Updated With Trailer: ‘Fright Night 2’ is More Like an Abandoned Remake Than a Sequel

Update: And now we have the first trailer for the film, embedded below. It doesn’t look that bad, but, again, why is it called Fright Night 2?

Believe it or not, some people actually really liked the 2011 remake of Fright Night. I know because I was one of them. Marti Noxon’s script contained smart gender dynamic (more so than you can typically find in a teen horror movie), the cast was great (particularly Colin Farrell and David Tennant), and it was the ideal kind of remake: one that tips its hat to the original but doesn’t follow its blueprint to a fault. I’d certainly be down with a sequel. But that’s not what Fright Night 2: New Blood actually sounds like.

We’ve known since last October that the film would feature an entirely new cast, director and location, but now we know a bit more about the movie and it actually makes the title kind of confusing. Both the ’85 and ’11 versions of Fright Night are about a high school kid (Charlie), his best friend (Ed), his girlfriend (Amy), and a vampire hiding in plain sight (Jerry). Now read the plot synopsis for the oddly titled Fright Night 2:

When high school student Charlie attends a study-abroad program with his horror-obsessed friend “Evil” Ed and ex-girlfriend Amy in Romania, he soon discovers their young attractive professor Gerri (Jaime Murray) is a real-life vampire. Too bad no one believes him. In fact, Evil Ed finds it amusing and it only feeds his vampire obsession. When Gerri turns Ed, Charlie seeks out Peter Vincent, the infamous vampire hunter (well, he plays one on TV) who is in Romania filming his show “Fright Night,” to teach him how to take down Gerri before she gets to Amy, who’s blood will cure Gerri of spending eternity as a vampire.” 

Uh… what? How is this a sequel, exactly? Why is there a 2 in the title? Shouldn’t it actually be called Fright Night, Too? 

Curiously, Fright Night 2 was written by Matt Venne. He’s actually the talented screenwriter behind White Noise 2: The Light, a very cool and underrated movie that wasn’t really a sequel and had absolutely nothing to do with the first White Noise. It was just a clever, stand-alone script that could easily have just been called The Light. Has the same thing happened to Venne twice now? Did he pitch the first remake of Fright Night only to have his script sit on a shelf until the studio realized, “Hey, why don’t we just throw a ‘2’ in the title and call it a day?”

The Eduardo Rodriguez-directed Fright Night sequel that’s not really a sequel starring Will Payne, Chris Waller and Jaime Murray hits Blu-ray and DVD on October 1, 2013.