It was Chris Sarandon's idea to have Jerry eating apples throughout the film. While researching vampire lore, Sarandon looked at information about bats and concluded, "Jerry had a lot of fruit bat in his DNA."
Because of his theatrical roots and the long hours spent in the makeup chair, Chris Sarandon helped apply his own vampire makeup and often worked on the finger extensions while the makeup artists were putting appliances on his face.
Although the part of Peter Vincent was based upon and originally written for Vincent Price to play, Roddy McDowall decided Peter Vincent was not in the same league as Price. "My part is that of an old ham actor, I mean a dreadful actor," McDowall commented in a 1985 interview with Monster Land magazine. "He had a moderate success in an isolated film here and there, but all very bad product. Basically, he played one character for 8 or 10 films, for which he probably got paid next to nothing. Unlike stars of horror films who are very good actors and played lots of different roles, such as Peter Lorre and Vincent Price or Boris Karloff, this poor sonofabitch just played the same character all the time, which was awful."
At the time this was being filmed, the studio was sinking all its efforts into making a hit out of Perfect (1985), and they also gave high priority to The Slugger's Wife (1985). "Nobody paid any attention to Fright Night," commented writer/director Tom Holland. "It was wonderful!"
One of the life-masks of Roddy McDowall taken for the Planet of the Apes franchise is visible in Peter Vincent's apartment.
Tom Holland: [supernatural dis-belief] character sees something supernatural, but can't get anyone else to believe them. See also Ma Búp Bê (1988) and Cloak & Dagger (1984).