Don’t Trust the Neighbors.

Two new remakes in the trailer-bin: Anton Yelchin doesn’t cotton much to Mom Toni Collette’s potential new boyfriend next door, Colin Farrell, in Craig Gillespie’s 2011 edition of Tom Holland’s Fright Night, also with Christopher Mintz-Plasse as Evil Ed and — though he’s not seen much in this clip — David Tennant as Peter Vincent, Vampire Killer. As I said here, Fright Night was one of my Halloween standbys growing up, so I hope this one works out.

And, also out today, James Marsden and Kate Bosworth run into some trouble with Alexander Skarsgard and the local yokels in Rod Lurie’s remake of Sam Peckinpah’s Straw Dogs. Even with the switch from Hammer Horror England to the Deliverance South, I’m not sure Straw Dogs needed to be remade — and it seems doubtful that Screen Gems is the studio to improve on the disturbing original. We’ll see.

The Vampires (Back) Next Door.

Hit-Girl trades in butterfly knives for fangs (and a Rubik’s cube) as the first stills emerge from Matt’s Reeves forthcoming Let Me In, i.e.,the potentially-unnecessary American remake of Let the Right One In, with Chloe Moretz ((500) Days of Summer, Kick-Ass), Kodi Smit-McPhee (The Road), and the venerable Richard Jenkins (The Visitor, Six Feet Under.) Well, so far it looks a lot like the original, I’ll give it that. (Although, as an observant AICN’er noted, why is Eli/Moretz wearing a hoodie? That was part of the eeriness of the original, that this tiny girl was somehow not feeling the frigid Swedish winter.)

And, elsewhere on the neighborly vampire re-make front, Anton Yelchin’s Charlie Brewster now has his Jerry Dandridge: Apparently, Colin Farrell is taking Chris Sarandon’s role in the remake of Fright Night. (Toni Collette also joins as Charlie’s mom.) Well, I would’ve preferred Mark Strong, but that works too. Now, on to casting the crucial part of Peter Vincent, nee Roddy McDowell. (And perhaps Christopher Mintz-Plasse as Evil Ed?)

Yelchin, You’re So Cool!

Breaking while in the BVI: Anton Yelchin of Star Trek and the McG Terminator is cast in the William Ragsdale role for a reboot of Fright Night. “The updated version, written by Marti Noxon (‘Mad Men‘), is expected to keep the comedy-horror tone while modernizing the effects.“

True, there are a lot of unnecessary remakes being made right now, but this is pretty great casting, and Fright Night was one of my Halloween staples growing up. Now, as an AICN’er pointed out, how ’bout Mark Strong as Jerry Dandridge (the Chris Sarandon role)?