Fright Night 2

**/*****

Fright Night 2 literally opens with a bang as a young beauty pumping gas is attacked by a vampire at a service station. An attempt to blow up her car in order to kill the attacker doesn’t help. In fact, the security camera shows an “invisible” attacker bleeding the victim in the store. This feeding recuperates the burned vampire back whole and thus begins the sequel to a remake nobody called for. The remake actually entertained me somewhat, but it wasn’t a total success. It was decently cast, with some fun moments but, for me, doesn’t hold a candle to 80s classic. I didn’t see anything about it that warranted a sequel to it, though. The sequel came and went during October of 2013 with little fanfare. I recall seeing it advertised on Direct TV cinema but not long after fell into the mass of horror movies populating the “shelves” of stream/dvd Netflix. I always keep an open mind, although I just wasn’t holding my breath that this would be particularly worthwhile considering it never made the theatres or caught on while it was mentioned briefly in October of last year.

Charley, Evil Ed, and Amy go to Bulgaria. They will encounter Countess Bathory in the guise of a history professor (Gerri Dandridge; a play on Jerry from past films) lecturing in Romania to American visiting students about her country’s history. Gerri is caught by Charley a couple times (or she lets him see?) seducing victims she will feed, bleed, and dispose of (one of which is a student on tour with Charley’s class). Charley has quite a story but will anyone believe him? As it sounds, Fright Night 2 is basic, formulaic plotting. It goes where you expect--Amy will be in danger, Ed will bite the big one, and Charley will save the day, along with some eventual help by hapless Peter Vincent (host of reality ghost show, Fright Night, conveniently shooting in a nearby Romanian castle)--with Bathory objected to one of her fatal vampiric weaknesses, exposed with a primal scream that benefits her victor who is on his way to being a vampire. The Romania location is perfect for horror and because the film budget is obviously smaller than the remake that gave birth to it, the place the plot is set is ideal. The plot itself goes through the motions and leaves much to be desired. However, Jaime Murray is delicious as Bathory although the film plays it too safe and doesn’t really allow her get her hands dirty (the film shows her kiss victims and touch them a little, but the feeding is off screen as Charley turns around and then looks back to see her and the person she seduces gone). The film is really afraid to push the envelope and the plot never goes anywhere original. The film will be certain to fade into B-movie obscurity, as many a direct-to-dvd often does. The cast—Will Payne (as Charley), Chris Waller (as Ed), Sean Power (as Vincent), and Sacha Parkinson (as Amy)—fail to generate the same level of energy and star power as the cast of the remake. The film is a shining example of an unnecessary sequel. The CGI end to Bathory certainly doesn’t measure up to much nor does how her fate is contributed to a glass-shattering superhuman scream.

This turns out to be a remake of the remake of the original. The characters are here but the plot seems to be stand-alone without an association to anything film that comes before it. Bathory replaces Jerry Dandridge, and she’s female, but still ultimately a vampire to vanquish. Ed is still hyperactive and high-strung. Charley is still courageous and scared in equal measure. Vincent is still a phony who needs cash to even contemplate helping the guys go after a vampire and when presented with her in creature, he is not the monster hunter they envisioned but a fraud working a performance for a buck. Amy is still the attractively cute blond who can't escape her love for Charley (the film incorporates an estrangement that derives from Charley possibly cheating on Amy) and winds up a pawn for Bathory to use against her foes. Vincent will need to man up, Charley will have to upend Bathory in order to rescue Amy, Ed will fall prey to evil due to his being Charley's buddy, and Bathory will taste hot sun.

I can’t totally trash a film because it does have an inspired moment that I found quite well done. A prostitute is taken into the “blood chamber” where a bathtub (and coffin) rests so Bathory can remain youthful and lovely by using the blood of young, beautiful women to main her looks. Charley happens to enter in her home, slip into Bathory’s coffin to hide, and watches the whole ugly business as it transpires. What I dug about it was an elder Bathory (in a robe hiding her aged body) seduces and disrobes the victim (a very stunning woman with nicely erect nipples on her perfect breasts) without actually physically touching her, doing so with her shadow! The seduction (how the victim shows erotic bliss sells the whole scene especially well) and eventual jugular blood slash is a special balance of titillation and visceral impact. For added potency, we are shown the victim hanging upside down, naked and bleeding out, as Charley holds his mouth to keep from shouting in blood-curdling horror. A haggard woman enters the bloody bathtub, re-emerging a thirty year old beauty. Instead of killing Charley when she finds him in her bed, Bathory allows him to leave because she knows the police will consider his claims at a vampire behind the missing student to be nonsense (again, predictable plotting).

There is a rather neat comic vignette detailing the “history of the Blood Countess” and how she was turned vampire and continued to thrive until present day. Included even is a Zeppelin crashing as screams can be heard and Bathory lands on a new shore to feed from the human race like cattle to retain her youth and live on. You get some minor flirtation with the Sapphic side of things as Gerri takes Amy off into this huge blood chamber, withers her ability to withstand the vampire powers of her captor, and then the kiss of the bite. Charley doesn't know that she has been turned and is bitten himself. This is Gerri's mistake. No matter how deep the evil courses through Amy thanks to Gerri, her love for Charley still remains as a residue that keeps him from total annihilation.  Gotta say, Amy makes for quite a tantalizing vamp once the cutsies abandon her thanks to Gerri. But Gerri and Amy's potential erotic embrace never quite materializes; again, pulling the trigger on that would require the parties and filmmakers being willing to go there. Instead, the film doesn't seem willing to push the envelope into the erotic side of things.

All in all, though, this is almost totally forgettable. Besides a few cool moments (crucifix stabbed in an eye and later slowly removed, the comic vignette, shadowplay, and gushing, bloody wounds), the film trots out the familiars and ends with a rather disappointing thud.