Movie Reviews : ‘Fright Night II’: Biting Off More Than They Can Chew

The original “Fright Night” film had a faintly homoerotic subtext, thanks to the presence of chief vampire Chris Sarandon, who left the impression he might be more than just bloodthirsty when it came to young hero William Ragsdale. Ultimately, though, creator Tom Holland was more interested in doing a fun, bloodied-up Saturday matinee than in morbid sexual tension, and Sarandon bit the dust before he could bite too many youthful necks.

In “Fright Night: Part II” (citywide), the central vampire is a real vamp--in the form of indeterminately exotic Julie Carmen--and it looks as though the returning Ragsdale may be in real trouble this time. Finally free from the clutches of the psychiatric care that the previous movie’s traumas landed him in, the kid (now in college) has repeated dreams in which he succumbs to this succubus’ charms instead of sticking by his less hot-to-trot girlfriend.

Outside of death itself, this kind of sexual paranoia and hysteria is the horror genre’s favorite thematic standby, and for a while it looks as if “Fright Night II” is going to indulge in it, if not very originally, then at least wholeheartedly. But then its luscious bloodsucker turns out to have pure revenge, not seduction, on her mind, and director/co-writer Tommy Lee Wallace (“Halloween III”) proves to have nothing on his mind except effectively remaking the first film.

Heads will roll (literally, in one scene in a bowling alley). But there’s never any tension generated over the fate of the endangered young couple, or of worrisome Roddy McDowall, returning as “fearless vampire killer” and TV horror-pic host Peter Vincent.

“Fright Night II” (rated R) looks good, thanks to the work of frequent Cronenberg cinematographer Mark Irwin. But it pays no more attention to supernatural “rules” than the first did, and try as Wallace might to duplicate it, it’s a much slower roller-coaster ride to boot. His was a fangless task.