I didn't know that the 2014 Singaporean movie "Afterimages" was a horror anthology when I sat down to watch it, so that was a bit of a surprise for me. Not really a bad surprise, but usually anthologies are of very varied degrees of entertainment worth. As was also the case of "Afterimages".
First of all, I think it was a shame that they opted to shoot each individual segment in English, as this sort of served more of a distraction from the stories than it served to further the storylines. Why? Well, because it was odd English most of the times, laden with very thick accents, which were often hard to comprehend and understand.
The individual segments in "Afterimages" were, of course, of different entertainment value and worth, depending on what you enjoy in horror movie anthologies and what you enjoy watching in general.
"Ghost Pool Leg" was the first segment in "Afterimages", and while the storyline and concept of this segment was interesting, the execution of it on the screen came off as being more of a comedy than horror, given some very dubious special effects on the ghost.
Moving on to the second installment, "Xiao Bao Bao" was actually one of the more interesting segments in the anthology. But overall it wasn't a scary story, but it proved to be interesting and definitely felt like it was the most disturbing of the storylines.
The third segment, "Skin Deep", proved to be the most outrageous and far out there of the segments. It was perhaps the one that appealed to me the least, given the absurdity of the storyline. It was nicely acted though, but the story was just stupid.
And finally the fourth segment "Rekindling" was actually the most appealing and best of storylines, though it came off as being somewhat comical. It was because of the questionable special effects that the haunt in this segment was more of a funny one than a scary one.
The narrative story that tied the four segments together was adequate, although the ending was a bit bland. And again, it was weighed down by questionable special effects.
For a horror anthology, I must admit that "Afterimages" wasn't really bringing much of anything new to the horror genre. And for a seasoned horror veteran as myself, this was a mere stroll in the park. Sure, it was watchable, but it was hardly a memorable experience, nor an anthology that I will be watching again.
All in all, "Afterimages" wasn't all that impressive. It had some interesting enough aspects to it, but they were ultimately not utilized to the full potential. It was a less than mediocre foray into the horror world. And if you are familiar with Asian horror tropes and themes, then there are far, far better choices readily available on the Asian movie market.
My rating of "Afterimages" lands on a less than mediocre four out of ten stars.
