Why do things seem scarier at night? If things are scary, should nightfall make a difference? Betty Anne assures the others that things are scarier at night - especially in her story. Submitted for the approval of the Midnight Society, she calls it "The Tale of the Nightly Neighbours."
One dark evening, Dayday Toll watches Night of the Living Dead (1968). His sister Emma sneaks up on him, and warns against too much television. Through the window, they peak into the night. Before the house opposite, a removal van is approached by a man, woman, and young boy, all dressed entirely in black. The new neighbours turn their heads in unison to regard the young observers.
Next day, on their way to greet the new neighbours, they find a delivery workman wheeling a huge crate. The Brauns, originally from the Ukraine, have ordered two of these things. As Emma and Dayday return home, their mother stumbles out, and bumps into Mr Mitchell, the postman, who falls over. Since the night the new neighbours arrived, he's been feeling curiously drained of energy. On his neck is a large sticking plaster...
Emma notices the Brauns never seem to speak to anyone; and only seem to emerge after nightfall. Throughout the neighbourhood, more people fall to curious energy drainage.
Emma lies in bed. The bedroom window flies open. Fog billows into the room. Emma opens her eyes. Above the fog effortlessly rises the figure of Mr Braun, to survey the room. Emma sees him glide, in a stoop, towards her bed. As he bears down on her, his eyes widen, and his lips part to reveal a set of fangs. Emma screams and sits up, awake, in daylight: it was just a dream.
She runs to Dayday’s bedroom; rouses him with a nearby megaphone, and announces her startling new theory - the Brauns are vampires. Tonight, she plans to sneak into their basement, and see what was in those huge crates.
Having bedecked her bedroom curtains with cloves of garlic, Emma warns Dayday never to invite in the new neighbours. Emma steals across the Brauns' moonlight lawn, slips through a low window, and climbs down into the basement...
Back at the Tolls', the doorbell rings. Dayday opens to find on the doorstep all three Brauns. Mrs Toll cordially invites them in. Over tea, Mr and Mrs Braun explain their shared job - alongside paramedics, they study healthcare methods for potential import to their homeland. Meanwhile, in the Braun's basement, Emma finds a large, sheet-covered rectangular object, which turns out to be...a refrigerator. Curiously, its lid is padlocked. Emma cracks the lock,looks round, sees Dayday, and the two scream in fright. Before they leave, Emma opens the fridge. Stacked inside are numerous glass bottles of some dark red liquid...
Next day, Emma procures a set of wooden spikes, and two wooden crosses. That afternoon, on the other side of the Braun's house, Emma and Dayday sneak back into the Braun's basement. Inside they find a padlocked metal door. Emma starts to work on the padlock.
As the upstairs door opens, they take cover. Light floods the basement, and black-clad legs descend to patrol in painfully slow inspection. A distant car horn suddenly draws them away.
Emma and Dayday climb out of the basement window and onto the daylighted driveway. From the garage emerges Mrs Braun, followed by Mr Braun, who carries a box marked with a first aid cross. How come they're out in daylight? Mrs Braun brightly greets the two. With their schedule having changed, they're storing in their basement some hospital blood.
Dayday has a good, long laugh at Emma’s suspicions.
Down in their basement, Mr and Mrs Braun load the refrigerator with new bottles. Through the padlocked metal door, they enter a vault, in which stands a coffin. It creaks open to reveal Lex. They praise their Master's wisdom in coming to these shores - here, no one believes a little boy can be a vampire! In an exultant grin, Lex bares his fangs.
The Midnight Society douse the fire with their reddish fruit juice, and Gary closes the meeting.
This episode provides examples of:
- Actually Not a Vampire: This may be the case with the two adults, as they, unlike Lex, traverse daylight.
- Adaptation Expansion: This episode got a novelization in the Are You Afraid of the Dark? book series, which expands on the story, as they felt they could do so with the extra space.
- In case you were wondering: Emma is able to vanquish Lex once and for all by tricking him into going out before sunset. His mortal caretakers leave and their fate is otherwise kept ambiguous, as Emma notes that they might just find a new master.
- Affably Evil: All the Brauns are polite, if somewhat foreboding.
- Alone with the Psycho: On their second visit to the Braun’s basement, Emma and Dayday hear upstairs footsteps, and hide, as one of the adult Brauns slowly surveys the room.
- The Bad Guy Wins: Contrary to Eric’s expectations, Emma’s vampire theory is proven right, unbeknownst to anyone, albeit in an unexpected way: while Mr and Mrs Braun seem not to be vampires, Lex definitely is.
- Being Watched: Emma begins to suspect the neighbourhood is being surveyed by vampires.
- Breaking and Bloodsucking: Around the neighbourhood, the Brauns glean invitation. An epidemic of drowsiness soon follows.
- Creepy Child: Lex, with his knowing, solemn aloofness.
- Cruel Twist Ending: One of the series' most infamous, as Lex is indeed a vampire, is made aware of Emma's suspicions, and is free to kill her and her family in their sleep. The novelization changes this to a Surprisingly Happy Ending where Emma defeats Lex by tricking him into going out in sunlight.
- Dissonant Serenity: Mr and Mrs Braun speak with a polite, occasionally somewhat foreboding, calmness.
- Evil Wears Black: All the Brauns dress immaculately in ominous black.
- Exploring the Evil Lair: Emma and Dayday sneak into the basement of the suspect vampires.
- Must Be Invited: As noted by Emma.
- Properly Paranoid: While Emma’s vampire theory is deemed fanciful, the threat is real.
- The Renfield: Mr and Mrs Braun subserviently attend to Lex, but seem not to share his vampirism.
- Shout-Out: In a Dream Sequence, Mr Braun rather evokes Christopher Lee’s Dracula.
- Slasher Smile: Lex, at the end.
