Stewart Stern

Charley Brewster is a normal, average teenager living with his divorced mother in a unnamed suburban township. One evening, Charley looks out his window and sees his new neighbors moving in the next door and appear to be carrying what looks like a coffin. Intrigued with his new neighbors, Charley begins to spy on them. One day, a young woman (obivously a call girl) shows up at Charley's house by accident looking for another address and Charley directs her to the house next door. The next morning at school, Charley sees a news broadcast about the police finding "another murder victim" from an unknown serial killer who decapitates female victims and drains the bodies of blood. Another evening later, Charley, suspecting something sinister about his new neighbors, spies on the house next door and sees Jerry Dandridge biting the neck of another woman. He tells his mother what he saw, but she passes it off as Charley's imagination. Charley tries to tell his friend "Evil Ed", and girlfriend Amy Peterson, but neither of them believe him, and begin to worry about Charley's mental well being. Another day later, Charley calls the police with information about one of the murder victims and a detective accompanies him to the house where they meet Billy Cole, Jerry Dandridge's roommate who lets them in and shows them around the house. Finding nothing, the detective decides to leave, but Charley tells him to check the basement, which Billy seem adamant about letting them go down there. The detective forces Charley to leave with him and tells him not to ever call him again, thinking that Charley has an overactive imagination. Suspecting that Jerry Dandridge is a vampire, he seeks advice from Evil Ed about how to fight vampires. Evil Ed tells him, from watching movies and documentaries about suspected vampires, that vampires are super strong, have no heartbeat or pulse, have vulnerabilities to holy water and crosses. They also cast no reflection in a mirror and they and can only be killed by fire, decapitation, sunlight, or a wooden stake through the heart. Ed also tells Charley that a vampire cannot enter a person's home without an invitation. Charley goes home, but finds Jerry Dandridge in his living room waiting for him... having been invited in by Charley's mother. Dandridge is seemingly friendly and tells Mrs. Brewster about Charley showing up at his house today, and she reprimands Charley not to do it again. That evening, Charley begins to fortify the house, knowing that Dandridge can enter whenever he feels like it. However, Dandridge enters the house from a second floor window and hides in a closet in Charley's bedroom. When Charley gets ready for bed, Dandridge surprises him and threatens to kill him for snooping around and nearly revealing his secret that he indeed is a vampire. When Dandridge tries to choke Charley to death, he stabs the vampire in his right hand with a pencil. Wounded and angry, Jerry Dandridge terrorizes Charley by revealing his true vampire demonic image, complete with red eyes, fangs, claws, and a roaring with a wolf-like rage, but waking up Charley's mother. Dandridge flees and threatens to kill Charley tomorrow night. The next morning, Charley then seeks out help of favorite vampire killer, Peter Vincent, a former actor who hosts TV segments of horror movies that Charley watches and who claims to be a real vampire hunter. Charley confronts Vincent at the studio where he works and tells him that his neighbor is a vampire and is going to kill him. Vincent, like everyone else, brushes off Charley's claims as an overeager teen with an overactive imagination. Charley does not go to school that day (because he finds his car totaled after Dandridge apparently trashed it the other night after their confrontation). Evil Ed and Amy visit Charley at his house and find him secluded in his bedroom with crosses hanging everywhere. Hearing him talk about Peter Vincent, Evil Ed and Amy visit him at his apartment where they tell him about their friend and persuade him to prove to him that vampires don't exist. Vincent calls Dandridge at his house and offers to come over the next night with Charley to debunk Charley's theory that he is a vampire. The following evening, Vincent, Charley, Ed, and Amy pay a visit to Dandridge's house where Billy lets them in and introduces them to Jerry Dandridge. Vincent tries to show Charley that Danridge is not a vampire by having him drink a vital of holy water. Charley is still not convinced and says the holy water that Dandridge just drank isn't real holy water. However, after Vincent sees Jerry casts no reflection in his small compact mirror he gets scared, and gathers up Amy, Charley, and Ed, and they all leave. Mr. Vincent hurries to his car, and then he drives away fast. Dandridge finds the mirror dropped by Vincent on his way out and leaves as well. As Charley, Amy and Ed walk away, Evil Ed decides to leave Charley and Amy by walking in a dark alley. He runs down an alley, and it gets darker. All the sudden Jerry Dandridge appears, who wants Ed to become a vampire. At Peter Vincent's apartment, he huddles scared and tries to shake it off, from feeling scared. Just then Evil Ed knocks on Peter Vincent's door. Vincent opens it, and begins conversing to Evil Ed casually, as he knows nothing of the hideous, undead Evil Ed is now. Suddenly Evil Ed attacks Mr. Vincent, who places a cross upon Evil Ed's forehead, which burns him. A scalded Evil Ed slinks away, threatening Mr. Vincent by telling his "Master". Charley and Amy find Dandridge following them and he chases them to a local nightclub where Dandridge sees that Amy resembles his lost love. He uses his vampire charm to hypnotize her and dance with him. When Charley intervenes, Dandridge restrains him and two bouncers appear. Danridge morphs into his fanged, red-eyed vampire form and kills both bouncers with his superhuman strength. Dandridge escapes from the nightclub in the confusion and chaos with Amy, and he and tells Charley to meet him later at his house or he will kill her. Charley runs back to Mr. Vincent, who makes him grab a cross before he enters his apartment. Charley persuades Peter Vincent that they must confront Dandridge and kill him before the night is over. The duo get ready, and go to Jerry's house. By then, he has already turned Amy into a half-vampire. As Charley and Vincent enter the house, Dandridge appears on the top of the stairs and says: "Welcome to Fright Night... for real." Vincent hold up a cross but with no faith behind it, can't stop Dandridge from advancing. Charley has faith and the vampire covers in fear from his crucifix. But Billy Cole comes to his master's aid and knocks Charley off the staircase, rendering him unconscious. Vincent panics and runs to Charley's house. Charley wakes up to find himself locked in a room with Amy (who is now a half-vampire). Dandridge leaves a stake for Charley, giving him a choice:to kill Amy or not and risk getting killed by her when she fully turns in the morning. Vincent flees to Charley's house to hide out, only to be confronted by Evil Ed, who transforms himself into a wolf and attacks Vincent again. Vincent defends himself by breaking a wooden table leg and kills Evil Ed by stabbing him through the heart, who then morphs back into his human form as he dies. Vincent then returns to the Dandridge house where he frees Charley and they confront Billy again. Vincent shoots him several times with a gun, but Billy (a sort of zombie-like slave/familiar) keeps advancing towards them, and Charley finally kills him with Vincent's wooden stake by stabbing him through the heart in which Billy melts into a gooey mess of blood and green slime. Charley and Vincent have another confrontation with Dandridge, who is kept at bay with their crucifixes, and they see that dawn is approaching. Dandridge transforms himself into a bat and flies away. Charley and Vincent venture down to the basement to find Dandridge's coffin to kill him while he sleeps. Just when they find the coffin, Amy, now a fully turned vampire, enters and attacks them. While Charley tries to keep her away, Vincent manages to open Jerry Dandridge's coffin and tries to drive his wooden stake through his heart, but Dandridge wakes up and Vincent stabs him, but misses his heard. The vampire rises from his coffin and pulls out the wooden stake. But when he attacks Vincent, Charley begins smashing in all the basement windows, allowing the sunlight to hit Dandridge. Using a mirror, they reflect the sunlight and finally manage to kill Dandridge by blasting him with the rays and he bursts into flames and within seconds his body is reduced to dust and bones. With Jerry Dandridge's death, the still-alive Amy is apparently released from his curse and becomes human once again. In the final scene, the movie ends just where it began with Charley and Amy back in his room watching Peter Vincent's show on TV, who announces his movie that evening will be about aliens, not vampires, and winks to Charley. The movie is left open ended, when Charley looks out at the Dandridge house next door, now dark and vacant and sees lights like eyes that go away. He then goes back to her for another make-out session on his bed. The voice of Evil Ed is heard saying "oh you're so cool Brewster!"

1850 adventure story of the Basque immigrants on their way to California, their struggle with the Indians, and the development of a complicated love triangle. In 1847, a group of fifty-two French Basques, including women and children, sets-out from Independence, Missouri to California. These settlers left Europe behind to escape the famine, unrest and aftermaths of the Napoleonic Wars. They bring with them their few belongings, customs and a few grapevines they hope to plant into the fertile Californian soil. They learn English on-the-fly from the younger men who speak it a little. In Independence, they purchase wagons, mules and provisions. They also hire a local trail master for a fee. The trail master, Lon Bennett, is skilled but he likes women and booze too much. When Lon Bennett learns that his Basques only have seven wagons he argues they should join a major wagon train of 20-30 wagons. Strength in numbers, no doubt, but large wagon trains could take weeks to assemble and the Basques cannot wait. Bennett tries to bail-out of his commitment but he already had spent the fee the Basques paid him by partying in the local hotel-saloon with women and friends. Having no choice, Bennett assembles the small wagon train. He is amazed at the Basques' particular customs, traditions, superstitions and morality. He tries to change some of their traditional habits arguing that in the Wild West safety is more important than customs and traditions. But the Basques are a proud and stubborn people and refuse to change their ways. As the wagon train heads West, Bennett becomes obsessed with Gabrielle Dauphin, the beautiful wife of the Basque leader. He repeatedly forces his attentions on her but she rejects him every time. Due to an unfortunate accident Gabrielle's husband is killed and many Basques want to return to Independence. Gabrielle Dauphin convinces them to continue toward California. The brother of her deceased husband becomes her protector and presumptive future husband, according to their customs. When the wagon train hits a desert, the scout advises the group to ration water and abandon their furniture and other useless belongings. Horses start to die of heat and thirst. A known water well in their path is dry. The scout advises to continue through the desert but Gabrielle wants to head toward the mountains, where water surely flows. Bennett is against this plan since the mountains are inhabited by Indians. However, the Basques decide to listen to Gabrielle and they all agree to head toward the mountains but not before Bennett and Gabrielle's new fiance, Pepe, have a fistfight among the sand dunes. The two men fight over Gabrielle. Bennett wins the fight but the Basques disarm him to make sure he's under control. In the mountains, they finally find water but they are spotted by Indians. Bennett is convinced the Indians will attack their wagon train during an ambush. Therefore, Bennett and the Basques come up with a daring plan. While the wagon train, loaded with the women, children and the elderly, continues its journey through the mountain pass, the men will execute a surprise attack against the unsuspecting Indians. They hope to distract the Indians' attention from the passing wagons. The Basques are fierce mountain fighters but the Indians outnumber them. Nevertheless, these settlers must fight for their dreams of California. —nufs68

Shortly after moving to Los Angeles with his parents, 17-year-old Jim Stark (James Dean) enrolls at Dawson High School. In the opening scene, Jim is brought into the police station for public drunkenness. When his mother, father and grandmother arrive at the police station to retrieve him, conflicts in Jim's family situation are introduced as he explains to the arresting officer. His parents are often fighting. His weak-willed father (Jim Backus) often tries to defend Jim, but Jim's picky and domineering mother always wins the arguments for his father cannot find the courage to stand up to his wife. Jim feels betrayed both by this fighting and his father's lack of moral strength, causing feelings of unrest and displacement. This shows up later in the film when he repeatedly asks his father, "What do you do when you have to be a man?" The next day, while trying to conform with fellow students at the school, he becomes involved in a dispute with a local bully named Buzz Gunderson (Corey Allen). While Jim tries to deal with Buzz, he becomes friends with a shy 15-year-old boy, John, who is nicknamed Plato (Sal Mineo), who was also at the police station the night of the opening scene for shooting and killing puppies. Plato idolizes Jim as a father-figure much to Jim's concern. Plato tells Jim that his parents divorced several years ago and are never in Los Angeles. His mother lives away in her hometown and never visits, calls or writes, while his father (a wealthy business executive) is always traveling and avoids comming home, leaving only his housekeeper to look after Plato. Plato experiences many of the same problems as Jim, such as searching for meaning in life and dealing with his absent and selfish parents who "don't understand." In the school hallway, Jim meets Judy (Natalie Wood), whom he also recognizes from the police station the previous night, where she was brought in for being out alone after dark, who originally acts unimpressed by Jim, saying in a sarcastic tone, "I bet you're a real yo-yo." She is apparently the property of Buzz. Judy too has an unhappy homelife when it shows her before going to school when she deals with her unattenative and sexist father who gives all his attention to Judy's younger brother as well as ignors both Judy and his wife for he feels that women are ment only to serve him, and nothing more. That afternoon, Jim goes on a field trip with his science class to the Griffith Observatory. At the Planetarium, he watches a dramatic presentation of the violent death of the universe. After the show, he watches Buzz and his thugs slash a tire of his car for no reason, and then Buzz challenges him to a knife fight, while the gang taunts Jim as a "chicken." Jim reluctantly takes part in the fight and wins, subduing Buzz by holding his switchblade up to his neck before discarding both knifes off a railing. Both Jim and Buzz get slight injuries during the knife fight. Not to be outdone, Buzz and his thugs challenge Jim to a "Chickie Run" with Buzz and Jim racing stolen cars towards an abyss. The one who first jumps out of the car loses and is deemed a "chicken" (coward). That evening, the "game" is held with Judy and several students in attendance to watch. But the race ends in tragedy for Buzz when a strap on the sleeve of his leather jacket becomes looped over a handle on the car door, preventing him from jumping out before the car goes over the cliff. Jim runs home and tries to tell his parents what happened, but quickly becomes frustrated by their failure to understand him and storms out of the house. Jim goes to the police to find the sergeant who took his statement the previous night to tell him about the accident involving Buzz's death, but learns that the police officer is not there. Jim refuses to speak to any policeman and will speak only to the sergeant and he leaves. But Jim is spotted leaving the station by three of Buzz's friends, Crunch (Frank Mazzola), Goon (Dennis Hopper), and another one of Buzz's gang members whom is not named. Mistakenly thinking that Jim told the police about the "Chickie Run", they decide to hunt Jim down to "silence him"... permenently. Jim meets up with Judy and they go to an abandoned mansion to hide out. Plato finds them there (he was the one who told Jim about the house). There they act out a "fantasy family," with Jim as father, Judy as mother and Plato as child. However, Crunch, Goon, and the other boy soon discover them, and terrorize Plato who finally brandishes his mother's handgun that he took from the house, shooting Crunch, and at Jim, and a police officer who investigates, in a clearly unstable state. Plato runs and hides in the Observatory, which is soon besieged by the police. Jim and Judy follow him inside, and Jim convinces Plato to lend him the gun, from which he silently removes the ammunition magazine. When Plato steps out of the observatory, he becomes agitated again at the sight of the police and charges forward, brandishing his weapon. He is fatally shot by a police officer as Jim yells to the police, too late, that he had already removed the bullets. Plato was wearing Jim's jacket at the time, and as a result, Jim's parents (brought to the scene by police) think at first that Jim was shot. Mr. Stark then runs to comfort Jim, who is distraught by Plato's death. Mr. Stark promises to be a stronger father, one that his son can depend on. Thus reconciled, Jim introduces Judy to his parents and they drive off together as dawn starts to break.