Fright Nights relived
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: A 17-year-old teen moves to a new house and quickly comes to believe that his next door neighbour is some sort of mythical monster. He tries to convince the grown-ups, but they aren’t having a bar of it, openly wondering whether our hero has been at the medicine cabinet, again.
But, with the help of a few plucky friends, an understanding girlfriend and some ancient remedies, our boy defeats the evil, only to confront a nasty twist in the tale, just when we think everything has turned out all right and the forces of nastiness aren’t going to get a sequel.
Yep, the film was Fright Night. And in 1985, you could barely walk down a central Wellington street without being trampled by impressionable young men kitted out in floor-length black great coats, as vampires and their chums enjoyed a late renaissance.
So, imagine my delight, about 10 minutes into The Wretched – happily turning up on big screens all over the rohe – to realise that what I was watching was a welldone and hellishly enjoyable homage to Tom Holland’s cultish and beloved debut. But with everything from Rear Window to The Sixth Sense thrown in for good measure.
The Wretched subs in a primal witch to take the place of the Fright Night vampire, but otherwise follows the beats of the earlier film like it truly knows what it’s doing.
I also much appreciated the reliance on in-camera special effects and some thunderously good makeup and prosthetics to deliver the witch to the screen.
There’s plenty of digital enhancement, sure, but the SFX heavy lifting in The Wretched is done by a film-crew, on set and in the makeup rooms. It’s a joy.
So, while The Wretched won’t enter into the pantheon of this unexpected golden-age of decent, smart horrors we are living through – it’s no Babadook, It Follows, Get Out or A Quiet Place – this is still a smart, affectionate, likeable and well-made movie, with a couple of extremely well-wrought scares to commend it.
The Wretched is screening now.