Tennant’s Two Voices

I am a geek. I’m a big geek, I have a comic book collection, I have ‘action figures’ still in the packet, I’ve even been inside a Games Workshop, although I do draw the line at war gaming and dressing like elves. As a child I’d watch anything that involved aliens, monsters, robots, or monster alien robots, and so I am a fan of Dr.Who.

I didn’t become a fan while the original series was still being made, I was around eight or nine when that was still in production, I remember watching it as a family, but only vaguely. I did have a Sylvester McCoy action figure and a couple of Daleks, which I bought at Longleat, back when they had the Exhibition. However it wasn’t until I was in my early teens that actually got into it.

I had a couple of friends, still do, who on numerous occasions would talk about characters and storylines, they had like me grown up with the programme, they were fans. It was after hearing many a Who related conversation which I couldn’t remotely follow, I decided to borrow a video of the programme, see what all the yapping was about, I don’t remember which one it was now, wish I did, it would be cool to pinpoint where my obsession began. So anyway I borrowed a video, and then another, and another, and the rest is history.

Now part of fandom involves taking an interest in other projects involving major players and cast members connected to your obsession. Not religiously watching something just because Christopher Eccleston is in it, but it is the reason I have seen episodes of both Secret Diary of a Call Girl, and Law & Order UK, as well as the horrendous Syfy version of Sherlock Holmes.

It’s this passing interest that first brought my attention to the Fright Night remake, starring doctor number ten, David Tennant, who displays marvellously within the film one of his two voices. His first voice is his natural voice, the one framed in a Scottish accent; the second is his English voice. The voice of the Doctor.

The original Fright Night, like a lot of eighties movies, has somewhat of a cult status, and given my love of eighties movies I was surprised I’d never seen it until recently, picking up a copy just after the remake was released.

I was looking forward to seeing the potential eighties gem, unfortunately I was somewhat disappointed. The premise was good, but the characters were either quite bland or incredibly annoying, a prime example of this is main character of bland Charlie and his best friend, the most irritating character since the bellhop in The Hudsucker Proxy. Okay technically Fright Night was made first, but remember the number one rule; this blog is all about my movie year and the order in which I experience films.

For me the only cool part about the film was the character of Peter Vincent, the only character you don’t despise or instantly forget about. The cool thing about Peter Vincent, and here’s where we get some fanboy symmetry, is played by David Tennant in the remake, and Roddy McDowell in the original. Being a big fan of the Planet of the Apes films it was cool to see McDowell play something other than a chimpanzee. The same character being played by two key players in two franchises which I love.

Basically the original, excuse the pun, sucks, but then such a pun only works if you know the film is about a vampire moving in next door, which is also something I have neglected to mention until now. Just assume I had laid out the facts, and groan accordingly.

Before I move on to the remake I must appease the fact gods with a knowledge sacrifice. The original Fright Night was written and directed by Tom Hollander. Hollander’s other major success was that of writer and director of fellow eighties cult horror Child’s Play. He is also the uncle of Offspring frontman Dexter Hollander. The gods are smiling.

Either Mr Hollander wasn’t happy with his original, and subsequent sequel, or he thought to himself ‘if anyone’s going to fuck it up its going to be me’, taking an active part in the remake’s story. But without being able to ask him I can’t say whether he’s happy with them or not, I can however say nothing was fucked, its been greatly improved upon. Obviously all the credit isn’t down to him; there was a new director, an excellent new cast featuring Toni Collette, Anton Yelchin, Collin Farrell and the previously ejaculated over Tennant. Hollander, along with screenwriter Marti Noxon, have greatly improved the script, rearranging elements of the story, offering much better dialogue and far more rounded characters, but then Hollander has had the best part of twenty years to mull it over.

Going back to the title of this rambling word vomit, Tennant’s two Voices. There is nothing wrong with his acting, or the accent he uses, it’s the previous association that voice has. When we first meet his character, Peter Vincent is dressed as his stage persona, long black wig, stick on beard and wash away tattoos, and before he removes all these things the voice is fine, he looks nothing like the tenth doctor. But when he does the voice is a little disconcerting, while he sits there rubbing his leather clad crouch and telling people to fuck off. Once you’ve made the mental adjustment everything works out fine.

It looks like this ramble may actually be approaching something close to real writing, having a beginning, middle and an end. A sense of continuity. Let’s not ruin it and keep talking.