The Aftermath

I can see how someone would think this movie is so bad its good, but to those familiar with movies, so bad its good is an actual category and The Aftermath is not really in it.

Sure, there are decisions that put a smile on the viewers face, but all in all Barkett seems honest and wholesome here, unlike the completely unaware perverts and imbeciles who usually make those movies.

Freud says every dream is a wish, and similarly, the kind of film one makes is, too, an insight into ones psyché and seemingly what Barkett wants is: to be an astronaut, a family, and to shoot bad guys. Whats wrong with all that?

Some of the action and acting is subpar, but the movie makes up for it with actual characterization and by having a heart and a strong, useful message.

Should someone be looking for an introduction to legitimately so bad its good movies, try Plan 9 from Outer Space, Starcrash, Deathstalker, Lifeforce, Robot Holocaust, Battlefield Earth or The Room.

Ps: that kid died in the desert and you know it.

I saw this on Amazon after an especially hard day at work. I needed some dumb escapism. But you know what? This move is not lame enough to be really funny, nor good enough to be in any way entertaining.

The set up is simple. Three astronauts return to earth after some sort of mission to, well, somewhere. They land their craft just off the coast of Los Angeles, but the two survivors find dead bodies on the beach, the city devastated, and a band of mutant humans threatening them.

They make their way to a mansion in the Hollywood Hills, while encountering a young boy, Chris (Christopher Barkett, the producer's son), and Sarah (Lynne Margulies) an attractive 20ish woman fleeing what looks to be an amped up motorcycle gang / Mad Max cult. Along the way our two astronauts learn that most of mankind has been wiped out by nuclear war or biological warfare. The rest of the film is about their navigating and trying to survive in the dangerous post armageddon L. A.

Negatives?

-Wooden acting. Steve Barkett is the producer, director, writer, and star so this is clearly a vanity project. He is pretty deficient in each category. And fails to get much more from the other actors. Margulies tries her best, but is mostly relegated to being the helpless female, always in peril.

-Exploitive. There are gratuitous scenes of poor Sarah bouncing, jiggling about, on the run from what looks to be a biker gang gone berserk, her nipples plainly showing beneath her tight tank top. She's at the center of several disturbing rape / sexual assault scenes that are way over the top for violence. While no one was prosecuted for obscenity, this was the early Thatcher years in Britain. The film was seized and confiscated in the UK under Section 3 of the Obscene Publications Act.

-A blaring, intrusive, off-the-VU meter musical score. The composer, John Morgan, used a full orchestra and got every dollars worth. Trumpets blast. Flutes riff. Snare drums snare. French horns warn. No one makes a move without the music overwhelming the scene. And it's usually inappropriate. Happy music, say, for an abduction scene.

-Looks cheap, but the budget in 2023 dollars is just under $500,000. Today that would make for a pretty good indie film. Maybe the money went for the score?

Positives?

+A for effort. The cast looks like they are having a good time, especially the senior Barkett.

Clearly this movie needs the RiffTrax, MSTK3 treatment.

This movie is pretty entertaining really. It borrows from The Planet of the Apes, The Omega Man or The Last Man on Earth, and The Stand among others (although every movie borrows from something). Yet the movie still has a style all its own and while it is mostly a very funny movie that was supposed to be serious, it does offer a bit of creativity. Has several scenes that most directors would not have included, that's not a bad thing. A good movie for the fatalist. Worth watching for everyone else. Except kids I guess, there are some scenes of gore. (head explodes, a knife through the head via the eye, lots of bullets flying, dead bloody kid, mutants, and decayed bodies).

As a very early entry into the post-nuke game, this one was kind of a genre-defining film for what would follow. Yes, it was insanely low budget, and corny at times, but what really makes it work is Steve Barkett. You know he wasn't a pro, but his amount of enthusiasm for the project more than made up for his lack of skills. He's rolling, jumping, kicking, driving, shooting; no stuntmen here! Flicks like this probably inspired others to get into movie making. It just looks like they had a hell of a lot of fun doing it. This was a movie with a lot of spirit- something the 150 million dollar pictures can't say.

A group of astronauts is in space when WWIII goes down, and they return to earth of find a burnt-out, zombie-infested, wasteland. Criminals run loose, raping and pillaging at will. This film was blatantly copied by Def Con 4 several years later, which was good also. Sid Haig is great as Cutter, the ruthless leader of the filthbags. There is a good amount of decent gore and some nudity to keep you going, but the main plot is the good vs. evil and the battle with Cutter and his band of evil-doers. One thing: this movie will be hard to find. It took me a couple years to find it. UPDATE: I just saw that they have now released this on DVD as Zombie Aftermath! I need to go upgrade my old VHS copy at once!!

If you like B-movies and the post-nuke genre, you will not be disappointed. You may even want to go out and try to make you own movie! This one is a slice of tasty cheese. Recommended. Also, check out Survival Zone (another rare bird).

If you pick this up to watch a serious movie about life after a nuclear war, you'll give up on this in about 5 minutes. But if you like watching a movie that you can make fun of and groan at, then this is the movie for you.

As I was watching this I was thinking just how bad this movie was, but I kept watching to see what goof, inconsistency, bad line, etc. would come up next. And I was not disappointed.

You've got stupid people running around in the desert and guns that never run out (almost never) of ammunition. You've also got the chance of running into a radioactive rain storm, but only drive cars with no roofs. And much, much more.

This is a prime example that if you make the movie bad enough, but still entertaining, it will hang around for a long time.