Oct 061989
 
two reels

Charley (William Ragsdale), who had convinced himself that the vampire from the first film didn’t exist, once again sees strange people moving in, this time next door to Peter Vincent (Roddy McDowall). They look to be a vampire and her minions.

Following the rules for a sequel, Fright Night Part II is the same movie as Fright Night with more monsters, less subtlety, broader comedy, and even less originality. It isn’t bad, just not as good as the first.

The new vampire, Regine (Julie Carmen), lacks the presence of Chris Serandon. To make up for that, she has a wacky werewolf, a bug-eating chauffer, and a cross-dressing, roller-skating, fanged sidekick (whose slow-mo attack on an unnamed victim is more fitting for The Hunger than this light fare). The werewolf is mainly a slapstick character, and will either be your favorite or least favorite; he’s a California beach dude and never lets you forget it.

Charley has a new girlfriend, which is common enough after three years, but as we only know two hours of his life back in 1985, it’d been nice to have a few words about what happened to Amy (his girl in the first film) as well as old friend turned vampire, Evil Ed.

Really, my first sentence said it all. This is a sequel.