Trailer
Plot summary
Peter Vincent, an actor who played a vampire hunter in old movies, hosts a late-night horror program that seventeen-year-old Charley Brewster watches. New neighbors move in beside Charley's house, and he sees them carry in what looks like a coffin. He begins spying on them, and when a woman looking for another address knocks at his door he sends her next door. The next morning a news report describes another woman found dead and drained of blood. While spying on the house next door, Charley watches Jerry Dandrige bite a girl's neck. His mother, his girlfriend Amy Peterson and his friend Evil Ed Thompson all dismiss the story. Detective Lennox takes him to the house to question Jerry, but the housemate Billy Cole says Jerry is away. Charley asks Peter Vincent for help.
Cast
- Nick Savageas Bouncer #1
- Ernie Holmesas Bouncer #2
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Fright Night (1985)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- On Christmas Eve, shooting a scene in which he runs down a staircase, Ragsdale tripped and broke his ankle, putting the film on hold. Rod Martin, a trainer for the Los Angeles Raiders, came in every day to wrap the foot, and the schedule was rearranged to put off the action sequences.
- Sarandon researched bats and discovered that most of the world's bat populations are frugivores, so he concluded that "Jerry had a lot of fruit bat in his DNA", which is why his character is forever munching apples, to "cleanse his palate" after draining blood from his victims.
- The Peter Vincent character was named after horror icons Peter Cushing and Vincent Price, and Holland wrote the part for Price, who by then was so badly typecast that he had stopped accepting roles in horror movies; Columbia Pictures head Guy McElwaine suggested Roddy McDowall instead.
- William Ragsdale lost the role of Rocky Dennis in Mask to Eric Stoltz, but casting director Jackie Burch remembered the audition and thought him right for Charley Brewster; he got the news that he had the part on Halloween night 1984, beating future stars like Charlie Sheen.
- McDowall, who relished playing Peter Vincent, set up a meeting with Carolco Pictures chairman Jose Menendez about making Fright Night Part 3, but before it could happen Menendez and his wife were murdered by their sons, which stopped the sequel and interfered with the release of Fright Night Part 2.
- Effects veteran Randall Cook had a hard time with the bat: when McDowall's character forces a bone into its mouth, McDowall jerked the bone too hard and broke the puppet's skull, and the repairs forced the crew to wait two days before shooting more close-ups.
- For the scene in Mrs. Brewster's bedroom, Geoffreys kept his contacts in for nearly 40 minutes, and was left with scratches on his eyeballs for months afterward.
