in a sequel, agreed to do the film after being impressed by Holland's screenplay. The film, directed by Richard Franklin and co-starring Meg Tilly, Robert Loggia, and Dennis Franz, opened at No. 2 at the box office (behind Return of the Jedi) and went on to gross $34 million. Holland re-teamed with director Franklin the following year on his next film, Cloak & Dagger. Unlike their previous film, Cloak & Dagger was a spy film aimed at a younger audience, and starring Henry Thomas of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial in its leading role. Despite positive critical reviews, the film was a financial failure, grossing $9,719,952 off of a 13 million dollar production budget. Directing Holland's directorial debut came in 1985 with the vampire horror film Fright Night. Holland first conceived of the premise during the writing of Cloak & Dagger, of a horror film fan who learns that his neighbor is a vampire. He chose to direct the film himself after being disappointed with Michael Winner's direction of his screenplay Scream for Help. The film was both financial and critical success, earning a rave review from Roger Ebert who wrote "Fright Night is not a distinguished movie, but it has a lot of fun being undistinguished." The film spawned a sequel in 1988 titled Fright Night Part 2, and a 2011 remake, Fright Night starring Colin Farrell and Anton Yelchin. That remake also had its own sequel, Fright Night 2: New Blood, which was released in 2013. Holland wasn't involved in any of the sequels or the remake. On October 28, 2020, Holland confirmed that he is writing a direct sequel to the original Fright Night titled Fright Night: Resurrection and that his sequel would ignore the 1988 sequel and be a proper sequel to his 1985 film. In 1988, Holland directed the film Child's Play, which received positive reviews from Ebert and Leonard Maltin, spawned a long-running franchise consisting of six sequels, and helped elevate its antagonist Chucky to a pop culture icon. He directed three episodes of the horror anthology series Tales from the Crypt, and returned to television films with The Stranger Within. He wrote and directed a 1996 ABC miniseries adaptation of the Stephen King novella The Langoliers, and the following year adapted King's novel Thinner into a film of the same title. Dead Rabbit Films He and David Chackler founded the horror film company Dead Rabbit