Not even close…
Straight-to-DVD this may well be, but straight-to-waste-disposal would better suite this sad attempt at a Fright Night horror. Even using the get-out-jail-free comedy/horror card, didn’t (and certainly couldn’t) help in the slightest. There was a ton of things wrong with this movie, but the worst offender (and believe me, this is a film awash with poor), has to be the effects, followed extremely closely by the direction. The poor writing from Matt Venne was surprising, because he managed Stephen King’s Bag of Bones with apparent ease. Perhaps the afternoon it took to write this drivel saw the writer have an off day.
- Fright Night 2
- Directed by
Eduardo Rodriguez - Cast
Will Payne, Jaime Murray, Sean Power - Release Date
1 October 2013 - Ed’s Grade: D
The acting was pretty awful at times, yet you could tell they could actually act, but I point the accusing finger at Rodriguez, who should have been spending more time getting the actors to realise their potential. This looked like it had a very quick shoot and the luxury of multiple takes just wasn’t there. The characters were thoroughly unlikable, with this incarnation of Charley Brewster, looking to be very (VERY) closely based on George McFly from Back to the Future. He not only bore an uncanny resemblance, part, in thanks to a dorky side-parting that continually fell over his eye, but the acting style was spot-on too. So much so, in fact, I kept waiting for the Doc to zoom in and rescue him.
Evil Ed was also annoying, and I think between he and Peter Vincent, this was where the supposed comedy was to come from. Evil laughing like a halfwit, and trying to scare McFly with masks (did I just say McFly? My bad) or fake fangs was ridiculously cliché. As a matter of fact, this entire project was contrived and cliché. they just piled it all on in hope something would stick, like Gothic style, Romanian setting, loads of very bad fake-blood, and on and on and on…
*****
The premise: Charley Brewster is on a school-study abroad gig (which remains a mystery as to why). While settling in, he witnesses a lesbian type scenario from his window (how original, but still intriguing), but the practically naked women turn out to be a vampire sucking on a victim’s neck. The vampire is actually one of the professors, who it turns out is really the female Dracula, Gerri Dandridge, and is played by the sexy Jaime Murray. The vampire takes an interest in Charley, but after she discovers that Charley’s ex girlfriend Amy, holds the key to the vamps eternal beauty, he buys the help of the highly inept TV show host, Peter Vincent.
Review by Ed Blackadder, Lead Entertainment Writer
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