Movie Review: Aftermath

credit: Aftermath

It’s not hard to realize there’s little to no regard for a movie when there isn’t that much information on it to be found on the internet, which is known to be a wellspring for just about anything a person might need or want. Aftermath almost feels like a movie that the director might have been ready to disavow at some point, even if there was a plot that might have gone somewhere had it been used in a more effective manner. The main gist of the story is that a young couple who is having marital issues due to infidelity buys a new home, which is also a home in which the husband has cleaned up a murder scene as his job. When strange things start to happen in the home, however, the couple’s marriage starts to fray even further as they start to blame each other for the strange happenings, as well as other matters that go beyond the scope of the movie. When all is said and done, this movie is one that a lot of people might have seen presented in one way or another before. 

credit: Aftermath

The issue with the home would likely keep a lot of people at bay. 

When people hear that there’s been a murder or a suicide in a home that they’re about to move in, many will have a different reaction. Some will refuse to walk through the same room where the act occurred, while others might soak it up like a sponge. In this case, the act was still highlighted throughout the movie, but it wasn’t given the same type of importance every time it came up. Being freaked out about something like this, especially since it was such a quick turnaround, feels unreal since one might think that police would want to keep the home empty for a while in order to run forensics and search the house from top to bottom. But then, this is a movie, and not everything happens by the book that often. It’s regular to assume that people are just going to move the story ahead at lightspeed in order to get the point across. 

Unexplained phenomena are often treated in a different manner by a lot of different people. 

When doors start to open on their own, objects appear to move without anyone there to make it happen, and so on, a lot of people react differently since, quite often, the unexplained can frighten the hell out of some people and interest others. The simplicity of this movie is that it doesn’t have much of a budget, obviously, but it’s trying to be something that it has no chance of being. Shawn Ashmore has starred in a few very popular movies in the past that had great effects and a budget to place toward effects, and a worthy script with dialogue that would do more than old along in a fashion that wouldn’t challenge a child. But this movie is one of those that feels as though it’s a magic trick that even the most inept can see through with a moderate amount of effort. 

credit: Aftermath

The lurker in the walls wasn’t insanely scary. 

There are times when it’s tough to get into a villain since they’re either not scary at all or they’re not convincing enough when they are revealed. Some villains are scarier when they’re not revealed at all, but while this movie needed a villain, it was given a lurking individual that had a history with the house’s former occupants, but still didn’t make a lot of sense considering that he appeared to be a seriously damaged individual who could have simply straightened himself out and found his way back to civilization. Somehow, this strange representation of a lurking threat within the walls was even less impressive than the lamest villain that one could think of, especially given that his origin was, well, kind of ridiculous. By the time the lurker decides to strike, one can’t help but think that his presence in the house was kind of ridiculous, not to mention that his ability to move so silently was kind of hard to buy into. 

All in all, this movie was kind of a dud. 

From the acting to the dialogue to the actual plot, this movie was kind of a snooze, even though it was supposed to be a thriller with enough jump scares and captivating visuals that would have kept people watching. Unfortunately, the kind of story that was being told didn’t hold up since things didn’t mesh the way they needed to, the action and the drama didn’t flow as they should have, and more to the point, the plot was kind of ill-formed. As a horror movie, it could have benefited from a second look at the dialogue, but that would have only helped a little.