[Inspector Abberline]

Fright Night (1985)
Whilst I personally think this is one of the best modern vampire films since Tobe Hooper's Salem's Lot. Most of my admiration must go to the performance of Roddy McDowall, who manages to steal the film right under the noses of his younger cast members and especially from Chris Sarandon who seems unable to match McDowall's campiness, Sarandon's being all method where as Roddy is just having a blast with his character, and managing to be part Cushing, part Price and all TV horror host Peter Vincent...In fact what has always intrigued me the most is the Tv horror hosts show Fright Night, especially since in the UK we have never had a history of such Tv presenter's, (of course we have had unintentionally scary hosts, Tarrant, Saville to name but two) but unlike American television of course which has had many. Which is where the remake failed big time, instead of embracing the whole tv horror host retro thing, they completely jettisoned it and turned the character into a magician, but that was the least of the remakes worries...McDowall manages to convey equal amounts of pathos and insecurity as the ageing actor who soon realises his time maybe up as modern audiences are no longer frightened by his film antics any more, and like he says "Apparently all they want are demented madmen, running around in ski masks hacking up young virgins. "..But McDowall's Peter Vincent truly comes into his own when he finally realises the truth and comes to the aid Charley Brewster, although reluctantly at first, he soon gets back his vampire hunter mojo..