Fright Night star Chris Sarandon almost turned down the film based on the title alone

Chris Sarandon, who plays vampire Jerry Dandridge in Fright Night, almost turned down the film when he saw the title.

A few months ago and thirty-nine years after the production of the vampire classic Spooky night (Watch HERE), several members of the film’s cast met with writer/director Tom Holland (and were joined by special guests Mark Hamill and Rosario Dawson) for a live reading of the script, which will be released as episodes of the Table Read podcast – and in fact, the first part of that reading has already been released. You can find it by clicking on the Table Read website. A ComicBook.com staffer was present at the live reading and had the opportunity to speak with Holland and Chris Sarandon, who played vampire Jerry Dandridge in the film. During the conversation, Sarandon mentioned that he almost died Spooky night as soon as he saw the title!

Holland told ComicBook.com that work on Spooky night Was “the best experience I’ve ever had directing a film. I mean, none of them were as easy as this one, and that’s because a whole bunch of wonderful things came together and I was too inexperienced to know that. See, I had Richard Edlund doing the effects, and it was the whole Ghost Hunters Crew that Columbia literally wanted to keep because they thought they would make a sequel to Ghost Hunters immediately. And of course it was years later, so they kept Richard Edlund, Steve Johnson, Randy Cook, I mean, brilliant camera effects guys. (The studio) thought the movie wasn’t going to do any business. But they had a spot in their schedule for a small movie. So they gave me this idea, $9 million, and they didn’t hassle me because there were no stars in it. There wasn’t a lot of money at stake. They weren’t expecting anything. The movie of the time that everyone was watching was called, I think, Perfect with John Travolta and Jamie Lee Curtis. So they didn’t think about me at all and I had no interference. They did push me to cut at the very end when Jerry Dandrige was on the roof banging his elbow on the chimney. But other than that, I got everything I wanted. So nobody pushed me about the casting… So it was an extraordinarily wonderful experience… The more money that goes into a film, the more executives are sent to the set and the more pressure and interference there is.“

Sarandon said: “We made this film at a time when the vampire film genre had a pretty bad reputation. And it had a wonderful, exhilarating effect on the genre and also on the return of fans who love these films… When I first read it, it was the sample script, and I looked at the title and said, “No, I can’t make a film called Spooky night. I’m a serious actor.’ When I started reading it, I immediately thought, ‘Oh my God, this is great. This is really well done, well written. I really need to meet this guy, Tom.’ I flew to California, and he and I sat and talked for a couple of hours. When we finished, and he was literally describing every shot to me, he said, ‘Okay, this is how I’m going to shoot you.’ And then he said, ‘This is the beginning, and this happens and this, and I’m getting close to that.’ … And when he finished, I said, ‘Jesus Christ, this is a first-time director?’ He’s a cinephile and he’s written a number of films in the past, and I just thought, ‘I need to work with this guy.’ It’s been a love affair ever since.“

To read more about what Holland and Sarandon had to say, head over to ComicBook.com.

Spooky night has the following summary: Teenager Charley Brewster is a horror movie junkie, so it’s no surprise that when his reclusive new neighbor Jerry Dandridge moves in next door, Brewster is convinced he’s a vampire. It’s also no surprise that no one believes him. But when strange events start happening, Charlie has no choice but to turn to the only person who might be able to help him: washed-up TV vampire killer Peter Vincent.

Are you a fan of Spooky nightand are you glad Chris Sarandon didn’t skip the movie after all? Let us know by leaving a comment below.