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Film: Fright Night II: New Blood
Year: 2013
Director: Matt Venne
Writer: Eduardo Rodriguez
Starring: Will Payne, Jaime Murray and Sean Power
Review:
The film begins with a woman driving. She pulls into what looks to be a remote gas station. She fills up her tank and hears a noise. She gets back into her car and sends a text message, which we learn that she is French from it. Something attacks her car, breaking the window. Touching a cross hanging from her mirror causes the monster to recoil. The woman notices the gas is overflowing and escapes her car. She tosses her lighter, blowing up the car and the gas pump. She flees to the nearby store. The monster isn’t done and beats the woman around the store. We see the footage on the security camera and there is no one there. It is a vampire and it drains her blood.
Next we shift to a group of students arriving in Romania. We have our main character who is played by Will Payne. His best friend is played by Chris Waller. He is an odd character that is in love with horror things. Payne’s ex-girlfriend is played by Sacha Parkinson. She is also there with them. Payne wants her back, but she is mad at him for kissing another girl and won’t accept his gift. Their chaperone is John-Christian Bateman. He tells them they will share a room and he’s kind of mean to Payne and Waller.
Up in their room we see that Waller is kind of a jerk about things, but he is always laughing and joking. He goes into the bathroom. Payne looks out the window and sees a beautiful woman he saw on the streets. She is kissing another woman, with both of them in lingerie. He then sees that there is blood running down one of the women’s back. He calls Waller in to see what he sees, but they’re gone when he gets there. Bateman knocks on the door and tells them their first class is that night.
Their class is taught by one of the women he saw in the window, she is played by Jaime Murray. Payne knows there is something weird about her.
After class, Payne agreed to come on the vampire castle tours with Waller. They learn that Bram Stoker based Dracula on Vlad Tepes, but the vampire parts are based on Elizabeth Bathory. Payne tells Waller that he is going to look for the bathroom. As he searches, he finds Murray kissing another student. She makes eye contact with Payne and both disappear when he hides.
He goes forward and Waller shows up, telling him the tours over and its time to go.
The next morning in class, Payne falls asleep and has a nightmare of the classroom, where Murray kills Parkinson. The class laughs at him. Back at the hotel, there is a police investigation into the student that Payne saw with Murray. He goes up to his room and looks out the window. He watches the police leave and then watches Murray jump down from her window with a body over her shoulder. She puts it in the back of her SUV.
Payne decides to investigate her apartment. While he is in there, someone comes back and he finds a secret passage. He keeps going deeper while an old woman leads a woman with her, following the same path. Payne ends up hiding in a coffin, propping it with a pillow.
He watches as the old woman kills the younger one with her shadow. She is hung up above the tub and her blood is drained into it. The old woman climbs in naked and exits the blood as Murray. Payne holds his phone up to her and she doesn’t appear in it. She opens up the coffin and he takes a picture. It blinds her for a second, allowing him to escape.
Payne goes to Parkinson to try to tell her what he saw, but Murray is there. Parkinson is shocked at how rude he is being and he holds a bible to Murray. Murray takes it and then goes to leave, giving the book back. When Parkinson has her back turned, Murray shows that it did burn her. Parkinson is highly disappointed in Payne.
Payne then tries to tell Waller about it. Waller doesn’t believe him at first, but sees the evidence. Waller shows him more of the back-story of Bathory. Throughout we keep seeing a show that involves searching out monsters in where they are supposed to be, the man from the show is played by Sean Power. They go to see him at a strip club and try to enlist his aid. It will take money, but they finally get him to come along.
They head for her apartment and run into Parkinson. She is shocked to see Power with them. Despite her disbelief she accompanies them. They get on to a subway and Murray is on it. She reveals herself to Power and causes him to escape. Payne, Waller and Parkinson are trapped on the train with her. Waller is bit and turned into a vampire. She then chases after Payne and Parkinson, finally taking Parkinson and telling Payne to come and get her.
Will he be able to save her or will she be turned? Will Murray be able to walk in the daylight again? Will Power man up and help or is he really a coward?
I wasn’t a huge fan of this film, but this is what I did. I liked the back story of Bathory that was used and I think it was creative. There are some references to her in pop culture, but not a lot of films where this potential vampire is used. I like to see them breaking away from using the usual vampire. I liked that Payne, Parkinson, Waller and Power are all used from the original Fright Night film from 1985. Murray’s character’s name is a female variation on Chris Sarandon’s as well, which I thought was cool too. I also liked what they did with the bites in order to change someone into a vampire.
What I didn’t like that this is supposed to be a sequel, yet it is a lot of characters from the first, but they are played by different actors and have nothing to do with what happened in the other. It personally ruined it for me. I also think Payne was not very good. I never saw a reason for Parkinson to have dated him and she constantly is battling wanting him back, but he keeps messing up. I don’t see his redeeming qualities. I do like Murray, Parkinson and Waller though. I think there are a lot of decisions made for no reason by actors in this film and it makes the movie quite flat for me. The ending of the film also doesn’t make a lot of sense either.
I would avoid this one, unless you’re a huge fan of the Fright Night films and just want to see it to ensure they have. There are some good things done, like the back story and are there are few bright spots in the acting. There were also some disappointing aspects of this film, like a confusing ending, poor acting from the star and some bad writing in the script. I would only give this one viewing if you like bad horror movies or want to give this sequel a try.
My Rating: 4 out of 10