Seventeen-year-old Charley Brewster is a fan of both traditional horror films and a horror TV series entitled Fright Night, hosted by former movie vampire hunter Peter Vincent. One evening, Charley discovers that his new next door neighbour Jerry Dandrige, is a vampire responsible for the disappearences of several victims. Charley tries to tell his mother and asks his friends for help. In desperation, he contacts the police, but they believe that he is imagining things and ignore his claims after revealing his suspicions to them when he accompanies a homicide officer to Jerry's house. That night, Charley gets a visit from Jerry, who offers Charley a "choice" by forgetting about his vampire identity, but he refuses by using his crucifix on Jerry. When Jerry stops Charley and slowly tries to push him out the window to his death, he stabs Jerry's hand with a pencil. Enraged, Jerry destroys Charley's car in retaliation and threatens Charley that he plans to do much worse to him later.