Aftershock

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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This is my first review and will try to keep it as short as possible because, hating to bust on any aspiring authors or critics out there most of us don't read the long reviews. There's no need to write a 2,000 word synopsis on any movie,show or whatever here, IMDb already does that for us. We just wanna know if it's any good or not.... oops I guess there goes keeping this short.

Anyways, I just watched it this morning so while it's fresh in my mind, is this movie any good?

If you like horror, action and/or adventure (along the line of Jaws, though this is no Jaws) you might enjoy this. It has its action, experiencing and trying to escape the earthquake. It's got its scary, borderline intense moments of terror and lots'a blood n' gore. Oh yeah and bonus, some annoying hipsters get killed! Add in a couple of "didn't see that coming" plot twists, a fun ending and you may start moving towards the edge of your seat but, I don't think you'll make it all the way there.

Bottom line, it's not a particularly moving piece of cinema but,if you got an hour and a half to kill and you're not paying for it (like me I caught it on cable) It's still better than a lot of the other crap I've seen lately on TV so it's coming in at a solid, watchable but not earth-shaking 6

I won't recap the plot, because other reviewers have done it much better than I could. But I do want to express that I feel this was an absolutely brilliant movie by a wonderful and talented newcomer, Nicolas Lopez, with the collaboration of established master Eli Roth.

We'd all like to think (or hope) that everybody will be philanthropic and kind in the face of disaster, but this film shows us the frightening reality of human nature. When you're injured and in pain and terrified you maybe won't meet kind helping hands - you could just as likely meet looters, sadists and rape squads. I've been a traveller my whole life, and I know from personal experience how close the border is between middle-of-the-night drunken fun and horrifying death when you're far from home.

I'm very conservative with my grading at IMDb, but I think this film deserves a rare 10 out of 10.

On their last night out a group of travellers find themselves fighting for survival when an earthquake devastates South America.

Probably due to an abundance of sub-par modern style horrors debatably 2012's Aftershock is sorely underrated and overlooked. Reminiscent of the character build up that came with Eli Roth's own Hostel director Nicolás López delivers a hard hitting freely traditionally shot (no found footage here) well executed, gritty disaster film which successfully shocks with its unnerving set ups and exceptional special effects.

The cast are on fine form Natasha Yarovenko as Irina,Lorenza Izzo (Kylie) and Nicolás Martínez and Pollock re notable with with Roth himself putting in a good innings as a nameless dad referred to as Gringo. While it is gratuitous it's fitting to the story and tone as with the aforementioned as the leads try to survive the earthquakes aftershocks falling buildings, collapsing tunnels and the social unrest which ensues by escapee prisoners before a tsunami hits Chile.

It's well paced with fine cinematography by Antonio Quercia and music Manuel Riviero helps it capture some of the original magic which Roth's first outing did. Even though the ending scene may come as no surprise there are a few twists to peak interest.

While not a horror in the traditional sense with graphic amputations, rape, drugs, a human torch, shooting and murders to name a few, granted it will make the regular viewer wince but it's well written and sharply directed by López - forget the endless copycat films of the same sub-genre if you rated Hostel and part 2 this sleeper isn't one to miss.

A bunch of tourists are in Chile to party, but when an earthquake hits the city, they need to fight for survival, not only against the natural disaster, but also against criminals who seized the opportunity to escape from prison.

I would have rated 'Aftershock' higher than 6 of 10 if it wasn't for the boring first 30 minutes. We get introduced to characters who are so dumb that we really wouldn't care if they all get buried by the earthquake. This lengthy introduction turns out to be a waste of time, anyway, because some of them are killed off early, while other characters who are more important for the movie get 3 seconds of back story ('Trust me, I'm a firefighter').

However, after the quake it gets thrilling, violent, suspenseful with a lot of action, which made the movie worth watching after all. I was not surprised to learn in the making of (watched on DVD) that several of the makers of 'Aftershock' have previous experience in comedy rather than horror, it's the timing of some scenes that tells it. For example the lady who shows the tunnel and then makes the mistake to stick her head first - that's the 'oops' timing of a comedy, not a horror movie. But it works and makes the movie more original. Also the background with a catastrophe that destroys the usual human behaviour so quickly is believable. Not too bad after all, but I recommend to press fast forward at the beginning.