Directed by Tom Holland (1985)
by Nikkolas Nelson

Fright Night is an allegory, pun intended, for sexual identity and the homophobia specific to the United States circa 1985, most notably driven by the rising AIDS epidemic. Jerry Dandridge is an asexual vampire (supernatural creature) posing as a homosexual aristocrat who moves next door to 17 year-old Charley Brewster and his mother. Charley’s mother comments that “He (Jerry) has a live-in interior decorator. With my luck? Probably gay,” and this is perhaps a very intentional guise for Jerry. It potentially invites fewer questions from neighbors about his lifestyle as the years roll on without them seeing a wife and children, allowing Jerry the privacy he requires to kill people. Also, Jerry is seen consistently eating fruit. It’s a rare habit for a vampire to eat any food at all, a nod to, perhaps, the derogatory term ‘fruit’ (Jerry’s disguise) popular at the time but more specifically represents the fruit of carnal knowledge that Jerry represents; not just the knowledge of sex but also its inherent revelations of sexual identity.