Movie Review: Fright Night 2 (2013)

by StevenHelmer

A review of the 2013 direct-to-video vampire movie starring Will Payne and Jaime Murray.

Charley Brewster travels with his friends to Romania to study European artwork as part of a college class. Shortly after arriving, however, he discovers his professor is really infamous vampire Elizabeth Bathory. By the time he convinces his friends he isn’t crazy, it’s already too late and it is up to him to rescue his girlfriend with the help of a reality show vampire hunter.

Who's in it?

Fright Night 2: New Blood

By day Gerri Dandridge is a sexy professor, but by night she transforms into a real-life vampire with an unquenchable thirst for human blood. So when a group of high school stud...

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A Surprisingly Good Remake

I ended up putting this movie in my Netflix DVD queue more as a whim than anything. I enjoyed the movie Fright Night (especially the remake of it) and, while I figured this wouldn’t be as good, I wanted to at least give it a chance.

One of the first things I discovered about this film when I started watching it was, despite the title, this is not a Fright Night sequel. Instead, as it turns out, it was actually another re-boot of the movie. The characters are all the same, except the main villain, Gerri (Murray), is female.

At first, I was actually somewhat disappointed by this. However, after watching the movie, I honestly have to say it was considerably better than I thought it would be.

Even though the film had a lot of the same basic concepts as other Fright Night incarnations, the writers did change the overall storyline enough to turn this into a brand new movie. The fact they chose to portray a real-life person, Bathory (AKA Countess Dracula), was a little bolder than I would expect from a movie like this and, ultimately, it did pay off because it gave the movie a somewhat unique plot point, Murray’s character needed blood from a virgin born at midnight under the blood of a new moon so she could go out in daylight. And, the person that fit that description happened to be Charley’s (Payne) girlfriend, Amy (Parkinson).

Another thing I found I liked about this movie was how it managed to keep the viewer off balance by various camera angles, strobe-like effects and even a variety of lighting. This did manage to make some of the scenes a bit more eerie than they might otherwise have been.

One concern I had regarding this movie was whether or not it would turn out to just be some sort of soft-core porn film, like so many others we’ve watched. This, however, was not the case with the movie. There was some nudity and a few sexual-themed situations. But, it was nothing that was overly explicit and didn’t have a gratuitous feel to it.

The film, however, is somewhat graphic when it comes to blood and gore. Again, I don’t think it was anything that I would describe as being over the top. However, if you are squeamish when it comes to that type of stuff, you may not enjoy those scenes.

Fright Night

Meet Jerry Dandridge. He's sweet, sexy, and he likes to sleep in late. You might think he's the perfect neighbor. But before inviting Jerry in for a nightcap, there's just one t...

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Fright Night

Senior Charley Brewster (Anton Yelchin) finally has it all. He's running with the cool kids and dating the hottest girl in high school (Imogen Poots). But all hell breaks loose ...

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Final Opinion

When I realized it was another remake, I was concerned it would be a bit too familiar to be enjoyable. However, there is enough uniqueness to make this movie much more enjoyable to watch than I first expected and I would recommend it as a result.

My Grade: B

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Updated: 05/24/2019, StevenHelmer
 
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