35 Years Anniversary Review Of Fright Night Part 2

There are some horror films that manage to be just as good as they wear when they were released in cinema, no matter how many years have gone by. It doesn´t matter if it´s a creature feature horror film, a psychological horror film, what matters is that the film have a very powerful message and very memorable characters. Just look at the 1982 horror classic The Thing from director John Carpenter that is now 41 years old in 2023, but is still better than a lot of new horror films coming out this year. I have probably seen this film 20 times since the first time i saw it on VHS in the 80´s and it is still a damn good film for a number of reasons. I highly recommend you buy the Arrow blu ray release of The Thing because it has some really nice special features, and the film looks really good on this release. Now, let us focus on one specific year for a moment and let us go back to the year of 1985. The same year that British pop duo Eurythmics released their 4th studio album Be Yourself Tonight. What was so unique about the year of 1985? It was the year when director Tom Holland released his directorial debut horror film Fright Night. When it comes to vampire horror films this is one of the most beloved horror classics of the 80´s if you talk to horror fans worldwide. Fright Night have always had a special place in the horror community for being a bit different from other classic vampire films. Fright Night tells the story of 17-year-old Charley Brewster ( William Ragsdale ) who becomes very suspicious of his new neighbor Jerry Dandrige ( Chris Sarandon ). Especially when he witness that he is actually a vampire and try to tell his girlfriend Amy Peterson ( Amanda Bearse ) as well as his friend Edward "Evil Ed" Thompson ( Stephen Geoffreys ). They can´t take him very seriously so Charley decides to contact horror actor Peter Vincent ( Roddy McDowall ) to help him prove that his neighbor is a vampire for real. Fright Night is a film full of very powerful characters, classic vampire scenes and a very erotic undertone in certain scenes. 3 years after the success of Fright Night we got ourselves a sequel Fright Night Part 2, where both Willam Ragsdale and Roddy McDowall returned in their roles from the first film. I enjoyed the film back in the early 90´s when i first saw this sequel but i felt that it would be a good time to revisit this film this year, since the film turne 35 years old. Does this sequel still hold up after 35 years or have Fright Night Part 2 lost some of it´s magic and faded away?

Three years have passed since 20-year-old Charley Brewster ( William Ragsdale ) is trying to get back into a normal life after fighting vampires with Peter Vincent ( Roddy McDowall ). However, he is going to psychiatric therapy where he is trying to learn that he never really faced any real vampires, that in fact Jerry Dandridge ( Chris Sarandon ) was nothing but a serial killer posing as a vampire. Charley is now going to college and have a new girlfriend, Alex Young ( Traci Lind ). They both go and visit Charley´s friend Peter Vincent ( Roddy McDowall ) to spend an evening together. Right outside Peter´s apartment he notices three large crates being offloades from a truck. It seems Peter Vincent will have a new neighbor moving into this house of apartments. But it´s not only one woman known as Regine ( Julie Carmen ) moving in, it seems to be several mysterious people as well.

Whenever you make a sequel to a true classic you have a lot of pressure from the fans of the original film. And i can not imagine how director Tommy Lee Wallace must have felt at the time knowing that he might be critizised for doing anything different with the sequel. Is this sequel different from the original film? Yes, there are some big differences if we compare both films, but i don´t feel that this damage this film too much. I think director Tommy Lee Wallace knew he could not make the sequel look exactly like the first film so he did something he felt could make this sequel fun. Keeping the characters of Charley and Peter Vincent is of course the highlight of this films seeing them work together. The chemistry between William Ragsdale and Roddy McDowall is very clearly working in this sequel as well. Is the acting performances from them both as good as the original film? I would say that perhaps the performances are stronger in the first film but i still enjoy their performances in this sequel. Let us talk about something that i especially appreciate with Fright Night Part 2 outside of the main characters, and that is the monster gang lead by seductive vampire queen Regine ( played by actress Julie Carmen ). Each of the character of this gang have different personalities and abilities to attack humans. There is no question that the character of Regine is the most interesting evil character, but i do enjoy the roller blades vampire character known as Belle, played by actor Russel Clark. We even have a werewolf here as well in the gang called Louie ( played by actor Jon Gries, mostly known as Uncle Rico in Napoleon Dynamite ). Now we have to talk about some of the problems with this sequel. It becomes very clear that Fright Night Part 2 is nowhere near as good as the original film. The scares in this film are weaker and the horror elements that made the original film so good doesn´t work in this sequel. I also feel that director Tommy Lee Wallace could not capture the true atmosphere from the original film either as director Tom Holland did. With all of this said i can still appreciate this film for at least trying to tell a different story of Charley and Peter Vincent. Fright Night Part 2 does have some issues but thanks to the vampire queen Regine i can actually have some fun with this sequel. Director Tommy Lee Wallace made a sequel to Fright Night that will most likely entertain 80´s vampire fans and especially Fright Night addicts. If you can accept some flaws with this film and take it for what it is you might actually enjoy yourself. Fright Night Part 2 knows what audience it is aiming for and im definetely a part of that audience.

Rating: DDD