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Fright Night Part 2 (1988)

Rate: 3
Viewed: 9/20

9/20: William Ragsdale and Roddy McDowell are back for the sequel to Fright Night.

But the true heart of the show was Chris Sarandon. Without him, Fright Night Part 2 doesn't have much going for itself. I didn't care about Charley or Peter Vincent in the last film, so why should I attempt to this time around?

Instead of substantive content, what I see is filler. There are a lot of random things happening, but they're of no importance. At the same time, none of the characters is interesting enough to catch my eye. Some of them try to be funny but aren't.

It's weird to see Jonathan Gries as the Wolfman after have done it already in The Monster Squad. Then again, how does he fit into the equation of vampirism? The black female suddenly melts to death, but for what reason? Earlier, she was moving around on roller skates!

You may think Brian Thompson ate the bug, but really, he didn't. He just threw it outside of his mouth through some angle trick. Either way, Brian Thompson should be put to shame by watching what Nicolas Cage did with a cockroach in Vampire's Kiss. Notice the girl using the scam speed reading technique of the Evelyn Wood school. I guarantee you that she achieved roughly 5% comprehension of the book with most of it taken from the book jacket or word of mouth.

Hence, Tommy Lee Wallace is what I call a schlock horror director. It's clear that he had learned nothing useful from John Carpenter in terms of how to make a genuinely good horror picture. Unsurprisingly, Fright Night Part 2 is the final Hollywood directorial work of his career.

All in all, the Menéndez killings had nothing to do with the downfall of Fright Night Part 2 because, quite frankly, it sucks.

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