Aftershock.

We Interrupt Your Regularly Scheduled Broadcast...
Honestly I would have probably never heard of this film if it wasn't for my sister or really garnered any interest in it either. Although the film isn't subject to Eli Roth's awful direction, it is subject to his awful screen writing (amongst others I have honestly never heard of). Really, about the only thing that seemed to kindle my interest was that most of the critics who were slamming it, actually painted a really interesting picture for the film in doing so. Honestly I also don't really know a whole lot about the film above really what I said above, and that it is also starring Roth, based (loosely) on true events, it had to be re-cut and edited to get it down to an R rating and is a joint production with Chile and America.

Aftershock is all about Gringo, a gringo in Chile who is also about the only likeable character in the entire film, kinda convenient that Gringo is played by the same person who wrote it. While at a party, there is an Earthquake and all out chaos ensues. And my God is there chaos, an earthquake and its many aftershocks, a tsunami, inmates escape the prison, there are riots and all the disasters that come out of these initial epicentres.

And honestly, it's pretty well constructed. None of the techniques it uses are particularly unique but it builds up such a beautiful and idyllic Chile free from the stresses of day to day life, just to tear it down, deliberately setting up key conflicts in the first half an hour for devastating pay off in the last hour. Before we get that far though, the film teases us with all the potential danger the characters could face first, with every line of dialogue making you uncomfortable with the knowing irony of how much they'll eat those words before the film is over.

Sadly however the construction is somewhat undermined by bad pacing. The first act of the film goes on way too long and goes beyond setting the scene to simply stagnating. It would have been okay to have so many party sequences if they did more than just build up something to tear down but you can watch one or two sequences then largely fast forward to about forty minutes in without losing out on anything. There is little to no characterisation or development for the characters or story.

Perhaps most surprising for me is this film is gorgeous. Whether it be the vibrant interior nightclub sequences or the beautiful outdoor cinematography of Chile, this is a gorgeous film, with fantastic special effects and solid direction that captures the carnage and stages it all in an orchestral beauty. All held up by a surprising sense of scale and spectacle, this was made for ten million but some sequences give a real blockbuster feel.

However, something about the carnage and violence in this film rocked me to my core. Never before have I seen such spectacle of sick and raw hatred for the fellow man in such a vicious form of attack. When your slasher victims get picked off, the film spends enough time to depict the victims as horrible human beings with the girl who survives as the one nice, likeable character. Therefore the brutal violence is offset because in many senses the slashers are anti-heroes and the film at least provides us with the satisfaction that one vessel of human goodness triumphs in the end. Here however it's literal, brutal carnage where perfectly innocent people are dying left right and centre, screaming out in tangible misery and pain. Whether you help others or show any kindness to your fellow man or not, Aftershock has little interest, no one is spared. If anything the few who show a sense of kindness and selflessness are usually those who end up getting the most brutal and upsetting of punishments.

Perhaps most specifically is Pollo, who the film seems to take extra pleasure in dragging through the dirt and exposing to a literal hell, ripping triumph from him at every turn and throwing every moral dilemma it can at him. Heaven forbid he use his fathers money, if there is even a reason as to why the film is so cruel and nasty to him. Pollo didn't seem like a particularly nice person, honestly, but the film knocks him down in the first moment of the carnage then spends the next hour kicking him on the ground, going well beyond the point of enough is enough, reaching a level that is so deeply depressing it's actually physically draining. I don't think I've watched a film that is actually negative entertainment but if there is such a thing, Aftershock is it.

At first the unrelenting nature is thrilling, you don't often see films where no one is truly safe but the smile vanished off my face in a matter of moments, call me Average Joe if you want but I like my heroes to win, I like a sense of triumph or victory. There is no fun when your only tone is misery. The whole film is just some psychopathic fantasy playground for Roth and López who seemed to be punishing humans for simply being alive for the pleasure of any member of the audience who enjoys the concept of watching perfectly innocent people, women and children alike, dying for an hour straight, there is never a moment of good taste.

Whether it being a woman raped twice, forced to watch a man burn alive and then shot in the back or the almost thematic repetition of imagery depicting and centring around dead children, there are a lot of sequences throughout the film that instill exactly the kind of disgust that makes you want to rip the DVD out of the machine, chuck it into the microwave and turn it up high. I honestly can't think of why anyone would want to sit through this garbage. It goes well beyond the torture porn films to some deep dark area of cinema I don't ever want to find myself in again. I would gladly go my whole life without ever seeing a film this disgusting and soulless as this again. I guess I could at least call it an experience but throwing myself down the stairs is an experience but it isn't something I go out of my way to do.

So do I recommend it? I hated this, I despised the hideous and raw hatred the filmmakers expressed and was left feeling degraded and dirty, almost ashamed that I sat through an hour of such putrid sadism. This is the first time where a film has felt so downright nasty and mean spirited that at times I had to shut it off, and go and take a break. If I knew it was going to be this horrible an experience, I would never have put myself through this utter garbage and at least now I can take a blow for the team and tell everyone but the most sickly perverse to stay away. At least I have a new film to add to my top ten list of worst films of all time and a new reason to add to my suicide note. Now please excuse me, I'm going to go recreate the Aftershock experience by climbing in my bin...

Think About It!

-Locke.

What would you rate, 'Aftershock'?