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Book Review: Mark Allan Gunnells’ Sequel

I know that this novel is nearly five years old, but it always manages to pop up in the recommended sections when I’m browsing Kindle E-Books. Whether it’s because Sequel is one of the few true slasher novels on Amazon or because I read one of Mark Allan Gunnells’ other books, FORT, this ended up being my March 2017 read one way or another. Frankly, FORT was a bit of a burden – where I enjoyed what Mark was trying to accomplish, but felt like he jumped the shark half-way through the almost page turner. Sequel, however, was an absolute joy to read from page one to the very last page. Sequel was a novel that I wanted to read and one that kept me thoroughly entertained the whole way through. Here’s why.

Sequel is truly a piece of slasher material that does the subgenre of horror tremendous justice. I see so many old school influences in it like Friday the 13th and Slaughter High and it really did an excellent job in bringing my mind back to The Golden Age of Horror. At the same time, I saw heavy influences from modern slashers like Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer that made this a mix of heavy hitting elements. The suspense and mystery that was ever present in Friday the 13th exists in Mark Allan Gunnells’ novel, even down to the somewhat non-descriptive and quick death scenes written into the pages. The setting so closely mirrors Prom Night or Slaughter High that I felt like a member of the school myself. Of course, the sex scenes and cursing that could only exist in a movie like Scream fused into the story-line to bring a hyper slasher that hasn’t been brought to film yet.

Which is why I think that Sequel has tremendous potential to be adapted into a movie at some point. I mean, is no one talking about doing that yet? Is Mark Allan Gunnells really sitting on this goldmine? While the movie inception idea of a horror film within a horror story has been done before in Scream 3, the Wes Craven flick was more of a parody on itself and a horror-comedy where-as Sequel is a straight hitting slasher. It understands the slasher genre as it has existed in two halves and takes equal parts from each category to mold its story. Hell, even adding a pop star to the main roster of characters is something that’s quite normal in masked-killer movies now a-days. Think Kelly Rowland in Freddy vs. Jason. Think Willa Ford in the Friday the 13th remake. Think Paris Hilton in the House of Wax remake. Remakes aside, Sequel deals with just that, a sequel, and that fact alone is genius in itself. The world that it paints around a movie that doesn’t exist is incredibly described and you feel like Class of 1993 is a real title you’ve seen before.

Speaking of the plot, I think I’ve glazed over that a bit so let me provide you with the blurb from Amazon. “In the early ‘90s, the low-budget slasher CLASS OF ’93 is released to scathing reviews and fan indifference. Although the movie seems destined to be forgotten, it soon gains a cult following through late night screenings and VHS rentals. When hip director wunderkind, Taryn Quint, announces her plans to make a sequel to the picture, the original cast and crew is contacted to reprise their roles. With a larger budget, a marquee director at the helm, and a pop princess in the cast, expectations are high. But not everyone is happy about the new movie. It isn’t long before Taryn receives threatening messages urging her to abandon the film. And then the murders begin. As the cast and crew are butchered one-by-one, the survivors try to stay alive long enough to discover who would kill to stop the SEQUEL.”

Sequel is filled with endearing characters, a fun masked killer, traditional horror elements and a ton of suspense. Plus, it’s got a bunch of homoerotical and hetero-sex in there, if that’s your kind of thing. Sequel does a great job at giving you the best of both worlds in more than one category. This more than redeems Mark from the FORT disaster and I highly recommend this novel to anyone looking for a slasher movie in fine print. It would have gotten a perfect score from me had the final confrontation not been a bit of a let down. Final Score: 9 out of 10.

Michael DeFellipo

(Senior Editor)

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