Fright Night : Why does Dandridge hold holy water by fireplace?

The scene where Peter Vincent hands the "regular tap water" as holy water to Jerry Dandridge to drink in order to prove to Charley that Dandridge is not a vampire.

Dandridge seems to have a moment of hesitation and doubt just before he drinks it: "And are you sure that this is, um,(gulp) holy water?"

After Peter Vincent says ambiguously that he saw "Father Scanlon bless it down by St. Mary's", Dandridge blatantly (via Director Tom Holland) holds the holy water down in front of the flames of the fireplace. Why does he do this?

In folklore or witchcraft is it supposed to neutralize any blessings? I mean it's not cognac!

I'm pretty sure director, Tom Holland, was trying to show the movie audience something by the close up of the holy water being place by the fire for a few seconds. But what?

Ive always wondered this myself. Has Tom Holland ever spoke on this matter?

I know there was a downloadable commentary for Fright Night. I think Holland was on it, but I don't know if he or anyone commented on this.

I always thought that he held it up to the fire to get a good look at it, to tell if it was really holy water or tap water. He was promised on the telephone that it would only be tap water; he was double checking. His vampire-ness let him see if it had been blessed just as it would have burned and blistered him once opened and touched (had it been real).

lmao at all the ridiculous "answers" all throughout this thread. Comedy gold reading what these clowns think the real reason is.

shut up, douchebag.

I always thought that Jerry did that to make the water warm or heat it up slightly. Since he likes blood, and that's typically warm, maybe he likes his water warm too? Or, maybe he was trying to inspect it to make sure that it was only tap water.


Welcome to Fright Night.for real.

*FACEPALM*

To make it unholy with the fire

The scene where Peter Vincent hands the "regular tap water" as holy water to Jerry Dandridge to drink in order to prove to Charley that Dandridge is not a vampire.
Dandridge seems to have a moment of hesitation and doubt just before he drinks it: "And are you sure that this is, um,(gulp) holy water?"
After Peter Vincent says ambiguously that he saw "Father Scanlon bless it down by St. Mary's", Dandridge blatantly (via Director Tom Holland) holds the holy water down in front of the flames of the fireplace. Why does he do this?
In folklore or witchcraft is it supposed to neutralize any blessings? I mean it's not cognac!
I'm pretty sure director, Tom Holland, was trying to show the movie audience something by the close up of the holy water being place by the fire for a few seconds. But what?

I'm not sure why this is being queried, it's very obvious in the scene. Dandridge isn't 100% sure it's not all a double bluff and that it's not real holy water. He's merely holding it to the light of the fire for a better look - because as a vampire he can see a hint of whether it is or not? Because he's doing it to see if he can unnerve them into betraying their true intention? - we don't know either way ultimately, but he's sceptical as to whether Vincent is a dumb stooge or intent on harming him after all. The fire though is just for better light to see it by.





Give me a hedgehog and I'll show you.

If it was so "very obvious", people wouldn't ask, would they?

People are very dumb sometimes and that's why they miss even the very obvious. Hence this whole discussion. It doesn't make the truth less obvious because people aren't paying attention. It's still there.

I've always wondered this myself.

There's no visual difference between holy water and tap water, so it wasn't to get a better look.

He wasn't holding it close enough to the fire to warm it (someone suggested he was trying to get it to the same temp as blood).

Fire doesn't neutralize a priest's blessing that makes the water holy.

There's really no good reason for it, except to give the audience a good look at the phial.

Destroy all that which is evil, so that which is good may flourish.

This is a stretch, but when I saw the scene I got the feeling Dandridge was going to throw the phial in the fireplace (the way some toasts are done after gulping wine) but Roddy gave him a look as if to say, "don't do that, I need it back". Just a silly bit of comic relief. Whatever was intended, it was an odd, memorable scene.

Yes, but that is after he drinks the water.

I was thinking the same thing HapHazzard waswhy is anyone confused over this scene at all? I agree with everything he said and I've also always thought this was obvious. Guess not though. :P


"It's Minnie Pearl's murder weapon."

In vampire lore, holy water was known to glow when a vampire was nearby OR just in general holy water was supposed to send off a glow. My assumption is that Jerry was holding it up to the fire to see if it was glowing.

Holding near the fire would make it harder to see if it was glowing.

maybe that's the point. he didn't want them to see it glow. the fire would obscure their view.

I must say, the_eradikateor is the ONLY person who answered the OP's question with what seemed to be some knowledge of vampires/holy water/fire. I'm not that into researching vampires and their powers, but _erad sure made sense and actually mentioned a possible reason why he held it to the fire.

As for HapHazzard.holy *beep* dude. Your arrogance is hilarious. The ONLY actual reason you gave, after questioning the OPs "query", (and then calling people dumb in a later comment) was.."the fire though was just a better light to see it by." Do you even realize this? Probably not. You sound too fuqcing arrogant.

Tom Holland mentions this in at least one of the "pirate commentaries." He sort of says that Jerry has some "vampire power" that allows him to see if the water is blessed. Maybe? Holland was not very clear on exactly what that bit meant.

Mr. Vincent used regular tap water. Dandridge was holding it up to the light to make sure. With his vampire power he was able to see whether or not it was blessed by holding it up to the light.

-Di

I actually think it was just because he was buying time to think. He seemed a bit worried and he used the moment to think the whole thing through. I mean he took a major risk there.

As far as I am aware before holy water is blessed / consecrated by a priest there is a small amount of salt added to it. I always thought that Jerry Dandridge held the water up to the fire to see if there was any salt in it, which would act as an 'early warning' to him that the water had been blessed.

Please post with any thoughts.

I think this is probably the absolute best explanation I have ever heard on this. Good job.

If you notice, Jerry tends to use a lot of flair in his actions and this flair can be used as time for him to think things over. This could just be more flair on his part which gives him an extra moment to decide if he really wanted to drink it or just kill everyone.