FRIGHT NIGHT 2: New Blood! The Hughes Verdict

Fright Night 2: The New Blood (2013)
Directed by: Eduardo Rodriguez
Written by: Matt Venne
Starring: Chris Waller, Jamie Murray, Sacha Parkinson, Sean Power, Will Payne

The Trailer:

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuVHiZu7nGs[/youtube]

What is it all about!

There is this kid called Charley Brewster who while studying art in Romania, believes that his sexy Professor Gerri Dandridge is in fact a creature of the night……but its getting his girlfriend Amy, his best friend Evil Ed….and also TV Host Peter Vincent to believe him…….why don’t he just chuck on a copy of Fright Night 1985 or the sequel…..or even the remake made a few years ago………and get them to watch….

The Hughes Verdict!

Fright Night 1985 is one of my favourite horror films of all time.

It was released in an period where Lost Boys and Vamp were setting a blaze at the box office but out of the trio, I loved the Tom Holland film, simply because of the chemisty between the two leads, the comical and dark tone……and of course some wonderful scenes that was harshly and rudely forgotten about in the ill judged remake a few years back.

That film itself had a sequel a few years later and thanks to a stupid and terrible plot vice that made us want to believe that Charley had now believed that everything he went through was in fact all in his mind…….yes really???? what were they thinking??? The much anticapted sequel was not well loved by die hard fans like myself and any hope of a franchise was quickly killed due to a poor box office and low sales on Video.

In 2011 saw Dreamworks release the much dreaded remake starring Colin Farrell in the Vampire role against Doctor Who’s David Tennant as Peter Vincent. Out of the awful remakes that hit the market these days, it werent that bad but didnt actually set the world ablaze either. Farrell was pretty vicious in the role of Jerry but Tennant despite me thinking at the time it was an inspired choice, played the role like it was meant for Russell Brand and the terrible back story he was given, robbed the charm that the character of Peter should have.

So now we have yet another Fright Night and this time a sequel to the 2011 hit. Will Tennant and his sidekick Charley (Anton Yelchin) overcome evil one more time?

Well not quite!

To put it bluntly! What the heck is this shit……………….

Totally ignoring everything from 2o11, here we have a yet another remake of the original but oddly with the number 2 in its title. I guess the sub title NEW BLOOD is a symbol that this is a new set of actors under the same characters that we all know and love. Its like a….well lets call it a re-imagining, or in better terms to us horror fans…..a pointless addition to the franchise.

But then to confuse you lot like this film……to call it pointless would be silly of me because there are few bits in here that rise it above the standard straight to DVD crap we usually get to see hit the market.

Lets get the actors out of the way first. Will Payne becomes like the rest of the them in the other characters, the third person to play Charley and while at first like Yelchin before him, you can not get William Ragsdale out of your head, he does a decent job even though he morphs into a kind of Crispin Glover lookalike towards the end! Everyone remembers Amy from the original as the woman who ended up in Married With Children, here we have an ex Coronation Street star Sacha Parkinson in the role and while she doesnt exactly set the world alight, she does ok, especially in the climatic showdown at the end. Less said about Chris Waller in the Evil Ed role though. Trying his best to mik every ounce out of Stephen Geoffrey’s original performace, here it comes across as annoying and overkill, so much that you just want to switch the film off everytime he overacts on screen.

That bitch from DEXTER series 2 Jamie Murray plays Gerri (see what they done there) and looks sexy and quite good as the evil Vamp Bitch (the films hightlight) but then we get to the character of Peter Vincent. Ooooohhhhh groan! Really? Lets make a point and say that Roddy McDowall had this down to a tee. Here Peter played by Sean Power, is wasted for the entire movie. Played as Horror host and then a magician, Vincent here is a Reality Show Monster Hunter and that is all we get. What could have been a meaty back story that saw him as a fraud to maybe then seeing that monsters are real is totally not used. In fact Peter is hardly in this movie and it makes you wonder just how the writers could actually get the character so wrong.

Remember that scene in the original where Mcdowall has convinced everyone that Jerry is not a Vampire only for him to then see a no refelection in his pocket mirror! There is nothing here that gives Peter that weight, they do try with that one moment build up (you see what I mean when you watch), but by the time it hits, you so not invested in his character that it loses every impact it could and should have had.

But lets get to the good points!

For a Straight to DVD the production is high. The music score is haunting and there are one or two scenes that deserve praise. The chase underground is wonderfully played ( remember that film Catacombs starring PINK…it has that kind of setting) and also I loved the sort of Spidey Sense the Vamps have. Its a good original touch and adds a bit more tension in some of the scenes.

There are also some great nods to the original film, its a shame they took too much notice of the little things and not of the character Peter Vincent!

Also Murray makes a pretty good evil bitch! A performance that should have been in a much better movie.

But now the bad points!

What is the point of this all? Its not a sequel so why add the 2 to the title! New Blood is one of the oddest addtions too any franchise I have ever seen. What they basically telling us is that in the space of three years, Fright Night 1985 has been remade twice……and Hollywood wonders why some fans get annoyed at the treatment to they much loved films.

Also despite a “seen it all before vibe!” the film pretty much keeps you watching but then then lets its self down with a lame arsed final act that is poor as the decision to make this film.

As a huge fan of Fright Night, the title itself made me want to watch it and I have to say I werent bored at all through out but it is a lazy and an unnecessary film, going over the same plot only this time in a diiferent location. Everyone does they best and it has enough blood to keep gorehounds happy.

And it there is one good thing I can say about Fright Night 2: New Blood….. its not as bad as the dire crap that was Lost Boys 2!……..

Rating: