AfterDeath

Quite a good, refreshing, clever movie. Must not be seen as a horror movie. It stirs a lot of things inside, making the viewer think and project personal feelings, beliefs, explanations etc. onto the screen.

The casting is surprisingly very good, especially the lead, tough as nail female character.

Of course, the movie is far from perfect -but given its budget, it does do the job... There are holes in the narrative, some key elements of explanations are missing -how can you possibly have s*x when you've got no pulse???- but overall, there are minor misses.

Not a film for avid gore or action seekers, though. They might quickly get bored. I've liked its sense of intimacy -well, I could even go so far as to talk about delicacy here- its rather gentle touch on a grave, often disturbing subject (life after death).

A truly intimate movie overall, worth watching.

The basic story isn't too bad. The movie opens with a woman washing up on an isolated beach. All she can find is one cabin with the lights on. inside she discovers that there are four others, all of whom washed up on the same beach. After some exchange of stories we discover that all five were involved in a horrific accident at a nightclub - and apparently all have died, and this cabin is some sort of purgatory. It's not hell and it's certainly not heaven. It's some place in between the two. And in the midst of purgatory there's some sort of demonic presence who appears as a black cloud. The purpose of the whole ordeal apparently is to get the five to come to terms with their sins - although it was never really made clear what that was going to accomplish, and there were a lot of suggestions that actually it wasn't going to accomplish much of anything.

There's an intriguing element to the story. Each of the five have some secrets from their past that have to be dealt with. But the real flaw to the whole thing is the apparent pointlessness of it all. Where is this all going to lead? Where is the hope? I mean, the whole point of purgatory at least (if you believe in it, and I don't) is that your sins get dealt with and eventually you get out. But it's never made clear that there's any real escape from this purgatory and the end of the movie doesn't really clear much of anything up. I guess the viewer is left to decide for him/herself what the end result of all this is.

There's a very overt anti-religion message to this (quite exemplified near the end when one of the five says to another "if you see God tell him to go f!!k himself." I suppose I can see where that might come from given the circumstances these five find themselves in. There are a lot of inconsistencies or unexplained things in the movie. How do real world items manage to get into this purgatory? And if they're all dead and they have no blood being pumped (which the movie establishes) then to be blunt it's strange that Seb managed to have an erection during his threesome with two of the girls early in the movie.

I suppose the acting isn't too bad but the story just doesn't work all that well. You find yourself hoping for some resolution, but it never arrives. (3/10)

That about says it. It's a GORGEOUS cinematic movie, basically people wash up on a beach, later another woman does, through clues in their cabin which was custom made to make them comfortable - They find out clues that they're dead, and where they're all going and why. Then they start exploring the world they're in, and realizing all is shown in paintings. They trap one of the black smoke creatures that come around, and get a few answers. But honestly, at the end of the film, I'm not sure I believe what the girl is hoping is going to happen is. It's such an un- fulfilling ending, but maybe someone less tired than I was will get a better ending.

Interesting little low budget affair with an intriguing premise unfortunately undone by the simple fact that the screenplay is filled with many clever "thoughts" passing themselves of as "ideas". It is to be highly commended, though, for seriously trying to be about larger issues even if it hasn't really worked any of them out yet, and ultimately doesn't make sense or hold up to any sort of intellectual scrutiny. This doesn't mean it is not interesting or holds your attention - it manages to do that even as it sometimes feels a little slow or inert. In all fairness, few films that aspire to be about the workings of an Afterlife, and the role of God and human frailty within that context, manage to be deeper than A: questioning for questioning sake, or B: comprised of rather random rules that are never questioned by anyone in the film - and, by extension, the filmmakers themselves. In this case the logical (or theoretical) inconsistencies increase the longer the film goes on trying to resolve its Twilight Zone like set-up, but at least it doesn't cop out and settle for a simplistic summing up or "twist". Performances range from good to totally acceptable - no one has anything to be ashamed of on that front; even the initially Hollywood-esque notion that only five attractive people would be in the house is explained away later that they appear as "idealized" versions of themselves. Effects are obviously low budget, but not distracting.

I wish I could have the time back I spent watching this movie. Goes nowhere. Ending is a total disappointment.