Charley Brewster is a normal American teenager whose mother thinks he watches too many late night horror films. Charley's life is pretty uneventful - until he becomes convinced that his suave, yet sinister, neighbour Jerry Dandridge (Chris Sarandon) is a vampire.

No-one, least of all the police, will believe that Dandridge is the vicious killer responsible for a spate of bizarre murders. Charley finds an ally in Peter Vincent (Roddy McDowall), a former horror film star and host of TV's Friday Night Theatre, in his quest to nail the debonair bloodsucker. But then the nightmare really begins...