It’s that ghoulish time of year again, where all the CRaziEs come out and horror fans get to bask in their element; which includes watching horror movies on those brisk October nights. Over the years, yours truly bestowed upon you 13 Halloween Horror movie reviews. Last year, 7 Deadly Horror flicks were put on display. Some were classics! Others were decent. A few were so bad that one had to watch them anyway. This month, 6 Sinful Films are being unearthed to help guide my loyal readers through their tireless search in finding a worthwhile horror flick during the Halloween season. Watch at your own entertainment risk my lovely corpses!
(Note: These reviews will slightly differ from my usual style. And all horror movies are selected at random, so some could, and will, blow)
Fright Night Part 2 popped up on one the HBO’s last month and the flick easily made the cut for this year’s batch. Coming off the excellent remake of the original Fright Night this past August, the 1988 sequel to the 1985 cult hit flew in boasting more cutting-edge effects for the time period. And as an added bonus, our heroes from the first flick, Charlie & Peter Vincent (William Ragsdale & Roddy McDowall), reprise their roles as the fearful vampire hunters.
Three years removed from dealing with his blood thirsty neighbor, Charlie is now attending college. He’s also attending therapy sessions and has convinced himself that although his neighbor was crazy, he wasn’t a vampire. And this is a good thing, for he is now dating Alex (Traci Lind) who is hoping Charlie can come to grips with his turbulent past. With that being said, he still keeps in touch with local television star Peter Vincent, as he humors his vampire killing mentor in agreeing with what happened three years ago, was caused by the undead.
As expected, a new crew of vampires show up and this has Charlie constantly going back-n-forth in his mind on whether what he’s seeing is real or not. From the looks of it though, the tag-team of Vincent and Charlie may have to come out of retirement.
The story takes place in a few different settings this time around; old renaissance hotels, a college campus, railroad tracks, and of course a visit to Peter Vincent’s Fright Night set, is where this tale unfolds. There’s also a bigger cast of characters that include a couple vampires (Julie Carmen & Russell Clark), a werewolf (John Gries) and some “Lurch” type guy (Brian Thompson) who eats nothing but bugs when he’s not playing security for his undead clientele. And one or two humans get bitten and turned in the efforts to toss in a few more deaths. Having a bigger cast paid off during the climatic showdown but the majority of the time they are solely used for the subtle comedy that is always present in a Fright Night product.
What is not improved upon is the vamp-action. Part 1 didn’t have a plethora of vampire-action by any means but it kept the tone suspenseful and featured the antagonist a decent amount. There’s a tease here-n-there of things getting bloody as seen in Charlie’s dreams and during an elaborate costume party; which takes place in the Gothic-looking confines of the hotel where the vampires reside. Yet none of the effects and blood goes on display until the final act as the script focuses on Charlie’s strange behavior of trying to get a grip on whether vampires are out to get him again. Just over the halfway mark, things do start to get amped up, though.
For those that can’t stand when their horror movies get too campy, this sequel may not be your blood-bag. Director Tommy Lee Wallace (It, Halloween III, Vampires: Los Muertos) decided to plug more comedy into this and that hampers the scare effect. When factoring in the cool atmosphere comprised of fog machines and classic 80’s Halloween props, watching this flick is the equivalent of going into random haunted houses at a theme park. Obviously there’s some value in that, but like most horror sequels from this time period, it just wasn’t as good as the first ride.
In the end, Fright Night Part 2 has a horror novelty to it. For the generation that grew up with this brand of horror filmmaking, this sequel will not be a waste of your time. People that are looking for scares and gore, you may want to pass on this. One thing that this flick does right is portray a proper horror environment for our characters to run around in and explore. Again, for the time period, this was a better-than-average horror installment and a solid choice for fans of the horror-comedy realm.
RATING: An Average Campy-Horror Past-Time
Review by Joe Belcastro
