Chafing At The Fangs: The Reboot Genre Experiences Some Growing Pains
I went into Fright Night 3D with a cautious optimism. The film had a surprising 74% on Rotten Tomatoes, but had been met with mostly “meh” by the geek community. This was additionally shocking as a movie like this one should be pure nerdbait. “Let’s remake an obscure 80s horror comedy with Chekov from Star Trek and Doctor Who!” But walking out of the film (which I mostly liked, by the way), I had a chilling thought: “Man, the reboot they do of this movie in 15 years is gonna be awesome.”
And it will be, because the parts of Fright Night that I thought worked, the bits that had me laughing out loud with glee, was the new stuff. Colin Farrell’s Jerry, a douchebag Dracula, is a warning to Charlie about the dangers of abandoning your true self (see Evil Ed, Charlie’s absentee father, etc.), and joining the cool crowd. That’s a damn solid metaphor to build your horror movie around. Equating vampirism to loss of virginity, a vampire tearing down a house to get around the whole “invitation” loophole, the monster design that combines a bloodsucker’s snarl with Ferrel’s “cool guy” smirk. I almost wanted to hear Farrell quip, “I never drink…Budwieser.” Screenwriter and Buffy the Vampire Slayer vet Marti Noxon has loaded this script with enough ideas to fill a season of…well, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (I promise not to mention Buffy anymore in this article).
But the doting mom, Evil Ed’s disappearance, and – most sadly for this Whovian- the repeated need to travel back to the Vegas strip to consult with Peter Vincent, all keep the film from stretching its fangs. Indeed, these characters play such a minor narrative roll that their inclusion feels a little like fan service. You’re telling me a kid who looks up how to pick locks on his cell phone needs a magician to tell him how to stake a vampire? Go watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer, kid (I lied)!
I imagine that a fair amount of the geek displeasure with the film came from the relegation of these beloved horror characters to unnecessary plot fumbles. Why have them in the movie at all? The answer, of course, is because they were in the original. This is a hard and fast convention of the “Reboot Genre”- and make no mistake, it is a genre, with its own conventions and patterns. Chief amongst these is the repurposing of a preexisting story or character to hopefully present those elements in a new light. Unfortunately, all too often it means plucking liberally from the source material and tweaking it a just a little bit to achieve a giddy, nerdgasmic thrill for nostalgia’s sake. It reminds me of the early days of Marvel’s Ultimate line of comics, which devolved into an endless parade of takes on old Marvel characters. “Our Venom was the cure for cancer!” “Our Deadpool is actually Professor X!” * It’s more clever than engaging, and makes some of these remakes seem “less than” the originals when they really aren’t. Hence the old “Why can’t they come up with original ideas instead of mucking up the things I love?” defense.
Let me be clear: I have nothing against remakes/reboots. I feel a remake/reboot should play the same role as a theatrical revival, finding a unique take or theme on the material and picking and choosing elements in service to that theme. It’s that thinking that gave us Rise of the Planet of the Apes, a “reimagining” that takes a simple premise- apes evolve and take over earth- and uses it to tell a ripping prison break story focusing on animal (and human) rights. I give the filmmakers tremendous credit for not naming the orangutan in that movie “Zaius.”
And if it’s the characters that interest you, look at J.J. Abrams’ recent Star Trek reboot. You get the same quirky dynamic of the original Enterprise crew, and throw them in an entirely new, more action-adventury scenario. I don’t need to see a flashy 21st century take on Kahn. Take what you need to tell your story, scrap the rest. Hell, the original Fright Night could be seen as a good reboot of the original Dracula story- “I’ve gotta save my virginal girlfriend from our creepy new vampire neighbor with the help of this crazy old guy.”
Again, I really dug Fright Night 3D. Hell, I’m just happy to have a good, straight up “Let’s kill some vampires” movie again; it’s been too long since Blade 2. I just can’t help but think the interesting meditation on adolescence the filmmakers were going for somehow chafed up against the perceived “requirements” of a reboot. We’re staring down the barrel of a bunch more reboots in the coming years (although superhero origin stories like The Amazing Spider-Man and Superman: Man of Steel are an entirely different matter for an entirely different post). Here’s hoping they learn from the past without being beholden to it.
*Granted the push for new ideas gave us Spider-Man versus this guy, so what do I know?
**I have a good friend who hates the Star Trek movie because he thinks it’s erased The Next Generation from existence. I haven’t told him about “The New 52” yet.
