Review of Aftershock (2012) by Cody L — 02 Jun 2013

Eli Roth's "Aftershock" should have been a frightening cinematic experience since I do live in earthquake country. But after forty minutes of needless setup, scene after scene of sequences which mimic those outrageously low budget SyFy Channel movies shown at two in the morning, and the fact that my suspicions of this films watchability were already high considering it was only produced (not directed) by Roth, it soon became clear that "Aftershock" was built on a foundation which literally fell apart at the seams.

Synopsis: A group of "young people" who seek an adventure (lead by non-actor Eli Roth himself) attempt to find it in a country outside of the United States. And then bad stuff happens. Does this plot sound like "Hostel" yet? Well, it is sort of "Hostel", in Chile, if the sadistic killers had been replaced by a natural disaster.

The problem with this film comes down to the simple fact that the duration of an earthquake is only a few seconds long. So, after said phenomenon occurs, the movie doesn't seem to know what to do with itself, as if Roth and friends hadn't come prepared with any other plot development which could sustain a feature length film. So, aside from a few smirk inducing social network jokes, an extremely short back and forth between Roth and one Selena Gomez and some minor suspenseful situations in the final 30 minutes, "Aftershock" is a generic and somewhat boring horror endeavor.

Final Thought: The ending is actually the best part of this movie, and I'm not even being sarcastic. The final twist used by writer/director Nicolas Lopez is pretty clever. But what one has to wade through to get to this finale is not at all worth the time. Besides, at the end of the day, "Aftershock" is a film where the faster you realize the kind of low grade production it is, the faster you may want to turn it off (or walk out).

Written by Markus Robinson, Edited by Nicole I. Ashland.

Follow me on Twitter @moviesmarkus.