1985 cult vampire classic Fright Night failed to spawn a successful franchise, and that’s partly due to the infamous 1989 Menendez murders. When it comes to 1980s vampire movies, The Lost Boys may be the most famous, and Near Dark might be the best, but Fright Night is right up there on both counts. Directed by Tom Holland, who would go on to helm Child’s Play, Fright Night centers on teenage horror fan Charlie Brewster (William Ragsdale), who comes to believe that his suave new neighbor Jerry Dandrige (Chris Sarandon) is a vampire.
When Charlie’s best friend and girlfriend eventually fall prey to Jerry, the young man enlists the help of washed up horror host Peter Vincent (Roddy McDowall), and the unlikely pair set off to end Jerry’s reign of terror. Fright Night is a fan-favorite of just about anyone who digs 1980s horror, and vampire flicks in general. It’s got a clear respect for the genre, and purposefully sets out to both subvert vampire conventions and sometimes indulge in employing them.
As popular as Fright Night remains with horror devotees to this day, it’s always seemed a bit weird that the overall franchise didn’t amount to much. Sure, there was one okay sequel in 1989 and a decent enough remake in 2011, but overall, Fright Night hasn’t made much noise. Oddly enough, that’s tied to a real life murder case.
Fright Night Was Sabotaged By Murder: The True Story Explained
While not a box office smash, Fright Night did do pretty well profit-wise, and also earned mostly positive reviews. A sequel seemed to be a logical move to make, and sure enough, 1989 saw the release of Fright Night Part 2. The sequel saw the return of stars Ragsdale and McDowall to their roles, and cast Julie Carmen as another vampire, the sister of Jerry Dandridge. Director Tom Holland didn’t take part, due to being busy with Child’s Play at the time, with Halloween 3’s Tommy Lee Wallace taking over the helm. The horror community generally regards Fright Night Part 2 as okay, but a shadow of the original.
When it comes to business though, Fright Night Part 2 did even worse. The project had been dumped by Columbia Pictures after a change in management, and ended up at the much smaller New Century Vista company. The sequel’s budget was a fraction of the original, hurting the quality of the finished product. Even worse, Fright Night Part 2 received awful distribution, opening in a tiny amount of theaters, although pulling down a good per-screen average. This led director Wallace and star McDowall to meet with New Century Vista distribution head Jose Menendez to complain about how their film was being treated, but Menendez - who had a reputation within the industry of being hard to deal with - rebuffed their arguments.
Still, McDowall was keen on making Fright Night 3, and planned to meet with Menendez again a few weeks later to discuss the potential project, alongside a returning Holland. That meeting never happened, as Jose Menendez and his wife were soon murdered by their sons Erik and Lyle, with the subsequent trial of the two brothers dominating the news for some time. New Century Vista was thrown into understandable chaos, and all their currently playing films were taken out of theaters. Fright Night Part 2 was quietly dumped to VHS afterward, and any plans for Fright Night 3 died with Menendez. And just like that, a real-life tragedy also destroyed a budding horror franchise.
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