Review of After the Dark (2013) by Danielle S — 22 Feb 2014

What many critics seem not to have perceived are the more subtle philosophical and moral suggestions the film makes.

For example, the fact that the apocalyptic event is not some natural cataclysm but rather nuclear holocaust is critical to both the plot and the philosophical questions pondered by the film. The inability to coexist is precisely what has brought about the apocalypse. Furthermore, the inability to coexist is what causes the complete anhilihation of all bunker dwellers in each of the first two scenarios.

The film's suggestion that poets, musicians, poker players and counselors are the key to peaceful coexistence is debatable. But certainly a functional society requires more than just the functional characteristics each member contributes. Art, games, communication and self-awareness promote healthy human emotion, a sense of purpose and meaning, and the general enjoyment of life. In other words, these apparently non-essential elements are part of the je ne sais quoi that make life worth living.

The professor explicitly demands that the students should base their decisions exclusively on logic. However, he also implicitly asserts that "logic" requires that we disregard human emotion. Of course, to disregard a variable is to use faulty logic. We discover later the irony that his unconscious dismissal of a critical variable is caused by the very same variable he has disregarded: emotion. The professor acknowledges that emotion is a variable in the equation of human survival, but dismisses it as one that he wishes did not exist. "Human beings were built with a design flaw...".

The entire film is, in fact, about the professor grappling with his own emotions and his own existential crisis. It's about him desperately attempting to avoid his own anihilation by using logic and reason to overcome his emotional suffering and depression.

The film did omit one profession that would have added a self-critical philosophical question for the professor; that profession, of course, being "professor of philosophy.".