Review of Aftermath (1994) by Jesse W — 05 Jun 2008

This review is for the DVD released by Unearthed Films which has the short films The Awakening, Aftermath and genesis directed by Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned). These are three very personal films described as a "Death Trilogy", as they deal with director Cerda's fears and thoughts about death. The Awakening is a 7 minute student film that is only interesting because of the combination of being black and white and having a dated sounding score, giving it an older, creepy vibe, but won't have much meaning to anybody other than the film maker. A student has either unintentionally started to control time or time has stopped and he eventually sees himself lying on the floor dead. He is then led into (what I thought) was the afterlife. Very low budget and student film that was thrown in here just to complement the next two.

Aftermath has been talked about a lot in the last few years. The first issue of Rue Morgue I purchased had a cover story on this DVD release. Considering the fact that this film came out in 1994, this film probably had no choice but to shock everyone. When watching it now, it will still be shocking and disgusting, but there were a few elements the kept me distracted. First of all, the more classical approach to cinematography and the cold, scientific environment perfectly complements the process and violation of corpses as they are dissected by morticians. It is so upfront and bullshit free, but even the morticians aren't able to think of it all as just another day at work. With every crack and snap of bone, or the sounds of moving entrails, our characters realize what it is they are doing. One of them eventually takes advantage of his time alone with a female corpse in an incredibly disgusting and vicious sequence that amounts to what Cerda considers to be the most extreme violation. A film like this could only exist in the world of short films, where the creators aren't likely to get any of their money back and their is no studio or suits are likely to get their hands into the work. The justification for a film like this is to tap into the world of Cerda's fears. He witnessed a real live autopsy on three bodies, and while there wasn't any sexual violation, he insists that what he saw was much worse than what he filmed. It makes you wonder about what may happen to you when your time to die has come. Will you have the capacity to give a shit? No. This sort of nihilistic prospect turns something ordinary (and maybe necessary?) into something ominous. My only complaint is that the cinematography and physical aspect of the acting should have complemented that fact that some fake bodies were used. A fake body doesn't have all the layers and structure of a real body, and while the SFX were good, the interactions with the morticians only showed how fake they really were and it was hard for me to get over. The credit sequence was also very low budget and dated. This film should disgust everyone on some level. I didn't find it to be the most disgusting thing I have seen, but that does not discredit it's power.

Genesis is my favorite of the three. It has beautiful cinematography and is full of melancholy. A sculptor's wife has died and he spends all of his time recreating a statue of her. Eventually he takes his obsession too far and destroys himself so he can recreate the real life image of his wife just one more time. There aren't any shocks or violence, but this is much more surreal and deals with an issue of dealing with death we all face at some point in our lives.

This trilogy deals with the physical death of someone, what happens to the body once it has died, and how one deals with death has life goes on. Aftermath is so much more than a gore film as it is filled with genuine fear and morality, but the only people that would seek such a film are horror fans (or worse, pure gore geeks fangoria crowd) or short film enthusiasts. This is serious cinema for serious film or genre fans. If you can't handle bodily dismemberment, blood and guts, the first half will do more than enough to disgust you. I wouldn't suggest sticking around for the end.

I have to say though that Aftermath didn't surpass the depressing, shocking power of Douglas Buck's Cutting Moments. If there ever was a dark trilogy of short film it is Family Portraits. It is a film I own and refuse to see ever again.