PopHorror Let's Get Scared
Welcome to Fright Night! Again! That’s right, Charley Brewster and Mr. Vincent returned to the big screen in 1988 to stake more vampires. Although the official release of Fright Night 2 in Spain took place in October of 1988, the United States welcomed the sequel on May 19th, 1989. We all know what that means. The film will celebrate its 28th birthday this month! With the success of the first film Fright Night in 1985, the sequel had some big shoes to fill. Was Fright Night 2 able to pull it off?
Directed by Tommy Lee Wallace, Fright Night 2 takes place three years after Charley (William Ragsdale) and Mr. Vincent, The Great Vampire Killer (Roddy McDowell) spilled the blood of vampire Jerry Dandridge. Now a college student, Charley has been in therapy and has convinced himself that vampires actually do not exist. It appears he is no longer with Amy as we are introduced to his new love interest, Alex Young (Traci Lind). What they do not know is that Jerry Dandridge’s sister, Regine (Julie Carmen), has traveled far and wide with her unique posse to track them down and get revenge. Charley and Peter Vincent are forced to team up to win the fight of their lives once more.
Surprisingly, Fright Night 2 saw a very limited release which caused the film to only gross $2,983,784, compared to the $24,922,237 that the first film brought in. Also, if you do not own this movie, you may find it very hard to locate because it went out of print. I was lucky enough to nab a copy at a horror con I had attended. Overall, I found Fright Night 2 to be a solid sequel. The characters were written by Tom Holland, so I felt the same vibe from part one. Both films epitomize what a true vampire is. This is also the first time a movie represented a tranny vampire on roller skates that still haunts my dreams.
BEST QUOTES
With all great movies come great quotes. Let’s look back on some of the memorable ones from Fright Night 2!
Regine: Do you know how to use your lips, Charley?
Charley: It was a performance. Mr. Vincent: She cast no reflection!
Louie: (after being shot with an arrow and falling from a window) Bullseye, dude.
Regine: Let’s talk about blood, Mr. Vincent. Its very precious to me.
Peter Vincent: First we need some holy water, and some communion wafers. Alex: Communion wafers? The stuff you get from the church? Am I going to Hell for this?
Charley Brewster: Jerry Dandridge was a serial killer cult worshiper kidnapper. He abducted my friend, Ed Thompson, and my girlfriend, Amy.
UNIQUE VILLAINS
The reason I love Fright Night 2 so much is because the villains were creative. Not all of them were vampires, so I thought it was a unique take on a typical vampire film. Let’s meet Team Regine, shall we?
Regine Dandridge – Enter the captain of the team, Regine! She is the sibling of none other than Jerry Dandridge himself. I guess you could say she was more than a little pissed about her brother’s death. So the sexy vamp decided to seduce Charley Brewster in order to turn him into a vampire. Played by Julie Carmen, this leading lady proves Regine was not to be messed with.
Louie – Who remembers the werewolf?! I certainly do. Man…he was creepy. John Gries was the lucky one to land this role. Did you guys know he also played the werewolf in The Monster Squad? Be very wary when the full moon rises! Then again, he only wanted to party!
Bozworth – To this day, I’m unsure what Bozworth actually was. He had super human strength, ate bugs for sustenance, and spoke a foreign language. If anything, he made an awesome bodyguard for Regine. Played by Brian Thompson, Team Regine would not be complete without Bozworth!
Belle – The GIF from a few paragraphs back portrays the fourth and perhaps the scariest of all the team members. Played by Russell Clark, Belle is a transgender vampire who doesn’t utter one word for the whole film. In my opinion, Belle had the best kill scene in the entire movie. A female college student leaves one of the buildings late at night. She keeps hearing weird noises and checks all around to see where the sounds are coming from. In the distance, we can finally make out someone roller skating towards her. The fog clears and we see it is Belle the vamp. Needless to say, that poor chick didn’t make it. It is the creepiest shit ever.
As you can see, Fright Night 2 was a seriously awesome sequel. If you have not seen it, you should definitely check it out! In all honesty, it is not as good as the first one but it is still a super fun horror flick. Also, we have the adorable Charley Brewster and epic Peter Vincent to observe. How about you guys? What are your favorite horror sequels?
