Fright Night Part 2 ** (1988, Roddy McDowall, William Ragsdale, Traci Lin, Julie Carmen) – Classic Movie Review 6093

William Ragsdale returns as Charley Brewster, the teenager who had a vampire as his next-door neighbour in Fright Night (1985) for director Tommy Lee Wallace’s less fun 1988 sequel to the cult vampire comedy.

And Roddy McDowall is back too as washed-up actor Peter Vincent, the camp phoney expert host of the TV vampire show Fright Night, who helps the teen out.

With the script written by the director Tommy Lee Wallace, with Tim Metcalfe and Miguel Tejada-Flores, the tale is entirely serviceable. This time Ragsdale and McDowall are in deep water (again!) when the original vampire’s sexy sister, Regine Dandridge (Julie Carmen), arrives to avenge her brother’s death.

The two stars are welcome back and a sequel is welcome too. But, despite the very amiable and engaging performances and the decent effects, this time the campy horror spoofing does not kick up as much fun as before, and Chris Sarandon is much missed from the original as the vampire.

For script-writers, the moral of the story is: never kill your bad guy off at the end of the movie in case there is a need for a sequel.

Also in the cast are Traci Lin [Lind], Jonathan Gries, Russell Clark, Brian Thompson, Merritt Butrick, Ernie Sabella, Matt Landers, Josh Rickman, Karen Anders, Rochelle Asahana, Blair Tefkin, and Gary Allen.

It is shot by Mark Irwin, produced by Herb Jaffe, Mort Engelberg and Miguel Tejada-Flores, and scored by Brad Fiedel.

Unlike the popular original, it flopped. Costing $7,500,000, it grossed only $2,983,784 in the US.

The original Fright Night was remade in 2011 with Anton Yelchin, Colin Farrell and David Tennant.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 6093

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