Aftershock

I would not call this a horror film. A dark disaster film is more appropriate. The film is fun, lively and well done and acted. If not for a oddly timed and inappropriate character reveal that just makes you scratch your head and go huh? It was fun. The reveal was not even needed, especially when it did happen. It literally took me out of the film until it was resolved.

If your looking for something on the dark end, with horror type feel then check it out. It was good. It flowed really well and made sense how the characters got from one place to another. Well structured and honest.

The movie starts with the setup we've all seen a billion times before: Some guys. Are annoying. Horny. Some girls. Are annoying. Horny. Have party. Drink. Try to sex. Good times. Then suddenly... an earthquake!

The tone shifts drastically and the world around them goes to hell in a hand-basket real quick. Decimated architecture, riots in the streets, prisoners escaping, warnings of an incoming tsunami, every man for himself, and no one is safe. Anyone can meet their untimely end when you least expect it, just like a real life disaster.

This may sound like an intense and nihilistic experience, but beneath the surface, the film sticks to the usual horror movie rules and holds back too much to be a truly effective shocker. In other words, it feels too "Hollywoodized". There's also a dumb twist towards the end. Even still, there's just enough carnage here to satisfy undemanding lovers of cinematic slime. A natural disaster movie that puts most of it's focus on animalistic human behavior rather than the flashy special effects could, and should, have been a lot better.

Dead babies, a double rape and painfully brutal deaths are how I'm going to describe this bizarre hot mess of a film. Aftershock was nothing at all like I was expecting, especially coming from a project involving Eli Roth. I think I'm going to have to make peace with the fact that Roth will not be making quality horror films like Hostel or even Cabin Fever anymore. I'm going to have to settle for cheap thrills and depravity galore! Aftershock is a really bad film, but I still found myself gasping, cheering and gagging through out the hour. I say hour because the first 30 minutes are completely worthless. Once you get through the first pointless 30 minutes of lameness, and I did time it for your consideration, then it turns into a terrifying hour of low budget looking gore, cheesy drama, bad music and some of the most terrifying ways to die since Final Destination. Then there were the scenes that were just pure shock value, hence the uncomfortable rape scene and multiple dead baby scenes. But, I willingly made it to the end and found myself feeling terrified during all of the death scenes. Bottom line, utterly disappointed, but still found it mediocrely entertaining.

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Aftershock (2012)

* (out of 4)

Set in Santiago, Chile, a group of people are traveling around partying and having a good time but that all changes when an earthquake rips the city apart. The worse has yet to happen because soon a group of people find themselves being tortured by a gang of escaped cons. EARTHQUAKE meets THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT is pretty much the only way to describe this awful movie that starts off bad and just gets worse as it goes along. Director Nicolas Lopez co-wrote the screenplay with Roth and it's clear that neither of them had much to say as there's really no story to be found here, horrible dialogue and absolutely no character development. What we basically have is thirty-minutes of partying, thirty-minutes of the earthquake stuff and then about twenty-minutes worth of violence. The entire film is just so pointless that for the life of me I can understand how this thing actually got a theatrical release. The performances are all pretty forgettable but you really can't blame the cast because they were given nothing to do. I really do mean that nothing happens in this film. There's a big twist at the end that you'll see coming from a mile away. None of the characters are likable so I'm not sure why the writers decided to make them so hate-able. Did they want us to enjoy seeing them tortured? Perhaps but even the death/torture/rape scenes are so tame and boring that they add nothing to the picture. The special effects aren't believable during the earthquake scenes so there's yet another thing that doesn't work. The only thing that keeps AFTERSHOCK mildly entertaining is that you keep sitting there thinking that something's eventually going to happen so you hand onto hope that things are going to get better. Sadly, they never do as the picture just continues to get worse and it leads up to a very lame climax. I'm really not sure what the point of this was unless Lopez and Roth just thought it would be cool to mix the disaster and rape/revenge genres. Either way this here is a complete misfire that should be avoided.

Set in Chile after a nightmarish earthquake. A group of terrorists find themselves in a dire situation when the prisoners break out of jail and begin to take advantage of the situation. Most films set around disasters tend to focus on the positive outcomes of humanity. The way we come together even though strangers and assist each other in our greatest time of need. But after hearing the news reports of what happened in New Orleans after Katrina it makes a compelling case for a film maker to explore the darkest side of humanity. And as an exploration of that theme Aftershock mildly works moving from one situation to the next. Exploring the negative ways individuals could react. The theme is intriguing and thought provoking from a single mother defending her two children, to a rich man's empathy for his friend and the various ways people actually crack under pressure in the most despicable ways. I only wish the film makers just focused on those things, had a higher budget and delivered a more polished product. But what we have here is mostly a missed opportunity. Despite some decent character development and some nice moments dramatically the film is filled with unintentionally funny performances, seems to have been cut together with the subtly of a chainsaw and is very sloppily made due in some part to the high concept dumbed down by the obvious budgetary constraints. There is also a sub plot involving orphans that leads to an unexpectedly silly and offensive climax. There's a lot of negatives here but I can't say that I hated the movie at all. It's certainly an original film and makes some intriguing points sadly it's bogged down by the amateurness of the production overall and a controlling need to try and make the proceedings entertaining which they never are.So if you've seen taht nifty red band trailer that looks utterly ridiculous and like a lot of fun you're in for a much different experience indeed for better and worse. 3/5