Jack-of-All-Trades Eli Roth produced, co-wrote, and stars in Aftershock, which was directed/co-written by Chilean director Nicolás López. The film takes place during the 2010 Chile earthquake, the sixth largest earthquake in recorded history. The setting is ideal for a horror/thriller/disaster movie, although there’s a lot to like here I think the final product is ultimately a wasted opportunity.
Roth’s character, known only as Gringo, is the type of drunk tool American tourist who has too much money to spend and not enough sense to realize that he’s acting like a spoiled teenager spending his daddy’s money. In fact, Gringo and his friends — Ariel (Ariel Levy) and Pollo (Nicolás Martínez), who has connections throughout the city because of his rich father — end up meeting a group of young girls who seem to actually be spending daddy’s money on a lavish Chilean vacation. These girls are Kylie (Lorenza Izzo), Irina (Natasha Yarovenko) and Irina’s buzzkill sister Monica (Andrea Osvárt), who was sent along by their father to keep Irina out of trouble. Naturally Gringo and his friends attempt to push Monica’s conservative boundaries for her hot sister to the limit. This is not to say that Osvárt herself isn’t beautiful, but per horror film conventions she dresses boringly and acts standoffish to make her stylish, flirty sister all the more attractive.
This plot makes up the first half of the film. While you know an earthquake is coming — the movie is called Aftershock and is promoted as an earthquake movie, so I’m not exactly spoiling anything — it takes almost an astounding forty minutes to happen. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a disaster or horror film (the two genres that this movie combines) take so long for the set-up. While I give López and Roth credit for not filling the build-up with little fake scares to prime the fear pump (as many horror films do), I couldn’t help but think back to a movie like Jaws. Imagine if instead of the first scene with the nude swimmer it took Jaws forty minutes to show the first shark encounter?
The earthquake and the immediate aftermath are by far the highlights of the film. The six characters are in a crowded nightclub when the quake happens, and the disaster and the initial hysteria it causes is nothing short of terrifying. I could not imagine how I would react in such a chaotic situation, and I found the cinematography, editing, and lighting in this sequence absolutely brilliant.
After this sequence the group needs to take one of the friends to the hospital while the others need to escape the coastal town because of aftershocks, anarchy aftermath, and the possibilities of a tsunami. In addition, the social media-obsessed group realize that none of their cell phones work. This eventually becomes a cat-and-mouse game with a gang of escaped convicts who want to rape the girls that, frankly, loses steam after a while (and personally I’m pretty sick of rape being used this way in movies). There’s the usual mix of gruesomely funny, frustratingly ironic, and horrifically violent proceedings that you expect from horror films, but nothing that ever lives up to the earthquake sequence and what immediately followed it, especially considering the silly twist that makes up the final sequence to give audiences a “bad guy” to rally against.
With that in mind, Aftershock deserves praise for its mix of horror, disaster, and thriller movie conventions. However, keep in mind if you see it that you’ll have to sit through forty minutes of dull set-up, a thrilling five minute earthquake sequence, and forty-five minutes of cat-and-mouse chasing that ends in such a generic way.
By the way, Selena Gomez fans: Don’t be fooled by the marketing that promotes her in the cast. Her appearance is nothing more than a wry cameo.
Rating: Aftershock is worth a look for thriller/horror fans, but don’t expect anything great (5/10).
Aftershock will be released in theaters on May 10th.
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