All that needs to be said about the remake of Fright Night is that it ends with a terrible cover of Jay-Z's already bad "99 Problems" blasting over the ending credits. This is a completely random song choice that belongs in another movie and is tonally out of nowhere, a feeling that permeates most of the picture's long 105-minute running time. The movie starts off like a typical teen horror movie, only slightly worse. The dialogue in the high school scenes is horribly inauthentic, feeling like an R-rated CW drama of "The Vampire Diaries" variety complete with the usual clichés of bullying jocks, super stereotyped nerds, and the aforementioned "hip" teen dialogue. When the second act kicks in, the movie heads in the direction of the comedy-horror hybrid it should have been going for all along. The only problem with this is that there is no real sense of tension as the blood is all CG and anyone who has seen the original knows what's coming long in advance. The Las Vegas setting sounds cool in theory, but it's never used in a way that adds to the proceedings. Despite having the very cool idea of having the remake set in Vegas, screenwriter Marti Noxon and director Craig Gillipse decide to keep almost all the basic story beats from the original movie instead of using the new setting to their advantage. The one change that is made that actually does work is the new interpretation of Peter Vincent, hilariously played by David Tennant. Tennant is the pulse that keep the film alive. His energy and dead-on comedic delivery almost give the remake a purpose to exist beyond making a buck off a cult classic. Other performances are okay, but Anton Yelchin is too old to being playing a high school kid and Imogeen Poots is given the girlfriend role that hasn't changed since the 80s. One thing that has changed since the 80s: there used to be original horror movies. 3/10
