Have You Seen?! The Movie Podcast

40 Years of Fright Night... For Real!

• Roll Credits Studios • Season 1 • Episode 4

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What happens when a horror host who fakes it on TV has to face the real thing? We dive into Fright Night with fresh eyes and fond memories, pulling apart the clever ways Tom Holland honors classic monsters while delivering real tension, sly humor, and unforgettable practical effects. From the quick-hit premise—a teen discovers his neighbor is a vampire and no one believes him—to the character arcs that give the story heart, we unpack why this 1985 cult favorite still plays as a legit thriller, not just a nostalgia piece.

We get hands-on with the craft: fog that moves like a character, first-person roof glides, and the melt-and-dust spectacle of a ghoul’s demise. A retractable pencil gag sells a painful stake, while a wolf-to-boy transformation lands with surprising emotion. We explore Peter Vincent’s journey from on-air pretender to true believer, the way faith powers a cross, and how a pocket mirror quietly flips the story’s stakes. Jerry Dandridge’s charisma takes center stage too—sleek, seductive, and strategic—with a fruit-bat palate-cleansing habit that turns background business into worldbuilding.

Along the way, we spotlight iconic scenes: the window fang reveal, the nightclub seduction with a chilling mirror absence, and a basement showdown where sunlight becomes a weapon. We talk casting chemistry—Roddy McDowall’s gravitas, Chris Sarandon’s range, William Ragsdale’s anxious drive—plus the synth-forward score that nails the era even as the theme song swings for radio and misses. We also touch on sequels, the modern remake, and whether Fright Night still earns a spot on your October list.

If you love practical effects, classic vampire lore with a modern pulse, and character arcs that earn their hero moments, press play and join the conversation. Then tell us your standout scene and your stake rating out of ten. Subscribe, share with a fellow horror fan, and leave a review to help more people find the show.

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Joe:

Uh what did you call it? Com composting? Com compositing. Yeah, excuse me. Composting is what they were doing with the bodies.

Dylan:

The movie podcast, where every movie is a premiere.

Joe:

It's spooky season, and this week we're dusting off one of the best vampire horror comedies the 80s ever gave us. Fright Night.

Dylan:

This week's movie, Fright Night, came out in 1985, and it is rated R. It's got blood, fangs, nudity, and 80s hair product that may disturb some viewers. So listener discretion is advised.

Joe:

It's partly responsible for the hole in the ozone layer.

Dylan:

So going into it, I totally thought that it was going to be more cheesy than it was.

Joe:

Yeah.

Dylan:

Like honestly, I I quite enjoyed it actually. Yeah.

Joe:

Yeah, I think I think it probably gets a bad rap because it's you know it's a horror movie, it's 80s. Right. Um, you know, there's there's very few in that genre that kind of stand the test of time or even stick out from the rest because they all kind of get that same, you know, uh cliche kind of stuff going on.

Dylan:

But yeah, because it's super easy to really just put that into a box and be like, oh yeah, this is you know the the cheesy 80s, you know, this is the cheesy 80s box. We're going to take it out and pull something. Oh, yeah, super cheesy. Yeah. Yeah, not this one, really.

Joe:

So um it was written and directed by Tom Holland uh before Child's Play. We were just talking about Child's Play and uh the My Buddy doll and turns into the good guy doll and goes after people, and that's that's a whole maybe we'll do an episode.

Dylan:

Yeah, I I have not seen that one.

Joe:

Yeah. So Tom Holland wanted to bring back the classic horror genre in a new way. Um movies, you know, as we were talking, movies at that time in the genre of classic horror or even the classic monsters were generally campy and comedy. Um shortly after that. Um Jim Carrey did one of his first movies called Once Bitten, and that was just a camp fest of comedy. Oh yeah.

Dylan:

Well, and I feel like you kind of he definitely referenced that in the movie too, like with the with the TV rolling and stuff of like the the big cheese moments.

Joe:

Yeah, Peter Vincent and showing clips from the horror genre, and then even him saying, like, you know, kids are not wanting to watch these anymore. Right. Yeah. So he wanted to do he wanted to take kind of the idea of the boy who cried wolf and meet it with vampires. And so you kind of have the that main kind of story arc throughout is nobody believes him.

Dylan:

Right. That was definitely I didn't realize okay. I didn't realize there was kind of following the the boy who cried wolf trope, but it definitely played that off really well. Right. So quick plot rundown a teenager discovers his new next door neighbor is a vampire, and nobody believes him. So he turns to a washed up horror host for help.

Joe:

Yeah, that's pretty much it.

Dylan:

Yeah, watching it, there was a lot of decent jump scares. I was I was really kind of impressed. I thought the only one that like that got me that I was mad about is the is the one where I also scared your cat. Yeah. She jumped up. She did. Um but it's the scene where Ed is running away from Peter down the alley, and Ed is waiting for him to like come through the the smoke, fog, whatever it was. Oh. And like it was really cool the way they set it up because you could see the fog like coming closer and filling the alley, and then like it retreats, and you're like waiting for him to like kind of appear through the fog of just standing there. Right. And then he's not, and you're like, oh, maybe you know, what did he go after the other two now? Yeah. But then he comes, stands, you know, steps out of the side from behind him.

Joe:

Yeah, from behind him.

Dylan:

And what made me mad was the symbols. Oh the symbol clash. Okay. Like, I wouldn't have jumped, but it was just like just the loud of the symbols.

Joe:

Yeah. Yeah, it's kind of cool because the the fog is a character in the movie, and they use the fog to be him to move around. It's kind of like it's kind of like that Jaws thing, you know. And even when uh he flies over, you know, it's just the camera, it's just like a right, you know, so there's there's a lot of cool stuff that they use, you know, like that.

Dylan:

Yeah, and that's definitely a note that I wrote down was that I loved that it went from the shot from up on the roof and like it switched into a first-person view of him then like going down the roof line because as he was moving down the roof and you could hear his footsteps. At first I was like annoyed because I thought I was like, did they not edit it out from the cameraman like walking down it? Yeah, and then it like clicked. I was like, oh, okay, no, that's you know, we have switched perspectives now, right? So yeah, I was like, I was like, applause on that one. Yeah. Yeah.

Joe:

Yeah. For me, nostalgia uh kind of goes back to I didn't check the month, but I think this was done in '85. So I might have been either five or six. Yeah. And my aunt uh who used to watch me and my brother, um, took us to see this.

Dylan:

What?

Joe:

So I'm five or six in the theater watching this, and my brother is just like having the time of his life.

Dylan:

Um and so I I I assume he's older than you then.

Joe:

Yeah, he's so he's like maybe three years older.

Dylan:

Okay.

Joe:

Yeah. So um I think it was pretty much at the part at the end where you know everything's just going awry, and you know, it's just it's the battle. It's the darkest hour. Yeah. And and you know, girlfriend comes out with, you know, shark teeth and all that. And I'm just crying like a baby, because I was. So I'm crying. We're in the back of the theater. There is a layer of curtains behind the behind us. And my brother, I don't I didn't even notice he was gone. He jumps out from behind the curtains and discard me for life. Oh man. It was just like, oh, so yeah, this was one that I saw in the theaters that I didn't like for a while, but then I went back and watched it, and I was like, okay, it wasn't that as bad as I thought, you know. And I I've come to kind of, you know, kind of love this movie more because of that, you know.

Dylan:

Yeah, so how would you say that it really compares to more of the modern horror movies?

Joe:

Yeah, I think I mean a lot of these movies just kind of, you know, what do they say, walk so the other ones could run, you know? Yeah. And I I think it was just one of those because um you know, you see modern horror movies and it just gets more complex, whether it's the story or the switches of you know how things are changing in the story. Um, is this is this person the murderer, and then you find out it's not, and it's actually this person, or just all that kind of stuff. And um, you know, there there's there are a lot of vampire movies after that did, you know, that took different avenues and took different directions and things like that. And I think this one really, you know, because they were just trying to bring back that genre, just changed the idea overall of what a vampire was like, you know, like this guy's like super cool, like you want to hang out with him, he's like super fashionable for the time, you know.

Dylan:

I mean, he's he definitely they definitely tried to give him kind of more of that sexy vibe.

Joe:

Yeah, exactly. So you you don't really think of vampires that way necessarily, right? And it and it is a lot of the aw, aw, you know, that kind of accent.

Dylan:

And which they did throw in a couple times, yeah.

Joe:

And I think he he like the way he did it though, was a little more like care uh a caricature of just because he was taunting Peter Vincent at times.

Dylan:

Yeah. Yeah, something that I enjoyed about the movie is how much it was able to how Fright Knight was able to really kind of walk the tightrope between being the the legit vampire thriller and more of the parody.

Joe:

Right. Um yeah, and I I think that goes back to Tom Holland and wanting to bring back a legit, you know, genre to uphold the classic monsters, you know. Um you know, like you have those universal monsters and and he really wanted to hold that up, so he kind of you know skirted the line on not and trying not to be campy and trying to be a little more like comedy was there because like there's just good times when either it's evil or you know, yeah, other people are you know, they're high they're in high school, so there there is a thread of that comedy that's already there with uh hormones and all that kind of stuff that Charlie's going through, you know. Um, and so it and ultimately he's just a kid, so it's just like yeah, you're a crazy, you know, you're crazy thinking that your neighbor is a vampire. Right.

Dylan:

Um well and with how the movie overall started, I was I enjoyed that because it got right in it got right into it. There wasn't a long intro made in black. And like you're expecting it to be start off that I call it cheesy, you called it campy, uh-huh of the kind of the classic um of the classic vampire tropes. And then I love the switch up of it was like, oh, it's not actually happening, it's just on TV. TV, yeah. Right. That was I thought that was a really good switch up because I truly was sitting there and was like, oh, here we go. Like this is gonna be a long, long movie.

Joe:

Yeah, and the dialogue in that scene is is just written to that so wow. Right. That's kind of why I was like, you gotta watch this part of it. It's just yeah, yeah, it's there's definitely some bait and switch there on on that end of it.

Dylan:

Yeah. So but then with that scene, that's where that's where we meet Brewster, who definitely, definitely plays that paranoid teenager. Yeah. I mean, that's it's it was a good role. Like he played it well. Right. Um who was the actor that did that?

Joe:

William Ragsdale. Okay. Um yeah. I mean, he he was in other uh other movies and shows, um, but before that, um he wasn't he wasn't in much, so it was kind of like a breakout role for him. Yeah. Um he went on to do a TV show that was like for maybe a couple of years called Um Herman Ted. And it was like a precursor to Inside Out. I'll just say if if anybody was gonna get the idea, it was from that show. Yeah. And then, you know, it's it's kind of funny because the biggest star in that movie um of like the short list was Roddy McDowell. Um, you know, he played Peter Peter Vincent, uh-huh. And Peter Vincent was a um a combination of of um Peter Cushing, who was in Horror of Dracula, Curse of Frankenstein, Sherlock Holmes, and played Grand Moff Tarkin in Star Wars. Uh, and then so a mix of Peter Cushing and Vincent Price. So you got Peter Vincent, and Vincent Price was in House on Haunted Hill, The Fly, these are all like 50s movies. Um, Last Man on Earth, um, he played Egghead in the Batman series, and the biggest one for him in the 80s was he was the narrator for the the song Thriller on the Thriller album. Oh and uh apparently he almost was going to do it, but he was sick at the time, which ultimately he passed, and so he he almost could have been Peter Vincent, yeah, Vincent Price as that role, and uh, but Roddy McDowell got the part, and Roddy McDowell was the child star, and um his hit I feel like his biggest role that he took on for the s end of the sixties and the seventies was he was in all the Planet of the Apes movies. Um and so he played Caesar, which was the main ape that was like the friendly game. Um he played it so long that he ended up playing his own son in Planet of the Apes. So Caesar has a son, and then they went generations, and then he just ended up playing the next Caesar character. Yeah. So I mean he was just you know, it just a great actor, and all these movies, all these parts, and to have him on there, I think most of the cast was just honored to to have him uh on the on the movie. Yeah. Um, they said he he had like a camera with him all the time, and this is like video camera, huge, yeah. So he was filming everything, um, telling them stories of Hollywood. They would be on sets and he would say, you know, this happened there, and this this movie was shot this way, and so he was just a wealth of knowledge to them.

Dylan:

That's so cool.

Joe:

Um Chris Sarandon was probably the next person uh who was kind of bigger uh name. Uh he played Jerry Dandridge, the Ben Ba. And uh he was in soap operas, he was in um uh Dog Day Afternoon with Al Pacino, and I think he was nominated for uh Oscar on that movie. So, like, you know, yeah, you you just have these two great actors, and he would go on to uh to be in The Princess Bride and played Prince Humperdek, which is the you know the main antagonist in that movie. And it was really weird because when I saw the Princess Bride finally, um I was I was just a little thrown off because I'm used to seeing him as Jerry Dandridge being this like you know, I was like, oh no.

Dylan:

My boy! Yeah.

Joe:

Um and then uh you know, newer, probably the newer of the more popular roles of his was uh Jack Skellington. Uh so he was the oh yeah, yeah, the voice. Okay. I think Danny Elfman was a singing voice, and he was the you know, the talking voice. Yeah, that's cool. So uh Amanda Beers as Amy. Um I'll say it the funny thing was so you know, five or six, uh I'm I'm coming about as a kid, and I'm like, she's really pretty. Like, you know, like I did not think that she was anything but yeah, so then later on, uh the show uh Married with Children comes out, and she's the next door neighbor, and she's supposedly all these jokes come out that she's ugly, and I'm like, she's not ugly, like she's like the butt of every joke, and like all this stuff, like she's horrible and ugly, and all this stuff, and I'm just like, I can't, I'm not buying it, you know. Just like it's like it's just yeah, I don't know. But she uh she's written for movies and TV shows, and you know, has had a successful career since then. Yeah. Um, and then Evil Ed, Stephen Jeffries, he he didn't have much of a career before it either, but he went on to star in a movie called At Close Range and a couple other movies, um, and then didn't go do too much after that. But man, he was funny. I just think in in this, you know, I guess initially he thought um, you know, he could he thought he was gonna get Charlie's role. He thought he was auditioning for that, but yeah, so he was kind of bummed. He was like, I don't, you know, like they're like, You want me for this? I don't see it. Like, I I just don't, you know, but I I don't think that there's anybody else who could have played that like that. Yeah, he definitely did that well. I mean, maybe if Jim Carrey came out of the woodwork or something at that time, but yeah.

Dylan:

Yeah, because that's where you definitely get probably one of my favorite lines from the movie. You're so cool, Brewster. Yeah, exactly. I can't stand it. I can't stand it.

Joe:

You don't have any favorite lines? Man, there's there's a couple. There's the you're you're so cool, Brewster. Uh, I like Welcome to Fright Night.

Dylan:

Yeah.

Joe:

For real. You know, he just yeah, the way he delivers that, it's just like, oh, it's go time. It's like time to throw down.

Dylan:

Yeah, you definitely know that you're getting ready for it.

Joe:

Yeah.

Dylan:

That was a good line, too. And I didn't write that down. Yeah. I was too into it at that moment, I guess.

Joe:

Yeah.

Dylan:

Yeah. The something I really enjoyed about this movie too is all of the practical effects that they did. I mean, the the transformations that they did, or uh the guy getting stabbed on the stairs and then just dissolving into goo in the sand and then oh, um uh Billy.

Joe:

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That was that was um compositing. And they did so for for that shot, they did three different composites and three different takes on the blue screen to make that happen. Um and and so like they're just there's just so much that went into it. And and that that guy was, you know, we didn't even mention him, but as a character, um, he's known as as a ghoul. And so a ghoul in vampire lore is a person that becomes like a slave to a vampire, and so he's he's like, you know, the the typical lore is like you get bit and then you drink the blood and then you become a vampire, right? So he's in this state of where he hasn't fully become been able to become a vampire, and so he becomes a slave of the vampire, so he's his servant, and so he can walk around during the day and help him with other things, and so he's probably like hundreds of years old as well. Okay, and so the reason why he like blew up the way he did when he died was because he was a ghoul and he had you know he was still part. That's why it wasn't until they stabbed him, staked him that he fully died. Man, okay, I didn't even realize yeah, it's just the horror like you know kind of genre thing that uh you know he's that's what he was because I always thought he was like a zombie or or something, right?

Dylan:

You know, and so yeah, that's that was yeah, and then going back to like evil ed's transformation. I I have to say I didn't quite follow along with everything there. Okay, because in my I guess in my mind, I was like, he was bitten by vampire, and then he is vampire, goes after the others. Peter Vincent, yeah. Yep, yep, goes after Peter Vincent, and then not until Peter Vincent goes to the Brewster's house to try to get Charlie's mom and phone lines cut, so goes upstairs to try to wake her up, and then uh evil Ed is the one in the bed, kinda kind of a scare there, right? And Peter runs out of the room and then a like just full-blown wolf comes out. Yeah. Not even like wolf man, just full-blown wolf.

Joe:

Yeah. Uh-huh.

Dylan:

And then charges Peter, gets staked.

Joe:

Yeah.

Dylan:

And then which also like getting staked with the table leg, yeah, that was pretty good. Yeah. Yeah. Because I was like, okay, how's he how's he gonna pull this off? How's this gonna happen? Yeah, and then with the table leg, I was like, that was good. That was good.

Joe:

Yeah. What I liked about that, and I'll I'll go back to to the wolf thing. What I liked about his Peter's character was that there was this like growth of him actually becoming Peter Vincent of like even better than Peter Vincent of the movies. Right. You know, like he he even tells himself at one point, I am Peter Vincent, you know, vampire killer.

Dylan:

Yeah, because he really goes through several transformations himself in the movies. Yeah. Of starts off as non-believer, and then we find out that he needs money, and you know, so he he does it for her money, yeah. And then finds out that he's actually a vampire, like not just you know, drinking fake holy water, tap water, right, and then finding out that he's a real vampire, yeah, and then just having kind of the spiral downwards from there of like, oh, I need to go, I need to hide, like, I just need to leave this alone, I need to get out of here, yeah. And then being, you know, them going to him and pleading to him for help because in their eyes, you know, he's the real deal.

Joe:

Yeah, yeah, he's the real deal to them, whether he says it or not. Right. He's built up this thing for years, and and and inside he's like, I'm not this person. I I you know I can't even afford to pay my bills right now. And right, I just got fired and you know, they canceled my show and and all this stuff, and and then and then like a real vampire thing happens. He's like, How am I gonna do this? How am I gonna pull this up?

Dylan:

Right, yeah, and it's cool too, because they even portray that in the movie when he doesn't have faith in the cross, yeah, yeah, yeah. So yeah, so yeah, it it just goes to show the kind of the uh what is it called? Like the the care the character arc. Yeah, yeah. I did it, yeah.

Joe:

Yeah, and so you know, at that point, he's just he's just ready to roll, he's ready to rock and roll, and he's done a lot of stuff by then. So when he meets evil ed, what happens with evil ed is that vampires can shape shift, and for some reason Ed chooses this wolf body as a shape shift, and so and that's how he chooses to attack him.

Dylan:

Oh, okay. Yeah, okay.

Joe:

So it's yeah, there's there's like they throw so much vampire lore that like you know, I I didn't understand that too for for a while, and and just was like, wait, he's a wolf, like I don't know why, right, you know, right.

Dylan:

We switched because like like for me watching it, I was sitting there thinking, I was like, are are we switching from from vampire into into werewolf now? Like I thought that was a different species, right? Exactly. Yeah. But that's a different movie entirely, yeah.

Joe:

Did we switch channels or something? Right. Why is he? But uh yeah, it it was uh just a shape shift, and that's what he chose. And I you know, that the way they wrote that, I you know, just watching it, you know, it's so emotional, you know, because you can see it in Peter Vince's eyes, like I just killed a kid. Right, you know, like inside he's like, I just killed this kid, and he's watching him like die. And or did he? But but he's just watching him go and and he's just like he wants like he's reaching out to him and he pulls back because he's like, I you know, I don't know if this is fake. I don't know, yeah, you know, so it's just yeah, it's a pretty emotional scene. And the and then the way they uh you know do some cuts, but they they they kind of do this like it's not seamless, but they they do a really good job of of transit you know transforming him, you know, back into uh human form from a wolf to you know and it's just like and and it's it's cool because they didn't show that initially, but they showed it at the end because it seems like he's struggling because he wants to keep the form of losing it, yeah. And so it yeah, it's just uh really cool scene. I was like, this is pretty emotional, man. What the heck? What are you doing? Tom Holland does it again, right?

Voice Over:

Are you tired of dates ending with bite marks and emotional trauma?

Dylan:

Jerry's Fang Club.

Voice Over:

Then join Jerry's Fang Club, the only neighborhood association that meets after sunset. We'll show you how to host dinner parties without accidentally eating the guests. Pick up a cape that really pops and master the art of the subtle hits. Jerry's Fang Club, where every member gets a real taste of the community.

Dylan:

Join the Fang Club, it's all that club.

Joe:

Jerry's Fang Club will have you by um yeah, it's it's very dark, it's very um yeah, smoky eighties. I think mostly because you could smoke anywhere in the 80s. Now it's definitely got an LA vibe. Uh yeah, yeah, because it that's where it's supposed to be. Gotcha. Or it's pretty much set and was, you know, uh, you know, filmed in LA and I think it was Universal or Paramount Backlot. You can kind of see, you know, that you know the neighborhood and things like that. And yeah um, you know, the downtown LA area. Um there's a little point where they're going to that club, and it actually reminds me of the corner, a corner in Butte. That metals is on. There's a there's a place called metals in Butte, and there's this little corner where it goes down. It starts to go like downhill. Yeah. Uh because Butte is just a bunch of hills and stuff like that. Right. Yeah. And it was like, I was like, oh, that that totally looks like that corner, but it's in LA, you know. But you know, it could be pretty much anywhere set anywhere. Yeah. Yeah.

Dylan:

Um and that's that's one of those things too, is that they don't purposefully pick a place to name so that it can more feel like oh, it maybe it's you know, maybe it's your neighbor.

Joe:

Yeah, exactly.

Dylan:

The music in it too was really good.

Joe:

Yeah, very synthy, very, you know, of the 80s.

Dylan:

Right, definitely of its time.

Joe:

Yeah, of its time. I I like it though. I think I think it's come back around. Yeah. The only thing, you know, I don't know if I said it already, but the only thing that I found cheesy was the actual soundtrack uh like uh the song for Fright Night. Oh yeah. Yeah, it it's like I just found like like I it's almost like they were going for a like up Ghostbusters vibe, but it's just did not hit the mark, you know.

Dylan:

Yeah, yeah, they were trying to kind of take over the the airwaves again, right?

Joe:

Yeah, trying to get the video, music video out, and yeah, you know, all that cool stuff.

Dylan:

And 'cause Ghostbusters was 84 and then this is 85, so it's the next year. Yeah. And so they're like they're seeing how much of a big hit that the Ghostbusters theme song was, right? And they're probably thinking to themselves, they're probably thinking, ooh, let's recreate that. Yeah. That you know, people playing that pretty much free advertising.

Joe:

Yeah. Yeah. And there's um the band that did it is called the Jay Giles Band, and they have a really good song out there called Angel in the Center Fold. And I'm not gonna go into that song, but uh they really uh they're a really good band. And so it's really, really hard to be like, oh man, that that song, you know, it was written by somebody else, so it was like, yeah, um, but you know, it's just hard because it's like this is not this it I just didn't feel like it fit them, you know, as a band.

Dylan:

And then with Tom Holland's d directing, um, he definitely did such a a good clever blend of the the the classic horror and then mixing in the actual suspenseful parts of it.

Joe:

Yeah, I think he threw in um a lot of Easter eggs if you're a fan, and new stuff if you're not, and you know, just yeah, great, great uh effects and things.

Dylan:

Yeah, it definitely seems to me to be I even thought it like while watching, I was like, I wonder how much of this stuff, like in the the vampire's house that is taken from like older movies. Uh-huh. And it's kind of one of those, if you know, you know. Right. But if not, you're just like, oh yeah, he's he's a collector. He liked a long time. Yeah.

Joe:

Yeah, there's definitely uh stuff in Peter Vincent's uh house, and you can see like um there is a Peter Cushing movie that's playing, and then there's like a Peter Cushing like um posters, yeah, and all the horror stuff. And I guess uh I read that there is actually a face like um kind of a mold of his own face in in the house.

Dylan:

Oh, is that that one was in the uh yeah, it's the white one, right? Yeah, that's in the apartment.

Joe:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, you can kind of see it. It it shows it really well at one point. Yeah, it does. Yeah.

Dylan:

So yeah, I even thought in the moment, I'm like, I bet that's something. Yeah, I don't know what it is. Right. You know, to me, it's just a mask. Yeah. So, but I'm like, I'm sure that's from something.

Joe:

Yeah. And Jared Dandridge, the funny thing is is that he has this corner. So when you walk in the house, it's on the left side uh of just clocks. And they show them later, but it's like, especially uh after the battle and everything and time has come, and it's like, but you really see all those clocks, it's like, whoa, like, you know, he's got clocks from all kinds of different places and styles and and all that kind of stuff.

Dylan:

Yeah, definitely like for some of some of my favorite scenes. I thought when Charlie was spying out the window and sees Jerry grow the fangs for the first time, uh-huh. Like that that was a good shot.

Joe:

Yeah.

Dylan:

Because you're it's one of those you're expecting it, but then the way it was done was well done, where you're like, I didn't fully anticipate this.

Joe:

Right. Yeah, and and it's funny because at that point the the woman that he's with doesn't seem bothered by anything and doesn't seem yeah, you know, but then you find out later that she's in a trance, and you know, not her particularly, but that's what he does is he puts them in a trance, yeah, and so they just are totally willingly going along with whatever he wants. Yeah, you know, so he's just like you know, Charlie's just blown away, like what what's going on? You know, right.

Dylan:

You saying that just rolls right into the nightclub scene later on where Jerry's pretty much you know, trying to seduce Amy, Amy, yeah, like you.

Joe:

Yeah, and and uh and he does, and and she's totally down, and it's like see.

Dylan:

I mean, she it's so good the way she portrayed that because you you just felt like she was totally wrapped in right in whatever he was doing.

Joe:

Yeah, she's like Charlie Who, you know. Right. I do like the nod to to him being a vampire and her realizing it even though even while she's in the trance.

Dylan:

Her trying to fight it and like it's clicking into place, but yeah, can she do something about it?

Joe:

Yeah, and she's you know, it's just that whole mirror shot of him disappearing and you know, like and her looking back and forth. Yeah, yeah, it's a good one.

Dylan:

Yeah.

Joe:

Um, you know, evil ed's transformation um of when he becomes a vampire, I I think there's a lot there because you know, he was a kid who was picked on. I think they were both kind of picked on, and they they became friends because they were picked on, but they would pick on each other, right? You know, and so like you just get that feeling of being a kid who's picked on, and you don't have very many friends, and this person comes to you and says, You can have all this power, right? You know, I'm offering you a way out of it, yeah, and and you can come with me, and he's like, Okay, yeah, like I you know, it it's it's sad, but it you know yeah, I mean it's definitely plays into Jerry's manipulation, right?

Dylan:

And like, you know, I think if Ed fully realized what was going to happen, he probably wouldn't have.

Joe:

Yeah, yeah. And I I think that's where Charlie's like a different, you know, different has different character as a as a person, and and it's just like can see past that. It's like no, I am not gonna, you know, because when they're in the bedroom and he's like, I'm gonna give you the chance that I wasn't given, you know. Right. And and he does kind of say like he's gonna let him go if he just leaves it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Dylan:

Cause he he says, You forget about me, I'll forget about you.

Joe:

Yeah, yeah.

Dylan:

And uh he did not forget or forgive. Yeah, yeah, there was no forgiveness. Yeah, I definitely really liked the scene where Peter Vincent realizes that oh crap, yeah, it's real.

Joe:

Yeah. Because he is totally down for like, let's go. And he's like, Yeah, he drank the water, you know, and and it was all an act at that point. Right. And then he just like looks in the mirror and he's like, What? Yep.

Dylan:

And so like I like to think that you, you know, something was probably nagging at him of something is not right with this, with this man. I'm gonna check the mirror real quick.

Joe:

Yeah.

Dylan:

Because it's just a little pocket mirror, right? It's not like it was a a great big mirror that was up on the wall or something.

Joe:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And yeah, it's just he still that has that inner Peter Vincent that that just can't let it go. Yeah. Right. And I think that's why he was fighting it when when he's trying to take off, because like, no, I don't want to do this, I don't want to be this person. Like, I don't want to fight, I don't wanna, you know, it's just I'm out of here, you know.

Dylan:

So with the with the finale scene too, I totally missed that they were windows at first until they started smashing them open and you could see the light beams.

Joe:

Yeah.

Dylan:

Cause I don't know if it was from where I was sitting or what, but to me, I was like, why is all of a sudden the wall has a hole in it and there's now light coming through when they're in the basement?

Joe:

Yeah, uh-huh.

Dylan:

So so yeah, it it took it definitely took me a second to realize that there was like supposed to be windows, yeah, yeah.

Joe:

And I'm sure that um Billy blacked them out and got that place ready. Right. You know, that was part of the process, right? Like they were probably like, uh, you know, future reference, we should probably just board up the windows. Right. Right.

Dylan:

I think maybe to me, I think that they should have made them a little more obvious, framed for windows. Yeah. I I don't know. I would ask you if you feel like it's recognizable or not, but you've also seen it so many times.

Joe:

No, I don't think it's obvious. I think it I don't know, maybe they're doing it that way or they wanted to do it that way just so that you know, um, yeah, it wouldn't be so obvious. Uh yeah.

Dylan:

But because they could maybe even frame it, you know, if we were kind of recreating that the the finale fight scene. Yeah. You know, if they framed it as something accidentally breaks a window, and they're like, oh, there's windows down here, yeah. And then they have to kind of go down the wall trying to find windows. I feel like that might be set up a little better than just oh, I don't know that there's you know the I've never been down in this basement before, yeah. But I felt like they knew right where to go for the windows.

Joe:

Yeah, I would have thought Charlie would have known because he lived next door and he would have known the perimeter of the house.

Dylan:

Oh, yeah, that's true. Yeah. So touching back on uh what did you call it? Comp composting? Compositing.

Joe:

Yeah, excuse me. Compositing. Composting is what they were doing with the bodies. Right. One's brand food, one's bill metadata. Yeah.

Dylan:

So so for that, you said that they took three three different shots for the same one. So do they just layer it together then?

Joe:

Yeah, so they had like a Billy on his own in a blues with a blue screen, and then he acted out the part. Okay. And then they had so here's the cool thing, and I looked into um so the effects artist had done multiple movies. He worked on Ghostbusters, he worked on um let's see, I have a whole list here. He worked on uh so it's Steve Johnson FX. He worked on pre-production for the Tim Burton Superman, which is like Nick Cage was supposed to be Superman, and he it ended up not happening, but you know, they kind of got like studios will will get effects houses and say, We're doing this movie, give us your best, and everybody puts in for a bid. It's just like contracting, you know. Oh, okay. So he did pre-production for that, for the Hulk, for Fantastic Four, for Ghost Ghostwriter. Um, he worked on Fright Knight, Ghostbusters, Spider-Man 2, Predator, so like the original Arnold Schwarzenegger Predator. Um so a lot of the stuff that he did was was practic try to do practical effects as much as he could. Um and so in that shot, on the on one hand, um he wanted to do so that on Billy for the main part, it was a Indiana Jones inspiration, and so he they wanted him to melt, and so they did like a sh, you know, slow melting effect. For example, if they took the the imprint of the if they took the left hand and they took the back of the right hand and made that a glove, then the left hand would push the fingers forward and it would look like the hand is melting backwards or towards the camera. And so they they're squeezing, you know, their their hand forward, but it looks like the hand is going backward.

Dylan:

And so oh yeah, yeah.

Joe:

So like things like that. Um, one of my favorite things, um, you know, we talked about the scene where he um Jerry comes and um goes to the house because he's already invited, and mom invites him in. Yeah, have a little drink. Yeah, that that scene too is just I mean, you kind of think of things as you as you go through, but like, you know, you see his hand on the chair, and then but so when he goes up to the room and they're fighting and and you know that that initial um I think I think when Charlie drew the line in the sand was when he stabbed him in the hand. And so what they did with that was um they took a they took a pencil that retracted in, and so when he stabbed it, it retracted. Yeah. Right? So, but then on the other side, they had they already had uh a uh prosthetic of a pencil that retracted out, and so as you turn your palm up, it's already there, but it looks like it just got stabbed through. So then when you pull the pencil out, it looks like it's coming out of the hand, and the the one underneath gets pulled fast so that you don't see right, so it's this one continuous shot of this pencil going in and coming out the other side, yeah. Um, and so like just things like that where you know it takes time and and money to make things better, and like that shot to some people might not be as significant, but it's so cool and looks so cool, and like you know, it just had such an effect in it. Like um, the these effects in this movie were just I mean, just yeah, out of the park, you know.

Dylan:

So I loved the idea of using a pencil as the you know, the the the to show the wooden stake, right?

Joe:

You know, it's like a great start, yeah. And the great thing about it too was like there's a genuine like um Jerry had a genuine reaction of like, oh, you're declaring war, like you know, right, it's go time, like yeah, and he was genuinely hurt by it, like like he was like physically in pain and it was like he was reeling back from it, yeah, yeah. And I I like how um in that whole thing with the cross and all that kind of stuff, like you you could see Charlie had the faith, you know, like Charlie Charlie was was was a believer yeah.

Dylan:

Going back real quick to the retractable pencil, too. Um I could I saw that it was a retractable pencil. Okay. Um I picked up on that, and I think that's partially to the horror makeup show at Universal Orband. Oh yeah, because they have a super similar one with a knife, yeah, yeah. And and show what is it? They're cut, you know, cutting through a person's arm. Uh-huh. And so then they have the blood with it. Yeah.

Joe:

Yeah. Yeah. I love that show, that makeup show. That that's the thing about like even with this movie that that makes me love that too, you know, because it's such a tribute to to all those monsters and early horror.

Dylan:

Yeah, but I definitely I definitely enjoyed the movie more because it did have all of those practical effects with it. And it wasn't just slap on some CGI and call it call it done.

Joe:

Right, right. And there was so much that, you know, with the like with the compositing, that's the the basically as far as you could go in the in that time, you know, is just compositing and yeah, putting together frames and and scenes or whatever to make that happen. But yeah, yeah, ultimately it was like, yeah, you had to figure out, okay, we gotta go from point A to B. How are we gonna do this? Or how did somebody else do it? And how can I do a little tribute to that, you know?

Dylan:

Yeah. And then what was up with all of like the apples and stuff throughout the movie? Because when he was first in the backyard and you could hear him crunching, yeah. I I I don't know, I thought that it was gonna be like a body part.

Joe:

Oh, that he was crunching on a body part, yeah. You see what I mean? Yeah, I do, I do. So like I guess Chris Sarandon's idea was that um that he would be part fruit bat. And so when any when a fruit bat um you know has kills its prey, it will eat fruit to cleanse its palate. Oh and so the idea is whenever you see him eating fruit, he had just oh yeah, he had just it's off somebody. Yeah. So oh, that's great. Yeah, it's like it's almost like you wish you knew that ahead of time or something, because like it's just like he's just really on a really healthy diet. Right.

Dylan:

Congratulations, like it must be nice. So I know when we were talking about doing this episode, you had specifically said the 85 version, so they they did a remake of it.

Joe:

Yeah, uh they did it with Colum Farrell. Um, and I haven't seen it. It didn't look really that great to me. Yeah. Um, like it's set in Vegas, it's modern, there's a modern take on it, and you know, I could see nightlife, Vegas, all that kind of thing maybe playing out, but I just I just haven't seen it. I haven't haven't tried to watch it. I mean, Colin Farrell's pretty good in some m movies, but it just didn't appeal to me.

Dylan:

Something else I noticed throughout um I felt like there was lots of like different inconsistencies throughout the movie. So like I'll give you some examples and you can tell me why I'm wrong. Okay. But so when when evil Ed turned into a vampire, it was right away. Yeah or we're kind of led to you know believe that a little more because he pretty much yeah, he turns around right away and pretty much goes to to Peter Vincent's and yeah, got let got invited in, right? Which is really good. Yeah. But then on the flip side of that, Amy turns slowly, uh-huh. And he's like, Well, you have until just before dawn to you know save her.

Joe:

Yeah.

Dylan:

And then also on the same hand, Amy knew right away to be weary of the holy symbol, yeah. You know, that it was was bad, right, you know, for her.

Joe:

Uh-huh.

Dylan:

And then it seemed like Ed did not. Which I know that one is a little more of Ed is going to bite Peter, and then Peter, you know, quick thinking gets the cross out. Gets the cross out, but I feel like with where it was, like Ed kind of saw it coming a little more.

Joe:

Yeah. I mean, I don't know. I feel like once he got the crossout, he knew. Yeah. And and then that's why it burned the heck out of him, because it was like Yeah.

Dylan:

Yeah. I mean, that one can be explained away a little easier than the whole timeline thing. Yeah. Which I get, you know, we gotta we gotta do plot here. Yeah. But you know, yeah, I just thought that that was kind of a for me, that was a big inconsistency. That like if I manage to consider that while watching the movie, yeah, like I feel like that's kind of a big hole.

Joe:

Yeah.

Dylan:

Also, why did Amy's hair grow longer and change color?

Joe:

Yeah. I mean, even in even in it. Even in well, even in the dancing scene, her hair changes.

Dylan:

Does it?

Joe:

It does.

Dylan:

Hole.

Joe:

Yeah. I think it was just part of his charisma. Like it was just like trying to show like the um how much influence he would have.

Dylan:

Yeah. I get, you know, to kind of form her in his in his will or whatever, or to his will.

Joe:

Yeah.

Dylan:

But also like the ending was so good. Like the actual ending where where it's Ed, or we know it's Ed, uh-huh, looking from the darkened window. Yeah.

Voice Over:

That was so good.

Dylan:

Yeah. I know.

Joe:

I I don't I think you missed it, but initially there was you seen real quick these red eyes. Yeah. And then that's why uh Charlie was looking, started to look over. Oh, okay. And then he's like, What the heck? You know, and then Right. I think I see some. Yeah. And then and then he he does show himself. And man, I was ready for a sequel, you know.

Dylan:

Yeah, it's set, I mean, it sets it up like pretty pretty perfectly.

Joe:

Yeah, and it took a while. I think the next one came out in 88, but there's actually what confused me, I was, you know, so if the second one came out in 88, um the uh I would have been eight or nine. So there was a movie in between called 976 Evil, and it was with the same actor. So it it I thought it was a sequel because it was called 976 Evil, and but I hadn't seen it, so I didn't know, and uh come to find out it wasn't a sequel at all. But that could have been he could have had his own sequel, yeah, you know, like uh evil ed sequel, and you know, maybe he's trying to build up vampires or you know, like it could have been, but yeah, we'll never know.

Dylan:

Is it when a vampire bites somebody and turns them into a vampire that they are now kind of subservient to? Kind of their the original one?

Joe:

Yeah, pretty much. Okay, and so you have like a master, and you know, and the the second one, uh, I guess it's a sister that comes after Charlie. Oh so yeah.

Dylan:

We're gonna have to add that one to the watch list. Right. All right. Well, how many wooden stakes out of ten would you rate this?

Joe:

Oh I'm gonna pull a Dave. I'll probably give it eight.

Dylan:

Solid eight. Um coming in. Eight stakes. Number eight. Number eight.

Joe:

Um Right Night.

Dylan:

Yeah, I would I would probably have said seven or eight. Yeah. So I I yeah, yeah, I I totally agree with that. Nice. Um kind of like we said at the top of the episode, like not as not as cheesy as I thought it was gonna be. Yeah. Like truly got into it and and enjoyed it.

Joe:

Yeah, yeah. It it pulls you in and and you know, all the buildup of all the characters of you know, it doesn't take too long to build all that up because even Peter Vincent's introduced right away. All three of them are introduced right away. Yeah, it's just you know, you just find out that Peter Vincent isn't who you think he is at first, and then he becomes the Peter Vincent he needs to be. That we need him to be. That we need him to be, that we deserve. Yep.

Dylan:

Do you think that it uh that it still holds up as a Halloween staple?

Joe:

I think so. I I really do. I think there's enough, especially there's enough fans out there that you know, with with all the amount of vampire movies that there are, I think it it fits right in with all of those.

Dylan:

Um it just yeah, it's it's a pretty yeah, because you were you were kind of talking about how you wish you had more time for spooky season to fit in more more spookies.

Joe:

Yeah, yeah. There's Lost Boys, um American Werewolf in London, you know, just just to get you know a few more would be great.

Dylan:

Yeah. Well, maybe we'll sprinkle them in throughout the first season.

Joe:

Yeah.

Dylan:

But yeah, I definitely think it's it definitely does a great job of balancing your you know, your camp and and creepy.

Joe:

Yeah, yeah. And and yeah, it again, it it's I feel like it's more comedic than it is campy. And they even put that first clip of Peter Vincent to to be like they're like, we're not gonna be this. Right, right. And so a keynote on that that I hadn't noticed until it was pointed out, is in that shot when Peter Vincent puts up the stake, he actually has it backwards, and so the flat end is towards the that's funny.

Dylan:

I did not pick up on that. Yeah. But yeah, definitely goes to show his character is not quite what he's you know cracked up to be there. Yeah, yeah.

Joe:

But you gotta you gotta give it to Roddy McDonnell. He's great actor and just you know, had a great part.

Dylan:

Yeah, for sure.

Joe:

So next week we're switching the tables, we're turning the tables on our episodes. So so far, all of these episodes, uh, all of these movies you haven't seen, Dylan. So we're actually gonna do a movie that I haven't seen. That's right. Focus focus.

Dylan:

Which how have I seen that and not you?

Joe:

I don't know. I do not know. I know the actresses in it are amazing. Yeah, it's so good.

Dylan:

But yeah, that's I and that's not one that I grew up watching, it's just one that I got introduced to fairly recently, a couple years ago, and have watched every year since.

Joe:

Yeah, yeah.

Dylan:

So, but yeah, I'm super excited to to be able to do that one next week. So keep an eye out for that one. All right. So thank you guys for listening. And if you have any favorite scenes in Fright Knight that we did not cover, let us know.

Joe:

If you have any favorite movies that you want us to cover, let us know as well. There's likely a chance that Dylan hasn't seen him, and there's a slim chance that I haven't seen a movie or two.

Dylan:

Check out the socials, all the links to everything are down in the description. And that's all for this week. And remember, keep your windows closed. You never know who might be watching. You're so cool, Brewster.