Fright Night
1985 religious cult vampire classicFright Nightfailed to engender a successful dealership , and that ’s partly due to the ill-famed 1989 Menendez murders . When it comes to1980s vampire pic , The Lost Boysmay be the most renowned , andNear Darkmight be the beneficial , butFright Nightis right on up there on both reckoning . lead by Tom Holland , who would go on to helmChild ’s gambol , Fright Nightcenters on teenage horror lover Charlie Brewster ( William Ragsdale ) , who number to conceive that his suave new neighbor Jerry Dandrige ( Chris Sarandon ) is a vampire .
When Charlie ’s best friend and girlfriend eventually come down prey to Jerry , the young man enlists the help of washed up horror legion Peter Vincent ( Roddy McDowall ) , and the unlikely pair set off to finish Jerry ’s sovereignty of threat . Fright Nightis a fan - favorite of just about anyone who digs 1980s horror , and vampire flicks in general . It ’s got a clear obedience for the genre , and purposefully sets out to both subvert vampire conventions and sometimes luxuriate in hire them .
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As pop asFright Nightremains with horror devotees to this day , it ’s always seemed a bit weird that the overall franchise did n’t amount to much . for certain , there was one okay subsequence in 1989 and a adequate enough remake in 2011 , but overall , Fright Nighthasn’t made much noise . queerly enough , that ’s tied to a real sprightliness execution casing .
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While not a box office overhead , Fright Nightdid do pretty well profit - wise , and also garner mostly convinced revaluation . A sequel seemed to be a logical move to make , and sure enough , 1989 saw the firing ofFright Night Part 2.The sequel saw the return of stars Ragsdale and McDowall to their roles , and cast Julie Carmen as another vampire , the sister of Jerry Dandridge . Director Tom Holland did n’t take part , due to being busy withChild ’s Playat the time , withHalloween 3 ’s Tommy Lee Wallace taking over the helm . The horror community by and large regardsFright Night Part 2as okay , but a shadow of the original .
When it comes to business though , Fright Night Part 2did even worse . The project had been dumped by Columbia Pictures after a change in direction , and ended up at the much smaller New Century Vista company . The sequel ’s budget was a fraction of the original , hurting the caliber of the finished product . Even worse , Fright Night Part 2received awful distribution , open in a tiny amount of theatre of operations , although pulling down a good per - screen average . This led film director Wallace and star McDowall to meet with New Century Vista distribution head Jose Menendez to plain about how their flick was being treat , but Menendez - who had a reputation within the diligence of being hard to deal with - rebuffed their arguments .
Still , McDowall was keen on makingFright Night 3,and planned to meet with Menendez again a few weeks later to talk over the possible project , alongside a returning Holland . That meeting never fall out , as Jose Menendez and his wife were soon bump off by their Word Erik and Lyle , with the subsequent trial of the two brothers dominating the news for some time . New Century Vista was thrown into understandable bedlam , and all their currently play films were pick out out of theaters . Fright Night Part 2was quietlydumped to VHSafterward , and any program forFright Night 3died with Menendez . And just like that , a real - life tragedy also destroyed a budding repulsion franchise .
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