'Fright Night' Gets a Hand from 'Dr. Who' David Tennant

Oh, what the Hell would David Tennant know about character reinvention, anyway?

It's not like 2005 made him a sci-fi icon by taking up the mantle of The Doctor, following in Christopher Eccleston on the BBC's resurrection its legendary time-traveling, universe-saving, Dalek-whupping "Doctor Who" saga. That only brought a brand new generation of fans before their own personal Time Lord Jesus.

So if someone must succeed Roddy McDowall and play the enigmatic Peter Vincent in a much talked-about "Fright Night" remake for a generation that possibily isn't entirely familiar with the fact that the Anton Yelchin and Colin Farrell-starring flick is even a remake at all, I guess he's a guy that might be right for that job.

McDowall's original Peter Vincent was a heroic vampire-slaying actor that young Charley Brewster - in the remake, played by Yelchin - hoping Vincent can deal with Brewster's blood-sucking neighborhood menace (played now by Farrell) with some finality.

For the sake of the update, the remake draws Vincent with a more comfortably modern palette. Tennant, by his own admission to IGN, is less elder-statesman thespian, so much mash-up of Russell Brand and Criss Angel, a rock-star illusionist.

"And he's a slightly preposterous one," Tennant admits. "He uses a kind of gothic motif for his show. So he has a certain look about him, which certainly involves lots of black leather and a long black wig. But it's all masking a sort of dark secret from his earlier life, which becomes evident as the movie progresses."

Vincent's reluctance toward waging war against the undead remains the character's bedrock. But Tennant admits that his Peter Vincent wears a different shade.

"He's a slightly tortured soul, to be honest," Tennant said. "When we first see him off stage he's fairly foul-mouthed, fairly unpleasant to Anton Yelchin's character, and not exactly about the laughs.

"I felt relieved that, beyond both being called Peter Vincent, they're not really the same character," Tennant continued.

Tennant was at such an age when the original "Fright Night" stormed theaters that he admittedly didn't become familiar with it until this role became available.  But now that's he's played catch-up, he sees how director Craig Gillspie has done right by the original's cocktail of dark comedy and proper scares.

"The first film does it apparently almost accidentally, and that's the thing that we would always struggle to nail," Tennant said of the film's tones.

"And when I sat down to watch the movie that's what I was thinking. You just don't know. It's quite an elusive thing to capture. But I was so delighted when I saw the film that it's absolutely there, and it's absolutely what [director] Craig Gillspie has managed to do, and it's an absolute thrill."

Read the IGN interview here.