Fright Night Promotional Poster (1985)

The Fright Night promotional poster hung on the wood-paneled walls of the record/smoking paraphernalia/video rental store that briefly existed at the front of Brockway Roller Rink in Saginaw, Michigan. The most important thing about this video shop is that I could walk to it without having to cross any busy streets. The poster hung near the cash register, so I regularly stood next to it or underneath it if there were any line at all. I would stare at the poster, memorizing the details, intrigued by the face in the storm clouds, the mischievous grin with its too many teeth that didn’t quite fit and the various hell beasts/lost souls framing the face. I assumed this was a haunted house film, probably because The Amityville Horror was fresh in my mind—the first horror movie I saw, late at night, grandparents asleep, tv turned down low, with my brother, cousin, and I lying on our stomachs, faces close to the screen, nervously glancing over our shoulders any time something gross or scary happened, making sure we weren’t going to be caught watching something we weren’t supposed to be watching. The Fright Night poster read demons to me, not vampires. I imagined the house was evil, like in Amityville, possessed by something dark and mysterious. I didn’t get to rent the video, and in fact, didn’t see the movie until many years later, but the poster loomed large in my imagination, encouraging me to imagine various possibilities of what took place there—the tornado of a demon bearing down on a lone house, wreaking havoc for all who enter its doors. When I finally saw the movie, it couldn’t live up to the legend I created in my head—and how could it? The movie would get a different rating, but this is a review of the poster: 5 out of 5 sacs of blood.

—Gina Myers