After a bus crash, two strangers discover they're the only living souls in their home town. As a menacing dark cloud closes in on them, they struggle to survive and find a way out.
Available only on Netflix so far, this suspense tale is based on a breakout hit novel from the indie author's platform Wattpad. I have to admit that during
the first half hour I was rolling my eyes a few times. The intensely dramatic music looking at a murky cloud. The supposedly obvious plotline we were headed for... I mean, its title is "After", they were just in a bus crash, and they can't find anyone else... it has to be the afterlife, right? Not quite.
At its soul, After is a boy-meets-girl story with a supernatural twist. It's trying really hard to hit all the right beats, but it misses the mark in a few places. For a movie with mostly only two characters in the scene, their dialog is really blah and bland. There was more connection and spark between those two people when they were on the bus than at almost any time, well, after. I just didn't see them falling for each other or caring much... they were too busy dealing with the situation they were in. The final fight scene with the creature was one boring cliche after another.
What the movie did get right were the special effects... the creature was horrific, and despite the fact that it was CGI, you totally believed that Ana was making physical contact with it. Bumping into each other as kids was cute... having Freddy be the cause of her childhood guilt, and resolving it was a little much.
How many of the problems were a result of the original source material, and how many were the fault of the adapted script, I couldn't tell you. I laughed out loud three times during this movie, and I mentioned the eyerolling at the beginning. All in all, it's a decent supernatural suspense story that ends leaving you feeling good, if a touch confused. Watch the credits to the very end. There's a final scene that, given we have no way of knowing when in the timeline it occurs, we have no way of seeing what it means to the overall story. I'm going to assume it's the true reason for the title, and decide it's a good thing. You really have to clarify things like that in a movie filled with flashbacks and alternate dimensions, although I suppose that means I was over-thinking it.
I give this movie four out of five stars. If their falling in love had seemed a little less superficial, and their connection during this shared experience better explained, it might have been perfect.
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