Those of you who have been waiting for a legitimate sequel to the 1985 vampire-who-lives-next-door horror/comedy movie classic will be pleased to hear that your wait is over. Though a fun and thrilling sequel was made for the screen in 1988, it was without the involvement of Tom Holland, the original’s creator/writer/director. To experience what Holland would have done to continue his story and characters, fans will have to settle on reading it in book form with the recently-released and highly entertaining Fright Night: Aftermath, co–written by Holland with A. Jack Ulrich.
This is now the third book that Holland has co-written to further develop the Fright Night universe. The first was Fright Night: Origins, a moderately entertaining but trivially redundant novelization of the first film with some added characters and plot points to set up stories to come. The second was Fright Night: Hellbound, an abysmal and unfocused prequel that offers very little in the way of character expansion or entertainment. Now, there is Fright Night: Aftermath.
Aftermath begins directly after the events of the first film and book. Teenager Charley Brewster and horror film star Peter Vincent have defeated the lethal vampire Jerry Dandrige and his inhuman manservant, Billy. Charley’s former friend, nicknamed “Evil”, has been turned into a vampire by Dandrige and now possesses a magical book called a grimoire, in which there is a spell that can be used to resurrect Dandrige and Billy. Two mystics, Eliza and her uncle, Bill, travel to the book’s fictional California town of Rancho Corvallis to retrieve the ancient tome. Meanwhile, Amy, Charley’s girlfriend, who had previously been turned into a vampire by Dandrige and was then rescued by Charley and Peter and (seemingly) turned back to normal, inexplicably pines for Dandrige. She decides to support Evil and his new manservant, a former reporter named Jimmy, in their quest to retrieve Dandrige’s and Billy’s remains from the local police station so the deceased monsters can be properly revived. As can be expected, all hell repeatedly breaks loose in the most thrilling and amusing of ways.
Aftermath is a greatly satisfying and endlessly fun romp that continues the world of Fright Night and captures its horrifying yet playful tone beautifully. It’s a quick, easy read that can be comfortably digested in just a couple of sittings. Fans of the original film will no doubt enjoy the continuing adventures of the characters they love. It may not quite be the movie Fright Night lovers have wanted for over forty years, but it’s a damned close second.
Aftermath is a highly cinematic book. Its plot is straightforward and effectively simple, the complications and intricacies of its world are easily explained and understood, and its refreshingly lean prose keeps the pages turning without any overt, concentration-breaking indulgence. Ulrich and Holland seem to understand that the book is for film lovers, not hardcore literature buffs, and accommodate its writing style accordingly. Aftermath reads and progresses like an effectively sparse novel or a highly detailed screenplay. Take your pick.
The only complaints I have about the book are minor ones. I don’t like how the final scene in the original Fright Night movie is revealed to have been a dream in Aftermath. That was an easy way out to get the story moving exactly as Holland and Ulrich seemingly wanted it to. It would have been better if they’d simply adjusted Aftermath’s story to fully match the original film’s continuity. The dream scenario may have saved some time, but it also trivializes and cheapens what came before it– something all sequels should know by now to avoid.
I also don’t like how the story depicted in the previously released comic book series with the misleading name of Tom Holland’s Fright Night is completely ignored in this book. Events in the comic, which is also a sequel to the original film, contradict events in Aftermath. This sloppy coordination amongst artists in different mediums is an unfortunate and sizable letdown to the most loyal of Fright Night’s followers.
Aftermath is also obviously a setup for stories and characters to come. While overall satisfying as a continuation of what came before it, I do wish Aftermath were slightly more self-contained to stand on its own. I also wish the ending had a bit more finality and didn’t leave everything on such a cliffhanger. Admittedly, however, the book did leave me wanting more and looking forward to the next entry in the series, so I suppose the authors succeeded with their intentions in that regard.
Fright Night: Aftermath is the first true sequel to the first Fright Night movie. While it somewhat serves as compensation for the cinematic sequel fans will likely never get to see, it’s not hard to take it for what it is and enjoy it immensely. It’s a truly and tremendously fun read that will finally quench the powerful bloodthirst of Fright Night fans who have desperately wanted to see what happens next for decades.
GRADE: B+
