Aftershock (2012) Reviews

• Narrative failure

  Harold_Boss2013-05-20

  Unfortunately this movie looks a lot better in the trailer than it actually is. I'm giving it points for defying expectations but essentially this is a big flop of a movie. The narrative is unconventional to say the least. It spends a staggering 30minutes introducing three serious douchebags. One American, two Chileans. Not explained how they came to be roving around Chile, but they have money and not a lot of responsibility. You would imagine that after thirty minutes these guys are going to be the major characters. Surprise! Only one of these guys survives any distance into the disaster and during the latter half of the movie the main characters are three girls who are considerably less fleshed out than the guys we met first off. That's not the only narrative flaw. Why is there such an effort made to introduce the girl with the wu-tang tattoo. Is she going to feature in the rest of the film? Nope. Are any of the character backgrounds actually important to the story or how they act under pressure? Not really. How come during the cable car crash (whatever it is) a crowded street suddenly becomes utterly deserted? I guess the main purpose of this story is to show us that during a disaster death comes randomly, even to people who think they are the lead characters.

• Dora the explorer was more entertaining..

  denesn2013-05-13

  Just finished watching it and i have to say, Aftershock is probably the worst movie i've ever seen. I've read other peoples reviews and it got me thinking; did they watch the same move as i did?! First of all the acting is painfully bad. So bad it almost made me want to throw something at the screen. The characters are really annoying (i was actually rooting for mother nature or the prisoners to catch and kill them all.*spoiler alert*they did,hurray) I don't even know what else to say cause the 'acting' was so awful it made me forget everything else about the movie. Only good thing was the beautiful music at the ending credits and the final 5 seconds when the tsunami chased down Miss Party killer. That's all.

• Pleasantly Surprised

  RobertLThorpe2013-05-10

  I would not call this a horror film. A dark disaster film is more appropriate. The film is fun, lively and well done and acted. If not for a oddly timed and inappropriate character reveal that just makes you scratch your head and go huh? It was fun. The reveal was not even needed, especially when it did happen. It literally took me out of the film until it was resolved. If your looking for something on the dark end, with horror type feel then check it out. It was good. It flowed really well and made sense how the characters got from one place to another. Well structured and honest.

• Two Genres For The Price of One

  gregsrants2012-09-13

  Ahhhh Chile. The women, the night life, the gorgeous greenery of the terrain. Chile is beautiful country. That is partly why American Gringo (Eli Roth) and pals Ariel (Ariel Levy) and Pollo (Nicolas Martinez) love it so much. Their adventures in Chile would be the envy of any man. And when the trio hook up with three smoking hot women, Kylie, Irina and Monica (Lorenza Izzo, Natasha Yarovenko and Andrea Osvart, respectively), the whole potential adventure fun meter goes off the chart. The six friends find themselves having such a good time that they agree to all travel together to the coastal town of Valparaiso. As the night becomes early morning, the group find themselves enjoying the dance clubs the city has to offer. But their night of reckless unabandon turns into terror when an 8.8 magnitude earthquake hits the city turning their paradise into a mound of death and ruins where our protagonists must survive everything from looters, escaped convicts and the constant aftershocks in the earthquake's wake. Aftershock is written and directed by Nicolás López (Eli Roth takes a co-writing credit) who uses true stories of the real 8.8 magnitude earthquake that hit Chile in 2010 as the basis for his survival film. Shot in Chile, many of the scenes were set in areas that still remain in ruin after the powerful disaster. This gives an authentic and realism feel to a film that is as hard to believe as it would be as plausible to accept. The first half of the film is a disaster movie true and true. We spend a good time getting to know our characters and I would suggest that knowing Eli Roth was involved will give audiences the patience in knowing that the set up is worth the pay off. When the earthquake hits, the chaos begins and bodies (and their parts) are thrown around screen in wild grotesqueness. As the six main characters attempt to escape onto the street, the devastation engulfs them. But they must quickly gather themselves in fear of a tsunami warning that is ringing throughout the city. Running, screaming and reacting to the city in ruins takes us to past the half way mark of Aftershock. But then director López switches gears and Aftershock becomes a horror movie with evil characters and murders rampaging through the streets in search of women and blood. The script penned by López and Roth continues to surprise throughout. Every death comes as a shock and how they pass is even more shocking. Don't bother guessing who will survive as the script has no 'untouchables' and everyone is fair game. Eli Roth accepts his first top billing role and plays the nerd, gringo perfectly. Bloodsoaked and searching for safe haven, he is the personality that propels the first quarter of the film only to pass off his full frame attention to actor Nicolás Martínez and the rest of the surviving team. There are plenty of Roth-isms to be found in Aftershock. The violence and gore is violent and gory. People are impaled, burned, shot and murdered with axes. And the final scene was something that we are sure Eli had his hands all over relishing in the idea of closure. Aftershock was a crowd favorite at the Toronto International Film Festival Midnight Madness showing and it is easy to see why. Fans get a bit of everything – parts disaster movie, parts horror, parts thriller, parts titillating comedy. We enjoyed ourselves immensely in the adventure. We were involved enough with our characters that didn't care that it switched focus (and genre's) halfway through. We are just glad that we survived the screening and we can't wait to watch it again. A result of the word-of-mouth at the festival got Aftershock a distribution deal with Dimension Films. No release date has been set, but you can expect to see Aftershock hit theatres before long.

• Remind me why Eli Roth's movies are so popular?

  AndyVanScoyoc2017-07-28

  ** MAJOR SPOILERS** Because apparently, I missed the memo. Don't know the man, I'm sure he's a gem of a fellow, but his movies aren't worth watching. I just don't get it. More stupid people in ridiculous situations, more women treated like pieces of meat on the male hormone market and more stupid decisions that lead to dumber consequences. The only thing decent about this film was the fact that Eli Roth allows himself to be killed off. That's not normally something you see...lead actors biting the dirt. As for the rest of the cast...good riddance. I have Don't bother. Could have, should have, been good, as it had a lot of potential, but came apart as quickly as the shattered buildings. What a waste of time...