Fright Night Part 2 (1988)

Director: Tommy Lee Wallace

Writers: Tim Metcalfe, Miguel Tejada-Flores, Tommy Lee Wallace

Composer: Brad Fiedel

Starring: Roddy McDowall, William Ragsdale, Traci Lind, Julie Carmen, Jon Gries, Russell Clark, Brian Thompson, Merritt Butrick

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Welcome back...

Plot: Charlie Brewster and Peter Vincent from the original Fright Night must face more vampires out for revenge.

My rating: 6/10

Will I watch it again? Nah.

I don't ask much from sequels except that they entertain.  There have been great sequels that continued the story in a logical manner and manage to do something different (and, in the rare case, better) than the original or it can simply be a vague re-telling of the first film, hitting all of the familiar beats of that picture, but still manage to be fun and enjoyable.  This picture is closer to the latter.  I liked FRIGHT NIGHT (1985) enough that I wasn't opposed to the watching the sequel but there's an awful lot of familiarity between the two.  My only real beef with the picture is why Peter Vincent (McDowall) so damn skeptical when Charlie (Ragsdale) tells him there are more vampires.  Peter is just like he was in the first film but then he comes around to realize Charlie is right.  You'd think that Peter would be a lot more willing to believe anything Charlie tells him after FN1 but instead he's a non-believer.  If you lived in a world where vampires were just creatures of fiction only to find out that they were real, do you really think you'd go back to not believing in them after you experience them first hand?  Exactly.  But hell, it's just a movie.  There are some funny bits and neat little things (like when the werewolf guy turns and growls at the dog) and there's some prerequisite 80s horror nudity (yay!) but then there's also some 80s music video-ish moments which probably looked dated a few short years later.  But it is enjoyable and I don't think at any point did I lose interest.  Fans of the first film will likely dig this one even if a little less than the first film.  It's fun but no one involved could have hoped that this could best the original.