Fright Night Part 2

The film itself suffers from sequelitis in general. The story is nowhere near as compelling nor well-told as the first, but it is still a lot of fun with the same core protagonists from the original and features well-done effects and direction. While the original FRIGHT NIGHT still carries a strong 80s flavor, this film feels even more dated, however, and suffers accordingly. Still, those who enjoyed it back then should pick it up now - still a great late night viewing.

The DVD, on the other hand, is unfortunately typical lower-grade Artisan fare. A bare-bones DVD, the picture looks terrible - grainy, foggy and full of defects. Of course, who but perhaps Anchor bay would invest the time and money to restore a film as this (and perhaps they will some day)? Fans will doubtless be happy to own this film in any form and it looks no worse than it would on any late night cable station. Knee-jerk naysayers will bemoan the lack of a "widescreen" presentation, but this film was originally shot in a full-screen ratio (perhaps because it was directed toward a growing home-video market at the time, though it did enjoy a brief theatrical release).

All in all, a really fun film and not a bad buy at all for fans of the series.


This is DVD quality?   April 7, 2004
Lunar Strain (United States)
16 out of 16 found this review helpful

I have bought a few cheapie $3.99 DVD movies. Though the picture was far from great, thery were no worse than VHS picture quality. I recently bought Fight Night Part II on DVD for $10.99 and the picture quality is atually worse than the VHS that I have! What the hell happened! Don't get me wrong, I'm glad that Artisan Entertainment is digging and releasing some old classics from their vaults, but if your going to release them like this then don't bother! This is by for the worst from Artisan. Bride of Re-Animator, Waxwork, and Lair of the White Worm were disappointents because of the poor picture quality, no widescreen formats, and lack of supplemental material, but Fright Night Part II takes the cake as their worst release! MGM may be getting lazy too and only releasing their titles only in Full Screen format, but at least their movies have good picture quality! Artisan needs to shape up or get out! Artisan should sell the rights of their older movies to Anchor Bay Entertainment so they could be properly released!


presentation=miserable   August 31, 2003
12 out of 12 found this review helpful

WHY WHY WHY don't companies like Artisan recognize that horror movie fans, being basically nerds (like me), are more fanatical about video and sound than anyone else? Anchor Bay - bless 'em -gets it, and so can mainstream studios ("The Fog" release is brilliant).

But not Artisan. Instead of admitting that we're very intelligent film-goers who don't live in our parents' basements (well, most of us), they throw us the lowest common denominator garbage like this worthless DVD of a very good film. (Which for me very nearly equals the original; Roddy trapped atop the elevator while the bat-Regine claws her way up remains very effective.) All quibbles about wide-screen aside (I don't know which is true, but I did see it in the theatre and it sure seemed wide-screen), the picture quality is amazing for its sheer awfulness. I'm so sick of throw-away presentations like this. They put out the least possible amount of effort to get by, and assume that fans will be happy to have the film in any form.

Well, no more.

Boycott this DVD! Power to ignored and maligned horror fans everywhere!


Why Even Bother?   August 23, 2003
John Doe
11 out of 12 found this review helpful

If I rated the movie alone, I'd give it five stars. Unfortunately, I have to warn anyone who wants to buy this DVD format from Artisan. I own over 150 DVD's and I've never come across such a sad excuse for a DVD. The picture quality is HORRIBLE! If you look closely, you can see that it was taken from a tape source, and not the original. Plus, Artisan claims on the back of the box that it is formatted from its "original" aspect ratio, and that it was shot in full screen. That is a blatant lie. It was shot in letterbox widescreen, just as the first film was. You can even tell when you watch it that it has been cropped to death, and at certain moments the screen moves from right to left to catch what's missing. The audio is 2.0 Dolby surround, which is fine. However, when you turn the volume up to hear the more quiet parts of the film, you hear tape hiss. Beware of Artisan releases on DVD. Their transfers are usually like this. I have a few other older films released by them, and they're pretty poor in the quality department. It is a great film however, and is worth having no matter what. I guess this DVD is better than not having it...Almost.


Bad, Boring, Stupid Sequel   December 12, 2003
Duane Thomas (Tacoma, WA United States)
11 out of 19 found this review helpful

If the idea of an evil killer transvestite vampire on rollerskates really does it for you, this is your movie. Otherwise, watching this film will use up 101 minutes of your life that you'll never get back.