Yes, I know I said I wasn’t going to cover another religious topic tonight. And strictly, I’m not, but this is tangentially related.
As stated previously, I’m not a big fan of horror movies. There are a few I’ve watched, and surprisingly, I’ve watched them more than once. One of those is the movie Fright Night the original from 1985 starring William Ragsdale, Roddy McDowall and Chris Sarandon.
This is one of those movies that has one scene that I absolutely love.
Warning! Spoilers ahead. Not that I think it needs to be said because the movie has been out forty (40) years now, but you never know.
Anyway, the basic set up is that Charlie (played by William Ragsdale) has a new neighbor, Jerry Dandridge (Chris Sarandon), move in next door. Turns out, though, that Jerry is a vampire. Bad luck for Charlie.
Charlie gets obsessed over Jerry, spying on him, after seeing some strange things, like two men moving a coffin into Jerry’s house in the middle of the night. He finally figures out Jerry is indeed a member of the blood-sucking undead. And Jerry knows that Charlie knows.
Fast forward – Charlie is looking for ways to protect himself when he comes across Peter Vincent (Roddy McDowall), a washed up actor who is now a horror movie host, whose persona is a vampire slayer.
Charlie ends up recruiting Peter Vincent in his crusade against Jerry. Jerry abducts Charlie’s girlfriend, so Charlie and Peter enter Jerry’s house to retrieve her. And here is where my favorite scene comes in.
As our heroes ascend the staircase, Jerrry comes out to meet them. Charlie asks where his girlfriend, Amy, is. Jerry says he has her and they just need to get past him to get her.
Peter Vincent steps forward, boldly brandishing a cross, trying to drive Jerry back. Jerry just laughs, grabs the cross and crushes it. “You have to have faith for this to work on me.”
The look on Roddy McDowell’s face is fantastic. It only lasts a second or two but it is great.
Take a look for yourself.
The rest of the film mixes humor and horror, balancing them out enough to make the movie enjoyable for me.
Do you have any movies that are from a genre you don’t usually watch but you found were worth watching, my Hordeling? If so, hit reply and let me know.
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