Film in Preview

Yes, it's another vampire movie. But don't roll your eyes and break out your cloves of garlic just yet. There are no sparkling sex symbols here, no unrequited romances, and absolutely no signs of Taylor Lautner's abs. This, according to star David Tennant, is a return to 'proper horror'.

“It's an old-school vampire that will rip your head off just because he can,” the former 'Doctor Who' star and Royal Shakespeare Company veteran explains.  “That's it. That appeals to me because those are the horror films I grew up with. That's not to denigrate the enormously popular movies we're referencing - as if I could denigrate them - but I think it's nice, in amongst all that, to have a bit of old school horror as well.”

But director Craig Gillespie's 'Fright Night' remake - much like the 1985 original - is more than just a vampire movie. It balances sincere scares (Colin Farrell is genuinely frightening as the vampire who moves in next door to average teen Anton Yelchin) with genuine laughs (the supporting cast includes Christopher 'McLovin' Mintz-Plasse).  
“Getting the tone right was always going to be what would make or break it,” says Tennant. “It's getting those moments of light heartedness, those moments of quite broad comedy, mixed in with some proper horror and some real jump-out-your-seat frights. It's got some genuinely scary moments, and that's what Craig got absolutely right, that rather elusive tone which I think completely makes the film.
“It's very hard to see why the director of 'Lars And The Real Girl' should be such a good choice for 'Fright Night', but (what both films do) very cleverly is confound your expectations of what the movie's going to be.”

Tennant steals the film as vampire expert Peter Vincent, the character that best straddles the line between the film's horror and comedy elements.
“He's a Las Vegas illusionist,” Tennant explains. “He has a show on the strip at the Hard Rock Hotel. I think it's probably fair to say he's seen better days. He's still quite a big deal, but certainly his personal life is on the skids, even if his professional life is limping on. He has this fantastic magic show, but under the long black wig, there's a slightly bitter, unhappy man who drinks too much and has some dark secrets from the past …”

It's the wildly popular Scottish actor's first major horror role, but he knows how to handle the attentions of genre fans.
“It's a minefield, the world of the horror fan… (but) they're not scary! I think enthusiasts for a genre are exactly that, enthusiastic, and often that can be quite a fervent enthusiasm. But I don't find that alarming or scary. I suppose I'm quite possibly used to it from other things I might have done.
“I think it's wonderful, actually. I think it's great to get excited and thrilled and worked up about that kind of stuff, because, you know, why not? It's a great thing to be a fan of something, and to be charged up about something, and to have strong opinions and debates.”

After making himself known to fans of most genres, there's still one Tennant is proud to call himself a 'fan' of.
“I'm really enjoying the superhero boom at the moment,” he says, “because I grew up with all those comic books and imagined what it would be like to have movies of the X-Men and Iron Man and so on. I mean, I remember the 'Spider-Man' TV movies in the '80s, which were a little bit hokey, but I loved all that. Now we've got all these movies being made so brilliantly, with such love… I'm really enjoying that as a fan.”

Tennant has long said he only wanted to become an actor so he could appear in 'Doctor Who'. Now that he's well and truly done that, you have to wonder where he finds inspiration.
“I suppose it's just as basic as reading a script that makes you want to be part of it,” he says. “You kind of know when it happens. It's hard to define, but you read something and it touches you or excites you or moves you… That's my motivation, really, just finding whatever's next and getting to do a variety of exciting things.”

'Fright Night' is released on September 15.