's one that you've

(01:19:40):
talked about on the show. But the closest thing I
have ever seen to a character capturing the energy of
Jerry Dandridge of being just this absolutely like sexy, irresistible
character that you just ignore every red flag because they
showed up on your doorstep and you don't care. It's
Dan Stevens in the guest like Dan Stevens, and the

(01:20:01):
guest is Jerry Dandridge to me, like that is who
that character is? Two point zero. I love that movie.
It's also a Halloween movie, which makes it fun. But
no one has ever come close to emulating Saranda's performance
until Dan Stevens came around.

Speaker 2 (01:20:18):
Yeah, he could just stay and live in my kids
better and forever.

Speaker 1 (01:20:22):
Like right, I don't care what you're doing in here.

Speaker 5 (01:20:25):
Oh you're kind of a terminator. That's fine. We can
make it work. We'll make it work. Baby.

Speaker 4 (01:20:30):
Oh, here comes to government again to kill you.

Speaker 1 (01:20:31):
Oh no, we have to go on the run. Just
beat those baby blues at me.

Speaker 3 (01:20:40):
Well once again, from the both of us, thank you
so much for being here at BJ. It is always
a pleasure in an honor. Where can people find you?

Speaker 5 (01:20:47):
I am on all forms of social media at BJ
Colangelo My podcast This Ends Up prom is wherever you
get your podcasts, and we are on all forms of
social media at This Ends at Promandpatreon dot com backslash
This Sends Up Part.

Speaker 2 (01:21:00):
You can check us out on our Patreon for some
behind the scenes stuff, ad free episodes, and fun little
just shooting the shit episodes that is Patreon dot com,
slash Bill and ashtr Theater, and you still have until
September twenty firth to join up to be entered in
the raffle to win a T shirt.

Speaker 4 (01:21:17):
It's great t shirt that I love so much.

Speaker 1 (01:21:19):
That you're never getting one of. You're never getting going.

Speaker 3 (01:21:21):
To get it. I'd just love to see it from
afar and admire it. It's going to be beautiful.

Speaker 1 (01:21:26):
It's so great your birthdays around the corner.

Speaker 5 (01:21:28):
You shut up.

Speaker 3 (01:21:35):
Thank you all for joining us for this episode of
Bill and Ashley's part of the Stranded Pana network. You
can find my work in the show notes links below.
Check us out on social media. You can find the
show at strandapana dot com and everywherell together Podcasts. If
you have questions or comments, please feel free to write
to us at Bill and Ashtireth at gmail dot com.

Speaker 4 (01:21:56):
We're dying to hear from you. See what that is?

Speaker 5 (01:22:00):
He was so cool.

Speaker 3 (01:22:01):
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Fright Night (1985)

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