Chillichap's Review - Fright Night 2 1998 Vampire Movie Starring William Ragsdale, Roddy McDowall & Traci Lind - A Film I've Just Watched

Hello!

While I'm not an out and out fan of horror, I do like supernatural-particularly anything to do with vampires or werewolves. I typed in 'Vampire Movie' into my YouTube search bar and this film came up. I watched and enjoyed the original Fright Night starring William Ragsdale & Roddy McDowall and for some reason managed to miss this film whilst on my teenage hedonistic rampage (I'd just started going out with my wife-to-be).


It starts off with one of the main heroes of the first Fright Night film Charley Brewster (played by William Ragsdale) having just completed three years of therapy. He's tells his therapist that vampires don't exist and he was just part of a weird mass hypnotic event involving the actor Peter Vincent (played by Roddy McDowal). Charlie visits Peter Vincent with his girlfriend Alex (played by Traci Lind). Whilst alone at the studio, Charlie notices the arrival of four dodgy looking characters who turn out to be vampires and their familiar who has the customary penchant for bugs (and knows all the Latin names for them). Charlie follows one of the vampires and his worst fears are confirmed!

Charlie stands his date up, inadvertently throwing her into the path of one of the vamps who seems to take a shine to her.  Charlie persuades Peter Vincent to attend a party where he believes a friend is in danger from the vamps. Charlie dances with a Regine Dandridge (played by Julie Carmen) who convinces him she's just an actress, but who later confronts Peter Vincent and tells him she's out to exact revenge on him and Charlie for the death of her vampire brother Jerry (Chris Sarandon if Fright Night 1). Peter Vincent leaves town and Charlie, who is secretly being turned into a vampire at night, visits the vampire lair. Regine has too much power over Charlie for him to kill her and he leaves.

Alex speed reads the novel Dracula and thank goodness, as this save her and Charlie's lives. Peter Vincent sees that Regine has replaced him as the host of Fright Night and travels back to the studios in a fit of rage. He attempts to kill Regine but is instead committed to a psychiatric hospital. Charlie meanwhile is put in jail for the fracas at the library. Alex goes to bail Charlie out but Regine has got there first. So Alex turns to Charlie's therapist for help to get Peter Vincent out of the psychiatric hospital. The therapist turns out to be a vamp too and this is one of the great comedy moments in the film (of which there are many). Alex eventually liberates Peter Vincent and they go off to the vampire lair to try and save Charlie.

Right at the end of the film, Charlie has a really difficult decision to make. I won't spoil things by revealing what happens and who does or doesn't survive. I'll just say that I really enjoyed this film.

No one actor really steals the show, as everyone gets an equal slice of the proverbial acting pie in my opinion. There are some fairly scary and gruesome bits, but the film is essentially comedy first and horror next. 



Thanks for reading

Matt AKA Chillichap


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Chillichap's Review - Oscar 1991 Comedy Crime Movie Starring Sylvester Stallone, Ornella Muti & Peter Reigert - A Film I've Just Watched

Image
Hello! This film popped up on YouTube this morning and I, being a bit of a fan of Sly Stallone, I thought I'd give it a whirl. Often if you've never heard of a film-there's usually a very good reason. Read on to find out why I think this film may have slipped under the radar... The film starts off quite poignantly with Angelo 'Snaps' Provolone a gangster played by Sly Stallone visiting his father played by Kirk Douglas on his deathbed. Although the legendary actor does indeed look close to death, in real life he actually goes on to live another 29 years! His father persuades Angelo known as 'Snaps' to go straight and Snaps promises to obey his father's dying wish.  Snaps' hired hands aren't sure about their boss going straight and pretty soon one of his competitors Aldo (played by Peter Reigert) hears about it. Nobody, including the police, believes Snaps has gone straight and end up spying on him. Meanwhile, Snaps sets about improving himself an...
Read more

Chillichap's A to Z Guide of Cockney Rhyming Slang - Includes a Decoding of the Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels Bar Scene (I hope) CERT 18

Image
Alright me old China plates?  I was going to try and write this whole blog in Cockney rhyming slang, but I thought it might give us both a headache and you'd want to get your German bands around my Gregory Peck (see what I did there?). I first remember encountering this unusual way of communicating while watching the UK TV series Minder starring acting legends George Cole and Dennis Waterman, The characters would suddenly come out with a turn of phrase that I didn't get. My uncle used to try and help decipher them for me, but he was a Geordie from up north, so that didn't always work. Later in 1998, there was a resurgence in the interest of Cockney rhyming slang following the bar scene in Guy Richie's excellent movie Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, so I've included a guide to the famous bar scene.  Normally when I write an A to Z guide, I pick one word for each letter, but you wouldn't believe your mince pies (eyes) at the variety of Cockney rhyming slang wo...
Read more

Chillichap's Review - Pride and Prejudice 1995 BBC TV Series Starring Colin Firth, Jennifer Ehle & Alison Steadman

Image
Chillichap’s Review — Pride and Prejudice 1995 BBC TV Series Starring Colin Firth, Jennifer Ehle & Alison Steadman Darcy and Elizabeth My heartiest greetings to you all! I’ve been itching to write a review of this BBC adaptation of the classic story Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. I can remember watching the series on TV in the nineties and being utterly hooked. What made this event remarkable was that I was in my early twenties at the time and was on something of a hedonistic rampage. Most of my time then was either in pubs, restaurants or on the cricket pitch. In this era of my life, any TV programmes that I watched had to be blooming good to leave a lasting impression. This did. If I were to say to you that I’ve watched this adaptation twenty times, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration (my suspicion is that it’s at least twice that). These days, my youngest daughter is as hooked on this drama as I am, and we know many scenes by heart, word for word. When either or both of us n...
Read more