Why do I do this to myself? Because I decided to watch all the After movies, I need to talk about these, for the love of Christ.
Many people who know me understand that romance movies aren’t my go-to cinematic entertainment to watch. Sure, I’ll spend plenty of time watching the best romantic comedies, but I’m there more for the comedy part and not the romance because nine times out of ten, I think all movie romances are extremely unrealistic or cliché as all heck. Only a few have been able to draw me in and make me love them.
But as someone who is chronically online (and I mean all the time), I have heard so many stories about the After franchise. As someone who has read, and admittedly written, fanfiction about some of the media franchises I have been passionate about, I wanted to find out what this film series would be about since it was based on Harry Styles fanfiction – and what made it worse was that the author wasn’t involved with later films.
There are five After movies, the last of which I had to buy to watch, and I just… I don’t even know where to start. I’ve seen some bad movies, but for the love of all things good, I don’t think I can ever watch these again in good conscience. Today, we’re going to talk about them.
Dear God, This Relationship Is So Toxic
Remember when I said earlier that a big reason why I don’t like romance movies is that most of the time, they are either extraordinarily unrealistic or very cliché? Yeah, After is none of those, and not in a great way.
It doesn’t fill you up to the brim with sweetness or show the most cliché things in the world. Instead, it introduces you to Tessa and Hardin, two college students who are so obnoxiously wrong for each other that this romance should be illegal.
This relationship, from the first After movie onward, is so ungodly toxic that it makes me want to hurl and wonder what the author of the book series thought a normal relationship was like. I’ve read some pretty bad fanfiction, but if this is what became remarkably popular, I’m concerned about the state of romance in this world.
Tessa herself isn’t that bad. I feel like she’s just a young woman trying to find herself in college, as we all have. But running into Hardin is possibly the worst thing she could have done. I’ve seen some pretty horrible relationships in the media before, especially in shows like Gossip Girl (which I’ve binge-watched) or the CW hit series Riverdale, but this one takes the cake.
Also It’s Not Super Great That A Relationship Began On A Dare
The fact that this relationship between Tessa and Hardin started on a dare alone is the most significant sign that this actually is the worst relationship imaginable.
If I were Tessa and discovered that a guy was only trying to get with me because of a dare, I would never see him again. His number would be deleted, everything would be blocked and I would go out of my way to ensure we did not have friends that crossed over, because that’s horrible.
But she gets back together with him multiple times, even when their relationship begins on a dare. It sickens me to think of the thought process behind all this.
Can We All Agree That Dylan Sprouse Was The Best Part Of The Second Film
I liked After We Collided, the second movie, more than the first for a few reasons. The first is because there was plenty of space between Tessa and Hardin since he is nasty, but the second was that Dylan Sprouse’s character, Trevor, was the best part. I wish he had been used more.
Sprouse is already known to have good comedic ability considering he was on The Suite Life of Zack and Cody, one of the most popular Disney Channel series ever with his brother, Cole Sprouse. And while Cole went on to achieve other acting roles, such as the series Riverdale (which had its emotional endgame finale in 2023), Dylan hadn’t done as much in acting aside from smaller roles, and he was great in this bigger part.
Honestly, I wish Trevor ended up with Tessa, but here we are.
The Third Movie Ends So Strangely
Three movies into this franchise, and I was surviving on a dream somehow, but I have to admit that the third movie, After We Fell, ends strangely. It concludes with Hardin finding out that Vance is his biological father, and then Hardin enters the street and Tessa embraces him because he’s… angry? Upset? Shocked? I don’t even know.
I’m so confused by Hardin’s thought process and how he reacts to situations because nine times out of ten, it feels as if I am watching a toddler. And the third film concluding on this strange note made me want to watch the rest, but only to see if this mess gets cleaned up.
Spoiler alert: it doesn’t.
Hardin Is Actually A Walking Red Flag And It Scares Me How Much Tessa Loves Him
Throughout each of these five movies, Hardin is a walking red flag, and I don’t understand how Tessa could love someone, really anyone, like this.
Hardin has his few rare moments of sweetness, but they are so few and far between that it’s hard even to imagine a real life with this guy. He has anger issues, which are obvious, but he’s also a sneak, a liar and a writer who sells his literal life to the public (which we’ll get into in a bit) – there’s so much to dislike about him.
The author could be trying to paint the connection between how some people are love-bombed in relationships, and that makes them stay in these potentially harmful entanglements, but I don’t even think Hardin does that. He’s just horrible, and Tessa deserves a lot better.
Also Not A Huge Fan Of Harden Selling Their Freaking Romance To The World
I mean, this is the obvious one – if my boyfriend of seven years suddenly decided to publish a book about our romance to the world without even telling me, I’d probably dump him too.
Are we serious that somehow, someway, Tessa still has romantic feelings for him after all of this? After everything? And yes – the pun was very much intended. Hero Fiennes Tiffin – please, listen to your gut and not do another movie. You were reluctant once before, don’t do it again.
I Truly Hope There Are No More Movies After This
I will say that it at least feels towards the end of the After film series that there might be some stuff up in the air about Tessa and Hardin. It’s as if they won’t get back together at the end of After Everything, the relatively uneventful fifth movie — and I really hope that’s the case.
I genuinely don’t want to see any more of these movies. I initially watched them because I thought these films would be in the definition of “so bad, they’re good.” There are plenty of films like that, including bad disaster movies that are actually good. But these movies make me so sad.
The more there are, the more it pushes these terrible examples of what relationships can be like because there are people like Hardin out there. But the fact that it’s marketed towards a young adult audience is hazardous and makes me never want to watch these ever again.
Tessa and Hardin are an example of a couple that would never last in the real world. Truthfully, I hope no more After movies are made because I can’t stand the idea of this romance getting any more publicity than is already has. This will be my first and last time speaking about them.
If you’re like me and you need good romance movies once you binged the After franchise, and now feel like jumping out of a window because of how bad they are, check out our lists of some of the best romance movies ever. Or, if you’re looking for something a little more passionate, there are plenty of great enemies to lovers movies too. Anything is better than this.
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Khushi Patel is a science fiction author who lives in Austin, Texas. She has published three novels, and her work has been praised for its originality and imagination. Khushi is a graduate of Rice University, and she has worked as a software engineer. She is a member of the Science Fiction Writers of America, and her books have been nominated for several awards.
