Charlie (Will Payne) is studying abroad in Romania (!) with his best bud ‘Evil’ Ed (Chris Waller) and his girlfriend Amy (Sacha Parkinson), the latter of whom is starting to tire of Charlie. One night Charlie spots his sexy new professor Gerri Dandridge (Jaime Murray) making out with a naked chick in front of her window, right across from his hotel room. And then she sinks her fangs into said naked chick. Charlie is convinced Gerri is a blood-sucking vampire. Amy, of course, thinks Charlie is nuts, but Ed is willing to believe him (probably because he’s nuts). They decide to take their revelations to noted vampire-hunting reality TV host Peter Vincent (Sean Power), who of course thinks they are nuts. But Ed says they’ll pay for his help, and so, being that he’s in Romania too, hey why not help the crazy kids out? And then he realises they aren’t joking or imagining things and freaks out. Looks like Charlie and Ed are on their own. Oh, did I mention that Gerri likes to bathe in the blood of virgins? Hmmm, I wonder if any of our protagonists are virgins…
Although you could argue that it slightly resembles the plot of 1989’s “Fright Night Part 2”, this 2013 direct-to-DVD film is likely meant to be a sequel to the 2011 “Fright Night”, which was a remake of the 1985 film of the same name. Got that? Good. The strange thing about this film from director Eduardo Rodriguez (the disappointing Scott Adkins vehicle “El Gringo”) and writer Matt Venne (“Mirrors 2”, “White Noise 2: The Light”) is that although the characters here have the same names as in the 2011 film, they appear to be different. That is, Charlie and ‘Evil’ Ed have apparently never met Peter Vincent before, nor do they even seem to have had any blood-sucking problems prior. Thus, the film is almost kind of another remake of “Fright Night”.
Or to put it another way, it’s a weak excuse for a film made on the cheap in Romania. The only selling point of this lame and boring waste of time is the perfectly cast Jaime Murray, and even she oddly disappoints in her coy attitudes towards nudity. It would appear that Ms. Murray only nudes up for TV, not crappy direct-to-DVD sequels shot in Romania. Well-cast as Murray is (she almost always plays lesbians/bisexuals, the film’s allusions to Countess Elizabeth Bathory aren’t made enough of, and the rest of the film is a tedious re-tread of the previous film in a new location. It’s not sexy, not even funny, hell I’m not even sure it was even trying to be. And for a film set in Romania (and we all know why), there’s a whole lotta foreigners in here I must say, and everyone speaks perfect English.
Will Payne is appallingly wet as Charlie, but the cut-rate casting of Chris Waller and Sean Power as ‘Evil’ Ed and Peter Vincent, is especially disappointing. ‘Evil’ Ed is normally an entertaining character, whether played by Stephen Geoffreys or McLovin, but as much as Waller thinks he’s Stephen Geoffreys, he ain’t even close. I’m glad that Peter Vincent is no longer the lame Goth magician he was seen to be in the 2011 remake, but actor Sean Power (who?) is thoroughly inadequate and bland casting. It’s one step forward, three steps back there.
Aside from Murray, the only damn things this lame re-tread has going for it are a nice “Omen”-esque music score by Luis Ascanio, that it’s not nearly as badly photographed as the 2011 film, and there’s quite a bit of blood throughout. There’s a nice ‘invisible’ throat slash to a girl with truly perfect breasts who is then given the Elizabeth Bathory meets “Hostel II” treatment. Nice!
OVERALL SUMMARY
Boring, cheap, and not enough Jaime Murray in every sense of the word. Nice gore can’t save this boring tease. Disappointing to say the least.
