Have You Been Watching...? Aftershock

I came across Aftershock while rooting through a few streaming services looking for something I’d never seen before. Aftershock was described as “disaster horror” (not a category I’d come across) so thought I’d give it a try.

Set in Chile, the movie tells the tale of an American tourist called “Gringo” played by horror star Eli Roth. He is visiting his pal and that pal’s friends, one of whom is called “Pollo” (Spanish for Chicken). For the first 30 minutes of the film, I have to be honest, nothing happens. We get to see Gringo and his pals party, sightsee, get drunk, flirt (badly) and have a great time. We are further introduced to a group of girls also on holiday. One of whom is called Kylie. I find the cast difficult to write about as even by the end of the movie I still don’t know who they are. They have some soapy drama in the background about one of them not being able to drink alcohol, but then drinks anyway, to the chagrin of her sister. So far so boring.

Then, eventually, an earthquake hits. Spectacularly so. They’re in an underground disco, so bits of roof come down, equipment and running partygoers squash people. It’s all a bit grisly, especially when something happens to the only cast member who comes across as any way a "kind" human being. Even that takes a turn for the comedic and I found myself laughing during the chaos. Intentional or not on the part of the director, I don’t know, but it was VERY funny. Escaping the venue at the cost of another unimportant disposable castmember’s life in another example of hilarious death, I realise this is like watching disaster-porn. I’m watching it, eagerly awaiting the next horrid death in a comedy fashion. I don’t have to wait long. The earthquake scenes and falling building effects are very good indeed. As our group realise the peril they are in (there’s a tsunami coming, but they all seem to forget about that), things take a turn for the worse when a prison collapses and the prisoners escape. It’s around this point I realise I don’t care for what happens to this group. The movie shifts a gear into Mad Max/Escape from New York territory as the prisoners are ALL bad (m’kay). There’s a grim sequence set in a graveyard which reduces or cast further and is unnecessarily over-violent. It seems very clear the movie has no real plot and is just a series of “incidents” to either make you laugh out loud or grimace in disgust. Eventually the movie grinds to halt with one of the most pointless reveals ever. It literally just does NOT make any sense whatsoever.

Eli Roth has made a number of decent horror movies as director and producer, including Cabin Fever, and he co-wrote this endeavour. Unfortunately it is weak. Very weak. It has the look and feel of a cheap bargain basket DVD.

The movie DOES pick up after the earthquake hits, but by then I’m bored out of my mind and I contemplated switching it off several times, thinking I must have got it wrong. However, it becomes a generic runaround from "bad guys with no motives other than being bad" and instantly forgettable.

Year: 2012

Availability: Streaming on itvX at the time of writing.

Rating: 2/10