Depois do Apocalipse

This post-apocalyptic love story could have been very good, even great, had it not been for the jarring back-and-forth jumping between two different timelines.

The main plot-line finds our heroine injured and alone in a barren, zombie-infested no-man's land, hunted by a spindly creature with a bad skin condition. This situation could have been a nerve-wracking viewing experience, had the director not decided to splice scenes of her "life before" throughout the full run-time of the movie. This breaks the tension EVERY TIME, in both narratives.

If you want to tell a backstory, just tell it and get it over with!

The acting, music and cinematography was adequate.

This was definitely not what I was expecting, it was actually much better, and deeper. I'm sure this movie, like most with flashbacks, will get panned by some reviewers because of it. However, after watching it through, the movie is actually more in the flashbacks than the "present" storyline. It has a really cool and moving symmetry at the beginning and end, using the gunshot. I actually let the movie begin to play over again at the end, which is where I really noticed it, and by rerunning is where you catch all the foreshadowing that you may not have caught. One of the first scenes, in the art gallery, with the "look past the ugliness" explanation of the Bacon artwork, is the basis of the story. I think you'll enjoy the movie as long as you're not looking for it to be the typical, gory, zombie-like post apocalyptic movie. Also understand that one flashback doesn't pick up exactly where the other left off (this threw me off at first and is why I enjoyed watching it a second time after understanding). The flashbacks are linear, but time passes (weeks to months) between them. This was a pleasant surprise, since I sit through quite a few bad movies when I look for free movies to stream.

No lie...I was really enjoying this movie right up until the ending. The post apocalyptic movie genre has always intrigued me mainly because I like to judge the decision making processes (or lack thereof) of the protagonists as they dart from one sticky situation to the next. The one common denominator in nearly every single one of these flicks is "OMG! Did you really think going into the dilapidated farm house by yourself and without a weapon or flashlight was going to turn out well?" This movie was no different. Our protagonist played by Brittany Ashworth immediately hit the right notes by coming off as capable, confident, and extremely self sufficient in the desolate landscape she was forced to survive in...and then she rolled her "Mad Max" Battlewagon when a "pre-end of the world photo" she obviously treasured blew out the window, and got a compound leg fracture in addition to an upside down hunk of useless metal, AND was stranded alone. Of course she'd be alone! But to her credit she did a good job fighting off the "things" you'd expect in a world gone to Hades. Then there was that ending. Oh boy. Up until then, not a bad run and I think most people would like it. Grade: B.

Most movies if you don't get me within the first 10 minutes, I'm out. First of all I'm a fan of dystopian and post apocalypse movies, so it got my attention for over 10 minutes, there were deep sigh moments (the can we get the story moving sighs), but it kept me watching, and after a certain point I felt committed to see it through to the end. While I was watching I'm thinking to myself, is it so bad that I'm watching or is it just good enough to keep me watching, whether it's the former or the latter, I didn't regret the watch, but I wish I would've watched a better movie with that time, talk about opportunity costs!!! If you're watched out on the latest or streaming and you want to watch something for the sake of watching, this isn't a bad fare, keep in mind it's a low budget movie with decent writing and decent acting and the story keeps going just enough for you to not bail out.

It stands out in the overused zombie genre with its combination of horror (a bit?) and drama. Pace is slow with the amount of flashbacks but it pays off in the end. Don't expect to get a lot of explanation behind the apocalypse though.