Ancient Horror History Unearthed: After Sundown by Randall Boyll REVIEWED

A few months ago, I was engaged in conversation with a fellow horror fan, about great horror films of the 90s. The movie, Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight came up, as it's one of my favorites of the era.

I saw it theatrically when it came out. Twice, in fact. It was released the week of my 9th birthday, and I saw it twice that week. I was obsessed with it then and still consider it one of the best horror films of the 90s.

In my 9 year old obsession, I also picked up the novelization, which I still own today. I read and re-read the book, until I could own a copy of the VHS, years later.

Anyway, I grabbed the book in the conversation I was having to see who penned the novelization and found the author to be one Randall Boyll. In typical horror nerd fashion, I immediately took to Google for research on the guy and found much of his career had been spent writing novelizations, which I imagine was a more financially fruitful endeavor than original fiction. However, at the beginning of his bibliography lie three Horror originals. After Sundown is the first of those three.

Also in typical horror nerd fashion, I bought all three and promptly moved this one up in my to be read pile, gaining it "sooner than later" status. And now I close it's cover, here to recap all.

After Sundown is a pretty good book. Hell, it has moments where it's a fantastic book. I even think, had it been released a few years prior, it would have made a serious splash. Unfortunately, it was released in 1990, after the decline of the genre's big boom, so few took notice.

In 2018, I'd like to recommend that Horror readers undo that, take notice, and find themselves a copy because it really is a solid piece of genre work.

After Sundown tells the story of two neighboring families, smack-dab in the middle of suburbia, collectively mourning the loss of one of the family's young daughter, who has recently passed in a freak accident. To heal from their loss, they decide to take a bit of respite from suburbia and head into the snowy mountains of Utah.

They shack up at a cabin, which happens to be the site of a tragic massacre tied to polygamy, the founding of the Mormon religion and cannibalism. Of course, some pretty crazy shit ensues and we get to be entertained in gruesome ways.

At its best, the book presents a bleak, hopeless feeling, with the reader immersed in the hopelessness of our characters. There's some incredible atmosphere here, and some particularly nasty sequences. One standout has a demonic tree growing through one unlucky guys body, literally bursting out his skull, branches tearing through his nostrils.

The book does falter a bit in its familiar telling. In fact, I was very much reminded of the book The Dwelling, which I reviewed not long ago here. The whole ghosts-reenacting-as-vengeance bit has been a bit overdone. The ending also feels a bit rushed, but they often do in this era.

A qualm unrelated to the actual story...this has got to be some of the smallest font in my collection. I could have used a magnifying glass on this thing. We're talking microscopic.

In any event, I recommend this one, magnifying glass and all. It's a solid 4/5 for me. Give it a shot.

I fully plan on reading the rest of Boyll's non-novelization output. Hopefully, this, his debut, is an inclination towards the others being equally good.