Fright Night Part II (1988)
Starring: William Ragsdale, Roddy McDowall, Traci Lind
Writers: Tim Metcalfe, Miguel Tejada-Flores, Tommy Lee Wallace
Director: Tommy Lee Wallace
****Spoilers****
It's been 3 years since Charley Brewster battled it out with vampire Jerry Dandrige and won. He's now a college boy, and through psychiatric care is convinced that vampires do not exist. He now believes that Dandrige was a serial murderer and a cult follower, responsible for killing his best friend and kidnapping his girl. Peter Vincent, who helped Charley finish off his neighbor, still quite believes that what they dealt with was a vampire. But Brewster won't even pick up the phone when the dude calls; he's beyond that craziness, I guess. Anyhow, Jerry Dandrige's sister Regine is in town with two extra vamps and a bug-eating ghoul dude... and she wants Charley and Peter to pay for the death of her bloodsucking brother.
So uh, Charley? Really? How in the fuck could you not believe in vampires after the events of Fright Night? Have you forgotten that it was you yourself that had to convince Peter Vincent that the beasts of his B-films were in fact REAL? Now it's the vice versa game. And where the hell is Amy? I know people drift apart and shit, but I would like to believe that the whole mess you all went through together would make the normal problems of relationships feel pretty damn microscopic. Gah, I hate the whole 'no explanation' game when it comes to things like this. Remember the Karate Kid series? When an actress didn't for whatever reason return for a sequel, they always wrote in a freakin' explanation, probably so people wouldn't have a bitch-fit like I am right now.
So yeah, Charley has a new girlfriend named Alex, and she is kinda cute. I know this helped a lot of viewers easily look over the absence of Amy (Amanda Bearse), because she's not a crybaby, but hey, I liked his ex. At least she would lay on the floor making out and watching his favorite horror show with him. Alex kinda mocks the whole vampire deal and makes fun of his B-horror film choices. He has to work her into that shit by getting all angry and assuring her that Dracula is a damn good piece of literature. Bleh, I'm not a fan of Alex!
A lot of viewers were supposedly pissed about the Evil Ed character not returning... Okay. I liked Ed, and Stephen Geoffreys brought some magic to the role, but I gotta give praise for him not coming back. It would have been ridiculous. Not in a 'Jason Voorhees has returned for the 100th time' type way, but even worse. Nobody really knows the proper procedure of ending Jason or Freddy or Michael once and for all, but most everyone knows how to kill a vampire, and Peter Vincent took good care of that little shit in the first film... end of story.
I know it seems like I'm drinkin' the Haterade on Fright Night II right now, and I kinda am... sometimes the petty shit annoys me. Strange thing is, I don't really loathe the film completely, it just strongly pales in comparison to its predecessor. Maybe it just hasn't aged well, because when I was 11 this film was bonkers good. The more dark approach doesn't really work for me now. Sure, there is some comedy, only most of it isn't funny and the overall charm is strongly lacking.
I guess Tom Holland said “screw this noise” and didn't want to return, so we get Tommy Lee Wallace co-writing and in the director's chair. Being a big fan of Halloween III and Amityville II (which he wrote the screenplay for), I have no qualms with the guy. But this is the reason I am in bewilderment as to why Fright Night II isn't a better product.
There are some nicely shot scenes of flying from the vampire's perspective, very similar to what we had with Jerry Dandrige in the first film, and the elevator shaft finale is pretty damn excellent. One of my favorite moments takes place on the set of Peter Vincent's Fright Night horror show, when Regine is hosting. It's a crazy creepy dance type sequence, surrounded in layers of fog with Ms. Dandrige splashing blood all over herself. It's dark and sexy, and questionably the best moment in the film, aside from an awesome chapter taking place in a bowling alley. And this is gonna sound stupid, but in scenes where people are kissing and getting all erotic, the camera is so damn close up that you can barely tell what the hell is going on. Actually, this is a problem even in mere dialogue moments. Zoom out, dammit!
Don't get me wrong, when I was a kid, I was pretty infatuated with Julie Carmen (In the Mouth of Madness) as Regine, she was one freakin' hot as hell pissed off vampire dame. She still is in that 80's bad hair way, but her charisma is nowhere close to that of Chris Sarandon. She's just kinda like “My name is Regine Dandrige, you killed my brother, prepare to die”, only not nearly as cool as my Princess Bride analogy. She's just blah. It's really the actors playing her henchmen that steal the show. Brian Thompson (Alien Nation, Cobra) as the 'bug eating non-vampire' Bosworth is awesome, as is Jon Gries (The Monster Squad, Napoleon Dynamite) as Louie, the 'hairier than Bigfoot's ass' bloodsucker. These two are the comedy of the film, and they really keep it from going completely stale. Then, there's the late Russell Clark, playing a cross-dressing vamp on roller-skates, without a single line of dialogue.
I'm gonna have to call out The Karate Kid once more, because the relationship of Brewster and Vincent kinda reminds me of Miyagi and LaRusso. It's not as well thought out, but many of the same ingredients are in the meat of their characters. The late Roddy McDowall is on top of his game as always, still the same ole' lovable Peter Vincent. Strangely, in this film he is dubbed 'Fearless Vampire Killer' (Roman Polanski reference, I suppose) instead of 'Great Vampire Killer'. It's a pretty damn misleading moniker; Peter Vincent is indeed bad ass, but not lacking the emotion of fear in the least bit. William Ragsdale fits back into the role of Charley pretty much like he never left, and I am a fan, but wasn't in favor of the casual mullet. And Traci Lind playing Alex, the new love element, is good... but as I previously mentioned am not a fan of the character.
Makeup FX were done by Cannom Creations (Exorcist III, Idle Hands), and the bulk of the vampire creature makeup is pretty similar to the first film. The bloodletting is perhaps a bit more abundant this time around, due to the attempt of a more seriously toned story. A decapitated head here, some vampire bite blood-spray there, but nothing out of control. Visual effects aren't too shabby, given the time in which Fright Night II was made, and especially if you consider the budget was smaller than the first film.
Brad Fiedel returns to do the original music, and the key theme song is here, but altered. I didn't really dig the music as much this time. I can't really explain it, so I'll just say it sounds kind of lazy.
I'm kind of sad this sequel doesn't bring back the feeling that the first one does. When I watch the original, and many other movies from that era, it's just like being a kid again staying up late on a weekend night to catch anything cable TV would throw at me. Instead, I feel like I want to change the channel but can't (or eject the DVD, in this case) because I remember it being awesome. Fright Night II is just okay, at best. This is one of those instances where my yearning for the past has played me like a fool.
