Me reviewing these vampire flicks that I just watched three nights ago makes me want to watch them all over again!  This is one GREAT vampire film.  Let's layout the story here.

Charlie Brewster (William Ragsdale) lives on a quiet street next door to a rather abandoned, large house.  That is until his new neighbor moves in.  Meet Jerry Dandridge (Chris Sarandon).  A nocturnal type of guy who has a taste for hot, young women.  A taste for their blood that is.  Watching from his bedroom window late one night, Charlie views Dandridge beginning his nightly blood feast.  That is, until Dandridge catches sight of the peeping Charlie.  Good ol' Charlie tries telling his mother about it, but of course, she thinks he's watched too many bad horror movies.  Things get worse when the women Charlie views entering Dandridge's home appear dead & murdered on the news.  Charlie tries to get the cops to believe his story, but are only embarrassed by his outrageous claims.  Even Brewster's girlfriend, Amy Peterson (Amanda Bearse), thinks he's been watching too much of his favorite late night television show, "Fright Night", starring "the great vampire killer", Peter Vincent (Roddy McDowall).  But even Charlie's horror film idol thinks he's nothing more than a crazed fan.  His final resort is his quirky friend, "Evil" Ed Thompson (Stephen Geoffreys).  Ed gives Charlie the basic horror movie pointers.  Garlic, holy water, and crosses.  Though, a special point is that you must have total faith for the holy cross to have ANY affect.

So, Charlie does what he can to protect himself, but none of it is any good against the powerful Jerry Dandridge.  Charlie decides on a final course of action.  He's gonna break into Dandridge's house and drive a stake through his heart.  Of course, all of his friends think he's gone off the deep end and attempt to get Peter Vincent to convince his biggest fan to do otherwise.  Though, a mock vampire test by Mr. Vincent tips the scales from skeptic to believer, and they all become prey for the alluring, seductive, and deadly Mr. Dandridge.

Writer/director Tom Holland delivers a great film here that brings in some horror, humor, and a solid level of style.  Chris Sarandon exudes a sexy, seductive, and powerful presence.  It is most apparent in the dance club scene where he seduces Amanda Bearse in a sensual dance number.  William Ragsdale works great in this film, and is a fun watch.  And Roddy McDowall is pure gold here.  The apprehensive, yet overly dramatic B-movie horror icon of Peter Vincent (named after Peter Cushing & Vincent Price).  It's a great, fun & funny performance, but McDowall pulls out the stops when needed.  Also, I should mention Dandridge's "roommate" Billy Cole, played by Jonathan Stark.  He has a nice role, and when things get weird, the character just gets weirder.  What sort of creature he is, I'm still uncertain about, but that's good.  It shows that there are things that not even all of the horror movie knowledge in the world can explain in this film.

So, I must say that this is one HELL of a fun film with AMAZING creature effects.  A true marvel considering the time.  Though, I don't know which, but one of the creature effects in this film was earlier jettisoned from "Ghostbusters" (both from Columbia Pictures).  If you have the "Ghostbusters" DVD, it is stated in the running text commentary (use your "Subtitle" option to view it).  Anyway, this is truly one vampire flick that should NEVER be forgotten, and though, the sequel (directed by Tommy Lee Wallace) is not quite as good as this one, it is still worth a rental or two.  I only hope that Columbia puts together a special edition DVD, but the current one is fine for my taste.  It was one of the FIRST DVDs I ever rented way back in 1999!  A personal favorite of mine just for that reason despite its bare bones package.