Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Hallowe'en Countdown Day 6

Fright Night  and Fright Night 2
Two movies from the mid and late 80's, that helped to stylize the vampire genre. In the first film, we are introduced to Charlie Brewster who is a major fan of the late night horror show "Fright Night" hosted by Peter Vincent.  Little does he know that a real vampire has just moved into the neighbourhood. It's up to Charlie and Peter Vincent to get rid of the vampire and save their friends.

 Part Two picks up a few years later and Charlie is in college.  His new girlfriend doesn't believe him that he had faced a real vampire, but does find him to be the best thing for her psychology class. Trouble starts when Charlie's new best friend goes missing and he finds him with neck wounds. Peter Vincent, who gets fired from his horror hosting job, soon discovers that the lady living in the apartment next door not only stole his job, but is the sister of the vampire they killed two years before (in the first movie) set on revenge.

I love the fact they took two of the most popular horror icons of the early genre (Peter Cushing from the Hammer Draculas and Vincent Price) to create the namesake for vampire hunter.
Part two was also a bit of a launch for Brian Thompson, who plays the Renfield character-  to go on to other vampire roles (Kindred the Embraced, Buffy the Vampire Slayer -tv-)
There is a remake in the works being penned by one of the writers from Buffy the Vampire Slayer set to be released in 2011.