Aftershock, l'Enfer sur Terre

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

A group of friends in Chili hit up the night clubs for some fun. A massive earthquake hits and destroys half the city, releasing the prisoners that end of unleashing more destruction and hell in the streets.

An interesting concept that tries to blend the disaster genre with the horror genre. The result is a mixed bag of depravity, low budget effects & set-ups and hatred for the so called characters we are suppose to engage with. Aftershock doesn't care about much, it wants to throw everything and the kitchen sink at you. This film reminds me a lot of Kevin Smith's "Red State" in that it subverts genres and goes in different directions just when you think you know what is going to happen next. While I admire Smith's pulling of the rug from under our feet, Aftershock never manages to reach the same level. Instead it is stuck in this redundant pool of lukewarm unnecessary-ness.

Eli Roth produces and stars in the film, I've always said he should stay behind the camera because his on screen talent is severely lacking. Yet he always finds himself in front of the camera, making himself seem more important than he should be. Roth has some good films under his belt, he without a doubt knows the genre of horror. He needs to stick to producing and directing. Get more unique horror films out there, stop worrying about the Roth who acts, cause no one cares.

What the film lacks in special effects in makes up for in absurdity. Here is a film that is about destruction, yet it chooses (mainly because they have to) showcase the aftermath. The scenes of chaos happen in tight close ups, shaky cam and whatever else they can think of to disorient the viewer from seeing anything. It seems they saved the budget in the special effects department for the final shot, which one can see coming once the character gets to that location, yawn.

Aftershock loves to put characters in bad situations, then kick them when they are down. It might be hard to watch for some people. The film has no problem having one character be raped twice, then shot. This is after another one has been burned alive. This is the so called twist in the film, when we stop focusing on the destruction from mother earth and are focused on human nature. These characters aren't even the prisoners though, these are random street thugs or what have you, that see the women in the streets and decide to chase after them, thus ensuring a lot of death and sorrow for the characters the film has taken so long to set up.

No, we don't get any prisoner action until the final act of the film, which takes another turn with another twist. One that will have you scratching your head in confusion, but Aftershock is too crazy and absurd, that you end up just going with it.

This isn't much of a disaster flick, nor does it seem to be good horror. It's a low budget miss- match of bad taste.

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.

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.

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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