The Afterglow

THE AFTERGLOW

A small gem of vampires that traps us in a hypnotic narrative telling a story of impossible love. In line with films like Let the right one in,The Afterglow becomes one of those cult movies that reviews the vampire genre with the elegance of Murnau or Herzog.

Intelligently structured, the script maintains a sense of tension, guiding us through a series of events, each increasing the suspense throughout the film. With carefully chosen, minimalist dialogs. The treatment of the atmosphere, characters, aesthetics lead us on an internal quest of the characters, alluding to classic expressionist themes such as the state of the soul, fears, fantasies and dreams. It is this element, dreams, that brings great beauty to the film. They are present in the shots and angular perspectives that give the work an air of mystery and uncertainty. The shadows so present, mainly connected to the protagonist, are one of the many details that have been taken carefully crafted in the film.

The actors are fantastic; Paul Coaster is drawn as a writer haunted by a memory which drags him into an addictive degradation towards Claudia Trujillo, Laura in the film, a magnetic woman who at times makes you want to hug her and at others, makes you want to run, great work by the directors of the film.

In short, a small vampire cult gem to whom lovers of good vampire movies would not mind offering our best blood film.

Laura Muñoz (Screenwriter)

But that's about it. The script/dialog is lacking a lot, which is made even worse by the performances. I haven't seen any other work of the actors and it's tough to convey feelings if you don't have a grip on the script and/or the quality of your acting skills is not up to the task. Whatever the case here with the people involved, the result is kind of a mess to watch.

The idea the script is based on is pretty neat as I already stated. And the movie has a couple of nice moments. While the cinematography might be one of the better things the movie has to offer, the visual style will not save this. It's a shame, but would also be a waste of time to watch