After

Director - Ryan Smith (Devil's Shoestring, The Debt)
Starring - Steven Strait (The Covenant, Sky High), Karolina Wydra (True Blood, Justified), and Madison Lintz (It's Supernatural, The Walking Dead)
Release Date - 2012
Genre - Horror/Thriller
Format - DVD (Personal Collection) (Screener)

Rating (out of 5):

     After making my way through the 5 film set The Paul Naschy Collection and The Walking Dead Season 7 I decided to take a little break from polished films.  I wanted an indie flick that would offer up something a little different.  As I made my way through my review stack one film caught my eye. The film was simply titled After and the artwork for it stuck out.  The artwork could be split in two.  The bottom half was a darker image of a teenage boy or a young man sitting among thousands of keys while the top portion of the film showed an obscure image of some sort of creature.   I really enjoyed the artwork so I decided to give it a go.  Thank you MVD for sending this one my way!

     The film follows Freddy (Strait) and Ana (Wydra) who are on a bus headed to their home town.  Freddy starts talking to Ana and learn that they grew up fairly close to each other when they are suddenly in a crash.  They awake sometime later and things are unusual at first.  They realize that a month has went by and then they find themselves alone before running into each other.  They look through town and find themselves reliving fond memories of their past before encountering a black fog approaching them at a very slow pace which they suspect will engulf the town in three days.  While they are in the hospital they discover that they are actually in a comma and will be removed from life support.  They rush to figure out how they can get out of their current version of life and back to reality.

      I didn't know what to expect from After.  I was looking forward to a complex monster story that was more character centered instead of lacking originality.  After was a very unique film in regards to story but I wouldn't call it a horror film.  In fact, it is more like a dark thriller than it is horror.  The acting in this one is entertaining.  There is times where it was awkward to watch Steven Strait and Karolina Wydra interact.  They have great chemistry but they sometimes have a hard time keeping their emotions in check.  They come unhinged and emotional at times where they really shouldn't.  It made the scene feel less dramatic.  The supporting cast does not play that much into the film but they do a decent job as well.  The story for this one has a lot going on but would have benefited from cutting some of it out.  The film has two angles going on.  The film feels like a dark thriller or fantasy following two people lost in their own world who race to get back to real life.  This story was very promising but mixing it with the horror angle diluted it.  The monster angle could have been completely removed and placed into an entirely different film.  These two parts of the story just doesn't fit well into the same film.  Finally, the film doesn't have blood and gore.  It is void of any practical effects and the red stuff that most horror fans love.  We do have a CGI monster that looks horrible which once again supports my opinion that the film should have avoided this all together.  Overall, After is a visually pleasing film with a very ambitious story that fails to successfully incorporate everything into a coherent film.  I still recommend it but there is story issues.