Review of After Last Season (2009) by Glen S — 09 Nov 2009

I would consider my self a little more than a fan of bizarre cinema, and this just happens to be one of the most bizarre films that I have ever seen. It's not that the plot is all that strange, it's a murder mystery with a little SciFi thrown in. It's that the entire film looks as if someone who had never seen a movie created it. For starters, there is an "MRI machine" that is obviously made out of cardboard and covered in white paper, and the room that the "MRI machine" is in is obviously an apartment bedroom with a ceiling fan, pink walls and carpet. Not the environment in which you would typically find an MRI machine. The first ten minutes of the film are devoted to a scene in which a doctor explains how the "MRI machine" works in a way that any layman would and it turns out that the "MRI machine" really has nothing to do with the plot of the film. This is just the first 1/6th of the film!

A good portion of the film is obviously shot in a warehouse with strange set pieces (usually with paper stuck to them), and furniture that no sane person would use. I was constantly asking myself questions like, "Why is this "bedroom" completely empty except for that industrial metal self?" or "Why is only half of that wall covered in wallpaper, and why are there a bunch of exposed pipes in this 'office'?" I still don't understand why they couldn't use regular furniture, like a couch or a table, or shoot in a furnished house or office.

The golden moment is a scene towards the end that takes up at least 1/3rd of the film, and it consists of two doctors sharing thoughts via this tiny chip that they place on their temples. The shared thoughts are actually terrible mid 1990's 3d computer graphics. Seriously, they look as if they were created by an infant, and apparently this is where most of Region's budget went. During this sequence things in the "office" start to move of their own volition and the killer (remember, it's a murder mystery) enters the room, but he is invisible. Then, it turns out that this whole part of the film was a dream, there really is no thought-sharing ship, and the killer isn't invisible. I want to mention quickly that during this sequence of events, one of the doctors is having some sort of psychic connection with the killer, and they have a vision of a man banging on a door in what appears to be a storage closet and he blurts my favorite bit of dialogue: "Hey, someone left a book in the living room, is it yours?" The film is rife with this sort of dialogue.

Anyway, I gave the film 80% because I honestly couldn't tell if the awfulness was intentional or not. I believe that one really has to try to make something this bad, because it is bad on so many levels: set design, acting, dialogue, plot, editing, sound (traffic can often be heard in the background), effects, etc. If it is intentional, then this film is a brilliant jest on the film industry, if not, then I have no idea how this film was created and actually got distribution. But seriously, get a bunch of friends together, have some drinks and watch it, but be sure to openly mock it. It's the only way I made it through, and it made for a really enjoyable experience.