After years of Twilight and True Blood, you’d be forgiven for thinking that most vampires’ reason for being is to moon over the opposite sex and play chess. The past few years might also have given you cause for thinking that Colin Farrell was a flash in the pan after inaugurating the decade with high-profile leads in disappointing, derivative movies. Fortunately, the remake of Fright Night is here to set you straight on both counts: It stars Farrell as the malevolent vampire who lives next door to Anton Yelchin — the kind of vamp who only has eyes for pretty high school girls when he intends to suck their blood — and it’s a welcome development to see Farrell sink his fangs into something this juicy. The Irish actor has spent the last few years doing character work (most impressively in this year’s The Way Back) and now he’s using that time in the trenches to freshen up studio movies like Horrible Bosses and Fright Night. The lesson? Don’t put a stake in Farrell just yet.
