Fright Night

Fright Night is a 1985 Horror Film which is one my personal favorite “guilty-pleasure” movies of the 1980′s.

It won’t win any awards, and the film has been pretty much forgotten, but I really enjoyed it when it came out.

Fright Night starred William Ragsdale, Amanda Bearse, Roddy McDowell, Stephen Geoffreys, and Chris Sarandon.

William Ragsdale played a teen (Charley) convinced that the new neighbor that just moved in next door is really a murdering Vampire.

The neighbor, played by Chris Sarandon, has probably the greatest name ever given to a murdering blood-thirsty screen Vampire……Jerry Dandridge. No Dracula, no Nosferatu, no Vlad the Impaler……we get Jerry Dandridge!

That is part of what makes the film good is that it is a horror film with strong undercurrents of humor thrown in.

Charley’s girlfriend in the film, who the Vampire sets his sights on, is played by Amanda Bearse. After “Fright Night” came out, she went on to Television where she played the Bundy’s high-strung neighbor “Marcy D’Arcy” on “Married with Children“.

Chris Sarandon is a Academy Award nominee who was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for the 1974 Al Pacino film “Dog Day Afternoon“.

He is the former husband of actress Susan Sarandon.

William Ragsdale went on to work mainly in Television, including a 3-year stint on the FOX sitcom “Herman’s Head“.

The film was a surprise hit at the box-office and was the 2nd highest grossing horror movie of 1985, finishing just behind “A Nightmare on Elm Street: Part 2″.

The film spawned a sequel, “Fright Night Part II” which was released in 1988.

Dreamworks Studios is in the process of doing a remake of Fright Night with a scheduled release of sometime in 2011.