[5]

A charmless, mediocre retelling of the 1985 cult favorite about a high school boy who discovers a vampire has moved in next door. Despite being penned by Buffy the Vampire Slayer alum Marti Noxon, the script moves far too fast, passing every opportunity to build tension or suspense. Colin Farrell is better than usual as the vamp, but he can’t conjure half the swagger that Chris Sarandon had in the ’85 version. I was intrigued by the casting of Anton Yelchin and Toni Collette, but their talent is mostly wasted. David Tennant’s performance as a Las Vegas showman (an ugly reimagining of Roddy MacDowall’s TV horror host character) strikes a sour note, and the lazy casting of gitchy Christopher Mintz-Plasse as Evil Ed is probably the most blasphemous crime of all. I can gripe forever, but at least the film is watchable. I enjoyed the desolate Las Vegas setting and the climax is better paced than the original. But overall, why watch this version when there’s another with three times the character, style, and heart?