The Scare Salon

Tom Holland’s 1985 horror comedy Fright Night is easily one of the best horror movies of the 80s and one of the best vampire films of all time. Because of its critical and commercial success, a sequel was naturally planned, and though Fright Night Part 2 was made and eventually released in 1989, it only opened on 148 screens, made only $2.9 million on a budget of $8 million, and got almost universally negative reviews. Not only that, but it’s still somewhat difficult to legitimately get hold of nowadays, as the DVD went out of print and now sells for ridiculous prices, and it isn’t available to watch on any (legal) streaming services. I happened to find a nice, high-def bootleg of it on YouTube, though, so run and watch it before it gets taken down.

One of the reasons for its quick disappearance was tragic: José Menéndez, who was then the chairman of Carolco Pictures, was murdered along with his wife Kitty by their sons, Erik and Lyle, in a very high-profile case. As it happened, the crime interfered with the release of Fright Night Part 2, and scuttled any plans for a third film; Roddy McDowall and Tom Holland were set to meet with José Menéndez to discuss another sequel, but of course, he was murdered before that could happen.

The circumstances surrounding the failure of Fright Night Part 2 are really a dirty shame, because even though the film doesn’t begin to approach the awesomeness of its predecessor, it’s still a really solid and entertaining sequel that deserves a lot more love.

Original director Tom Holland was interested in doing a sequel to Fright Night, but at the time the project became available, he was working on Child’s Play (along with actor Chris Sarandon, who had played the vampire Jerry Dandridge in the first movie); hence, neither Holland nor Sarandon could return. And despite the initial script featuring original characters Evil Ed (Stephen Geoffreys) and Amy Peterson (Amanda Bearse), neither of those actors reprised their roles either: Stephen Geoffreys turned it down so he could play the lead in 976-EVIL (which was directed by Robert Englund), while Amanda Bearse was busy with her TV show Married…With Children.

However, William Ragsdale (as Charley Brewster) and Roddy McDowall (as Peter Vincent) did return, and their interactions are just as fun this time around. In addition, directorial duties were taken over by Tommy Lee Wallace, who wrote and directed Halloween III: Season of the Witch in 1982.

The story of Fright Night Part 2 takes place three years after the events of the original film. High schooler Charley Brewster is now in college and has been in therapy after his harrowing experiences with the undead. Because vampires aren’t supposed to exist, however, Charley’s doctor has convinced him that Jerry Dandridge was merely a serial killer that he perceived as a supernatural creature and that he and his friends were swept up in some sort of mass hypnosis that made them all believe that vampires were real. Because of this, Charley has become somewhat estranged from his old friend Peter Vincent, who is still convinced that Dandridge was the real thing.

Because Amanda Bearse couldn’t return for the sequel as Amy, Charley has a new girlfriend this time around, a clinical psychology student named Alex (Traci Lind). It’s implied they haven’t been dating for long, and there’s a bit of a repeat of the sexual repression angle from the first movie, as it seems Alex and Charley haven’t done the deed yet either.

Once Charley has finally concluded that the whole vampire thing was all in his head, his therapist talks him into going to visit Peter Vincent to have some closure about the whole matter. Charley and Alex go to dinner at Peter’s apartment, and Peter regales Alex with stories about their brief but heroic times as vampire killers. But Charley doesn’t tell him that he no longer believes what they went through was entirely real, wanting to spare his friend’s feelings.

While glancing out the window of Peter’s apartment, however, he sees a sight reminiscent of Jerry Dandridge and Billy Cole moving in next door to him in the first movie: a group of people unloading several suspiciously coffin-looking boxes off a truck and carrying them into the building. Charley later sees this group of people, who are moving in down the hall from Peter Vincent, and they look pretty unique, to say the least.

Of particular note is an astonishingly beautiful and elegant woman whose name, we later learn, is Regine (Julie Carmen). Charley is immediately entranced by her, so much so that when he drives his girlfriend Alex home and they start making out in the car, he sees Regine’s face instead and leaps away in shock. It’s then revealed that Regine herself has flown into the area and is reclining on the car’s roof, controlling Charley’s thoughts from afar.

Regine has a small posse that she always travels with. Said group consists of Louie (Jon Gries), a sort of werewolf/vampire hybrid who is coincidentally played by the same actor who played the Wolf Man in The Monster Squad only a year or two before and is this movie’s main source of comic relief; Belle (Russell Clark), a sexually ambiguous vamp who’s always on roller skates; and Bozworth (Brian Thompson), a muscle-bound bug-eater who seems like a combination of Renfield and the thrall from the first movie, Billy Cole.

Now, you know and I know that all these people are creatures of the night, but even though Charley is starting to have his doubts, especially after he has an extremely realistic “dream” about Regine where she comes to his dorm room and drinks some of his blood from a shaving cut, he’s able to tell himself that he’s just having a bit of a relapse and is imagining things.

The vampires aren’t being too circumspect about snacking on the locals, though, as Belle attacks one student in a darkened campus hallway, and Louie attempts to climb up to Alex’s window to bite her but is thwarted.

Later, Charley and Alex are supposed to go on a date to a symphony, but on the way there, Charley is distracted by seeing his friend Richie smooching on and getting into a car with Regine. Suspicious, possibly jealous and/or horny, and maybe a little bit starting to believe that Regine might be dangerous, he follows them on a whim, and as he watches from the fire escape outside, it appears that Regine and Belle have Richie tied to a chaise and are drinking his blood.

In a panic, Charley runs to Peter’s apartment and tells him what’s going on, now convinced there really are vampires after all. Peter suits up and gathers his gear, clearly terrified but willing to help his friend.

But when they get down the hall to Regine’s place, it turns out she’s simply having a big party with a vampire theme; loads of people are there, and there’s even a big bowl filled with fake fangs. Peter is relieved and chastises Charley for being so silly, especially after they discover that Regine is a fairly famous performance artist who’s known for doing vampiric shows and events. Charley even finds Richie at the party, and he’s pretty drunk but otherwise fine; there aren’t even any bite marks on his neck. Charley has to admit that he must have been imagining things after all, and dejectedly leaves the party, suddenly remembering that he totally blew off his date with Alex.

After Charley leaves, though, Peter notices what appears to be someone biting someone’s else’s neck in a dark corner, and when he aims his hand mirror at Regine, she doesn’t cast a reflection. He attempts to flee, but Regine catches up to him and informs him that she is indeed a real vampire, and what’s more, she’s actually the sister of Jerry Dandridge, and she’s gunning to get revenge on Charley and Peter for what they did to her brother.

Alex, meanwhile, who was stood up by Charley at the symphony, had werewolf Louie “happen” by the theater and take her extra ticket; he even walked her home after the show and tried to get to know her better, in a bid to lure her into the clutches of the vampire clan so she can be used to punish Charley. Regine, you see, plans to turn Charley into an immortal so she can torture him forever as revenge for him killing Dandridge.

Because Regine has been showing up in Charley’s “dreams” (or so he thinks) and drinking small amounts of blood from him, he begins slowly transforming into a vampire, becoming intolerant of sunlight and garlic, and so forth. Regine also manages to steal Peter Vincent’s hosting gig on his late-night TV show Fright Night; Peter gets fired, and after he turns up on the set with a stake to kill Regine, he’s summarily arrested and thrown in a mental hospital.

After Alex is accosted by Louie one night at the library and sees him transform into a werewolf/vampire, she finally believes Charley and Peter are telling the truth; she’s able to injure Louie by cramming roses into his mouth, a detail she only learned by speed-reading Dracula to make up for disparaging Charley’s love of horror literature.

Alex is able to fake being a doctor long enough to spring Peter from the hospital, and at this point the whole gang of good guys assemble at Peter’s apartment building to battle the remaining vampires in their basement lair, hoping to kill Regine before Charley becomes a vampire for good.

As I mentioned, this isn’t nearly as great as the first Fright Night; the villains this time around are cool but not quite as menacing or charismatic as Jerry Dandridge and Billy Cole were, and I really missed the presence of Evil Ed (who was killed in the first movie in a surprisingly touching scene but could of course have been resurrected if necessary). The special effects are also not as good, even though the budgets for this film and the first one were pretty comparable.

That said, though, this is still a fun 80s vampire flick, with a fast-paced story, some well-placed humor, and some really nice shot compositions. I also liked that this sequel used a great deal of the same iconic music from the first film, which made it feel very much like a continuing narrative. Roddy McDowall and William Ragsdale have great chemistry as always, though I wish they’d had a few more scenes together. Traci Lind was also an outstanding addition to the cast, as she was more of a proactive character than Amy from the first film, and saved Charley’s ass on multiple occasions. The angle of making the main vampire a performance artist was a good idea too, though I do wish that would have gone on a bit longer; Julie Carmen was fantastic as Regine, though, and really sold that otherworldly vibe.

Tom Holland has expressed interest in finally doing a third Fright Night film (ignoring the events of this film entirely, as well as the 2011 remake and its 2013 sequel), in which all the surviving cast would return and the story would continue from the end of the 1985 original. I haven’t heard any updates on that since 2020, though, so there’s a chance it might never happen, though I’d be curious to see what direction Holland would go with it. Roddy McDowall has of course sadly passed away, and it’ll be hard to do a Fright Night movie without him, but I’d be willing to give it a chance.

Maybe someday Fright Night Part 2 will have the larger cult following it deserves and get a proper HD release with all the bells and whistles, but until that day comes, seek the film out on the bootleg tip and let me know what you think; in my opinion, it’s a minor underrated gem and one of the better vampire movies of the decade.

And until next time, keep it creepy, my friends.