Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		3.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.0

Aftershock Blu-ray Movie Review

Shockingly absent significance.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman August 6, 2013

A while back, a little-known movie called The Divide was released and told a visceral, dark story of humanity gone mad in an apocalyptic world and under the constraints of close-quarters living, dwindling supplies, and a fear of the unknown that slowly grew into something far more terrifying than whatever might await the survivors outside of their self-induced confinement. Aftershock also attempts to tell a story of dread, terror, and insanity in the immediate aftermath of an earthquake, but the results are far less psychological disturbing, emotionally unsettling, and visually terrifying. Aftershock, as with most films attached to Eli Roth, is more about the superficial, the picture more content to simply pile on crude visuals and cruder people for the purpose of making an already bad situation into the most dreadfully grotesque thing the filmmakers could imagine. It misses the potential for greater character study and analysis of the human condition when people are suddenly pushed to the limit and forced to deal with an unthinkable scenario in a dark, unforgiving environment. Instead, Aftershock leans on the crutch of "already bad people doing bad things when nobody can stop them" rather than depicting the decay into madness that made The Divide such an impacting picture.

We can make it! I think.

Three friends -- Ariel (Ariel Levy), Pollo (Nicolás Martínez), and an American known as "The Gringo" (Eli Roth) -- are traveling through Santiago, Chile, hitting the hot tourist spots and the hotter dance clubs, looking for free liquor and easy girls. Gringo's finding it a little more difficult to pick up women than his friends, but his luck changes when they run into a few girls who might be easier targets for their sexual desires. Just as things are heating up and the dance beats quicken pulses, disaster strikes. A massive earthquake hits, crushing and maiming many in the club and forging a makeshift survival group between the guys and the gals. Unfortunately, things are even bleaker on the outside. The damage is severe, the carnage endless, and the nightmare is made worse when hardened criminals are let loose on the street after the quake frees them. With a tsunami warning hanging over everything else, the group must do whatever it can to survive aftershocks, the rape gangs, and the fear of the unknown.

Once again, a Horror/Disaster/Terror film opens with too much dancing and partying and weak character representation, and for what? Filler? Usually, these sorts of extended openings don't help the movie one iota with its story. They establish the characters, sure, but establishing only the same Horror character contrivances almost every other film establishes with these repeated elements. So these people want to drink and party and hook up. What's new? Make no mistake, there are some character details beyond the eat, drink, and be merry-go-round, but very little of it actually matters when the fecal matter smacks into the fan. And that's not to mention that Aftershock spends around a third of its runtime following the partiers and their efforts to "score" with the ladies. It drags on so long that the earthquake almost comes as a welcome relief to break up the tedium. Time is money and the audience's time is much too valuable to be sucked away by long stretches like this, particularly when it's for minimal payoff.

Once the earthquake strikes, Aftershock proves appropriately chaotic, but it also proves too much of a contrived mess of gory convenience by splattering characters left and right in the initial mayhem, not so much because it should but because it can, because it wants to create scenarios to maximize the carnage, not paint a more emotionally draining picture or, heaven forbid, make the effort to lurk a little more deeply than running from rape gangs and spitting clichés about how they're going to make it, by golly! It completely foregoes any chance of making crumbling humanity in a crumbling world the villain, instead taking the easy way out by populating the film with prisoners who mange to free themselves when the quake strikes. Rather than simply try to survive, their only goal is to further descend the world into bloody madness. They're bad because they're bad, not because the corruption of the new reality depicted in the film made them that way. Ultimately, Aftershock is simply too much, too chaotic, too rough, too morbid, too fascinated with the depravity and too willing to ignore deeper reasons why. It lacks the real inter-character dramatic tension and fear of the unknown that The Divide so expertly explored.

Aftershock Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Aftershock's low budget roots show on Blu-ray. The HD video image appears over processed and overly warm. Colors are over saturated, skin tones appear hot, and blacks are murky and overpowering. There is suitable-to-excellent clarity and definition on faces and clothes -- close-ups before the quake strikes reveal intricate skin details and facial hairs -- but once disaster hits and the film goes significantly darker, it often proves difficult to see that same level of detail, even on rubble or sweaty, bloodied faces. The image also suffers from intermittent banding and regular shimmering; the Gringo's shirt, the edges of the incline, and other surfaces throughout the film, particularly its first act, show the latter problem with some regularity. This is a classic case of a transfer looking rather good at-a-glance (even considering the processed appearance) but showing some warts upon closer examination.

Aftershock Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Although Aftershock's video falls on the "iffy" side, the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack certainly does not. And for bass lovers, this one is all about the thump. The track begins with ridiculously heavy bass. It's the kind that rattles the windows and scrambles the brain. It's too much, too heavy, too rattly, too unkempt. It lacks that tight, deep polish and favors instead raw power. Fortunately, the low end tightens up considerably through the rest of the film, delivering some fantastic and, frankly, frightening bass during the earthquake and heaviest aftershocks and several moments to follow. The dance club beats, too, deliver a deep, balanced, and very strong low end. The music is loud but fairly clear, a little muddled to reflect that it's reverberating through a club and not overlaid on top of the film. It's an excellent effect that almost makes the long stretches before the action tolerable. Dialogue comes through with natural clarity all over the stage, whether in the rare quieter scene or through the pummeling of the quake or amidst the beats of the dance music. Soundtracks don't get much more purely aggressive than this one.

Aftershock Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Aftershock contains a commentary and two featurettes.

• Audio Commentary: Writer/Director Nicolás López and Producer/Writer/Actor Eli Roth discuss everything from the studio logos to the end shot, which was spoiled in the trailer. They also discuss the shooting process, the cast, technical specs of the shoot, filming locations, their goals with the film, the Chilean crew, the score, and the film's bilingual dialogue.
• The Making of Aftershock (HD, 9:28): A basic overview, beginning with a discussion of the real events that inspired the film, creating an earthquake for the film, the quality of the cast and crew, makeup and special effects, and using practical effects in most of the movie.
• Shaking Up the Casting Process (HD, 2:11): Actors are placed in a shaking box.

Aftershock Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Aftershock could have been something more emotionally draining, dramatically relevant, and terrifying beyond the actual earthquake. Instead, it's a cheap, no-thought shocker that's more concerned with carnage for carnage's sake than it is telling a more thorough or exploratory story of humanity under unbelievable pressure. Maybe that's trying to make the movie into something the filmmakers never intended, and to be sure Eli Roth films have never really concerned themselves with much substance, only shock. Fans of schlock will probably enjoy it well enough, but audiences looking for a smart film should stay away. Anchor Bay's Blu-ray release of Aftershock features iffy video, potent audio, and a few extras. Worth a rental for the morbidly curious.