Jerry Dandrige

Fright Night is a 1985 American horror film written and directed by Tom Holland and produced by Herb Jaffe. It stars William Ragsdale, Chris Sarandon, Roddy McDowall and Amanda Bearse. The film's plot follows young Charley Brewster who discovers that his next-door neighbor, Jerry Dandrige, is a vampire. When no one believes him, Charley decides to get Peter Vincent, a Vampire Hunter TV show host, to stop Jerry from starting a massive killing spree. The film was released on August 2, 1985 and was followed by a sequel, Fright Night Part 2 in 1988, and a reboot in 2011 starring Colin Farrell.

Jerry Dandrige (portrayed by Chris Sarandon)

Jerry Dandrige as portrayed in the original film has been variously interpreted as gay, bisexual and metrosexual. Literary critic John Kenneth Muir noted instances in the original film in which Dandrige and another male character are posed in potentially sexual positions. These include a scene in which Dandrige's male companion, Billy Cole, kneels before Dandrige. Cole is dressing a wound Dandrige has received but Muir found the position reminiscent of fellatio. Dandrige's speech to "Evil" Ed Thompson in which Dandrige convinces Ed to become a vampire is also cast in the language of homosexual seduction, in which Ed is placed in a physically submissive stance and Dandrige speaks of Ed's outsider status in language that echoes the outsider status of homosexuals in the 1980s.

Anthropologist Paul Clough and cultural critic, Jon P. Mitchell, characterized Dandrige as "beautiful but strange" and a man interested in seeking out relationships with young boys and young girls. Dandrige introduces Charley to homosexuality, bisexuality and, through his victims, prostitution. According to Fright Night editor Kent Beyda, writer/director Tom Holland deliberately set out to insert homosexual imagery into the film. He confirmed that the scene in which Cole goes to his knees in front of Dandrige was intended to evoke homosexuality as part of Holland's intent to explore every sexual aspect of the vampire myth.

Jerry Dandrige (portrayed by Colin Farrell)

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