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Three extreme
sport thrill-seekers head to Moscow
to find out if Stalin's underground torture chamber
really exists. But before they know it, things start
to go wrong and they soon find themselves trapped
in an underground tunnel system where the radiation
is starting to burn away on their flesh. To make
things even worse, they also start having ghostly
visions in the dark tunnels. What's real, and what's
not? And will they be able to get out of the tunnels
and back to America alive?
I demand some credit for being able to milk that long
plot description from this nonsense movie. Is it a
thriller? I don't know. Is it a horror movie? Eh,
probably not. Is it an abstract and artistic drama?
Who's to say? All I know is that After... is yet
another mismarketed horror thriller which tries to
be artsy and fresh but fails miserably at that (so
for those of you who actually enjoyed Bug, you might
want to stop reading my review here and check this
movie out since it's basically on the same level).
The story revolves around Addy and her husband and
brother who get stuck inside an underground tunnel
system and start having ghostly visions. Sounds like
The Descent mixed with a dash of Below and The Bunker
huh? Well, it's not. This movie has so many problems
that I don't even know where to start, but let's
start with the biggest issue that I had with this
flick; the directing. Someone get these guys a tripod
because the camera won't stop shaking! I don't think
we got a single scene shot in ordinary fashion. Most
of the movie is shot with a handheld camcorder - or
so it felt like and while the shaky thing works for
a while, it eventually started giving me a migraine.
The movie is also highly oversaturated, on purpose,
so for most of the time it's either impossible to tell
what's going on or you're blinded by an extreme white
light. Now to the plot, which basically wasn't all
that bad and had a lot of potential. The thing is
that the whole thing was so poorly executed that it's
too difficult for the viewer to follow the story.
Heck, in the end I had no idea what was going on.
I hate when movies try to deliberately confuse you
but usually you get a rational explanation in the end.
This is not the case with After. I basically understood
the ending but then they had to go and scramble the
explanation as well so that the audience is left
unsatisfied and, well, confused. The worst thing was
probably that by the movie had finally come to an end,
I didn't care anymore, because no matter how good of
an explanation they could have come up with (and
believe me, the explanation that we got wasn't very
good), they had all ready screwed up the movie by
having absolutely nothing make sense - and there is
no excuse for that.
Ultimately, I wasn't pleased with After. Perhaps it's
too artsy for me, but I'm one of those who actually
want to be able to understand, or at least be able to
see what's going on. After allowed me to do neither.
If you enjoy movies that think that they're artsy but
are just plain dumb and incompetent, After should be
a hoot for you. But if you ask me, I'd say that the
entire crew was probably on crack while making this.
Nothing much, some burnt flesh.
I do love techno music but it just didn't fit in here.
The suspense music was absent.
Well, what can I say? After wants to be an art-house
horror thriller but fails miserably at that and ends
up being a confusing mess with a scrambled story and
a weak ending. If you're going to watch it, make sure
that you take a couple of migraine pills before you
head in, just in case.
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