This follow-up titled "Fright Night 2" (1988) by Tommy Lee Wallace boasts a nice cast with William Ragsdale, Roddy MacDowall, Traci Lin, Julie Carmen. This sequel to the 1985 release deals with the harassed guy from the original movie learns slowly that the vampire's sister and her entourage have come to roost around his college. A few innovations there are, notably Julie Carmen's spectacular usurpation of Roddy McDowall's show go for nothing, but Tommy Lee Wallace's direction lacks flair play and intelligence that Tom Holland brought to "Fright Night". Not quite as good as the first part, but acceptable and passable. A fun and entertaining sequel about a teenager finds out that the newcomer in his neighborhood is a vampire. It's Dracula-versus-the-teens time when Charley Brewster (William Ragsdale) is emerging from 3 years of psychotherapy to find that the vampires he's been persuaded are imaginary really exist. As he suspects that his new neighbor Regine Dandridge (Julie Carmen) descends from Count Vlad's line as well. Having convinced TV horror-show host (Roddy McDowall) that the fanged ones are back in business, Ragsdale confronts the deliciously perilous Julie Carmen, sister of suave bloodsucker Chris Sarandon whom they stalked in Part 1. Charlie calls in the host, Peter Vincent (Roddy McDowall) , of "Fright Night show" , the local late night, horror-flick series , to help de-ghoul the neighborhood . But they have a problem when the vampire discovers their schemes and nobody believes them anyway. Welcome back...Do you have a taste for terror?.More than a sequel, it's a scream. The suckers are back. There are some very good reasons to be afraid...of the dark!. If you love being scared, it'll be the night of your life !.
A farrago of cartoonish exaggeration including razor-sharps talons, mouthfuls of fangs and eyes like like burning coals, knowing humour and 80s camp, it should start to work, and yet , strangely, it does, but few innovations there are, especially Carmen's frightening usurpation of McDowall's show. The film displays supernatural events, thrills, chills , cardboard horror , tension, astonishing killings and lots of blood and gore for nauseating execution. The film is acceptable thanks to the assured handling of writer/director Holland and three performances in particular: William Ragsdale as the resourceful student Charly , Roddy MacDowall as the timid vampire killer and while Julie Carmen is properly seductive as the attractively killing bloodsucker. It displays intriguing homoerotic overtones and giving a blatant equation of desire and hunger. The dark cinematography by cameraman Mark Irwin and music by Brad Fiedel help, covering an ambitious range from piano-murdering , suspense-raisers , through disco fodder and the special effects are worth a look, as well .
Thanks to this movie, writer Tommy Lee Wallace gained more notoriety, however, as a director he has an unven career working as cinema as television. "Fright Night" (1985) and its sequel ¨Fright Night 2¨which, at the time, was said to have been responsible for redefining the sub-genre, influencing later films like "The Lost Boys" (1987) and "Near Dark" (1987). The films were box office hits and garnered three Saturn Awards and one Dario Argento Award. Fright Night (1985) and its follow-up (1988) have since gathered a cult following amongst horror fans. The motion picture was acceptabily directed by Tommy Lee Wallace, though it has some gaps, failures, shortcomings and with no originality because copies elements of the previous part. Tommy is an American director and screenwriter of horror and thriller films. Tommy Lee Wallace's film debut was ¨Halloweeen III season of the witch¨ , following movies as Fright Night Part 2 , Vampires: Los Muertos , It , Aloha Summer, Tour of duty, The Twilight Zone, Max Headrom, Once You Meet a Stranger,Aleta,Danger Island, among others. Rating: 5.5/10. Decent sequel in similar style to original, but it is clearly inferior to the first .
