DVD Review: Fright Night 2: New Blood

Fright Night 2: New BloodThe straight-to-video film Fright Night 2: New Blood follows a teenage boy, Charley, as he travels abroad to study in Romania for a school trip with his friends and peers. In between trying to woo back his exgirlfriend, Charley accidentally sees his hot professor, Gerri Dandridge, with a woman, though things are not what they seem when he witnesses the woman's death. Charley must convince his friends that their teacher is a member of the undead, all while keeping her from his ex, who just might be the virgin that Gerri needs to end her curse. They also enlist the help of paranormal reality show host Peter Vincent to help stop Gerri.

You don't have to have seen either the original films, nor part one of this remake to understand what's going on. The actors are all different from the 2011 flick. It's a typical vampire film, but it has sort of a campy flair without making it too silly. While some of the lines may be a bit cheesy, they acting is good and makes for a fun flick.

The film stars Will Payne as Charley Brewster, who did a well enough job as the heartbroken and later vampire hunting lead, as well as Jaime Murray, who stars as Gerri, and was really in her element. Murray does a very believable creepy seductress. Also in the film is Sean Power, who plays Peter Vincent. The actor plays the part well, but if you've seen part one, it's likely you will miss David Tennant. Even though not really a lead, Chris Waller stood out - he was the main comic release of the film and had extremely cheesy lines to the point of being annoying, yet there was something about his character 'Evil' Ed that made me like him. Sacha Parkinson played love interest Amy and did well with what she was given.

The movie has a lot of the usual devices you would expect when dealing with vampirism, but are made to be funny to bring out the campy side - like a cross tattoo or a cell phone photo of one, which was a bit different.

All in all if you are looking for a horror comedy to not take too seriously, this film might do the trick, just don't expect super high concept or flashy special effects.

Fright Night 2: New Blood


Bonus Features

There isn't much in the way of special features in this set. They are nice additions, but not really a reason in itself to buy the set. While it does contain both the unrated version on blu-ray and the original release on DVD and digital copy, the only thing I found of interest was the feature "Dracula Revealed," which is a behind the scenes look at the making of the film. It also discusses the idea of making Elizabeth Bathery be the inspiration for Dracula, which was something definitely unique.

The other special feature is a set of Fright Night Webisodes, which are basically a pieces of an episode of Fright Night starring Peter Vincent. Cute, but doesn't really add a whole lot to the set.

There are also sneak peeks of other DVDs, but no trailer for this film.

Audio Commentary - The film does feature audio commentary by Eduardo Rodriguez, Allison Rosenzweig, and Michael Gaeta as a bonus, which helps give you a bit of insight into the film.

Packaging

The blu-ray package is a standard clamshell case, with two discs: one blu-ray which contains the unrated version, and a DVD which holds the original release as well as the digital copy. The discs don't have the special features written on them, nor is there an insert, but since they are so few it really doesn't create a problem.

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