Movie Review: After (2012)

The movie stars Steven Strait, Karolina Wydra, Madison Lintz, Sandra Ellis Lafferty and Jackson Walker.

My wife and I had time to watch a movie together last night before bed but, for some reason, I had a hard time picking one out. The movies that looked interesting were too long for the time we had allotted and the rest of the films just didn’t seem to be what we were in the mood for.

After a short while, I finally decided to watch this film simply because it looked like it had some potential. And, as it turns out, it was better than I expected it to be.

The first half of the movie, in all honesty, was somewhat predictable. When they woke up and, except for random flashbacks from their lives, were the only people still in town, it wasn’t too hard to figure out exactly why that was. In fact, my wife and I pretty much figured it out a few minutes into the film.

However, the second half of the movie was a bit of a surprise for us because, even though they ultimately figured out the truth too, they still were stuck, alone, in the town and still had to find a way to get through the storm before it completely engulfed them. This, along with the mysterious door and that man-eating creature, did make the movie a little less predictable overall and was much more entertaining than we expected it to be as a result.

I think my only real complaint about this movie is it is a bit flawed when it comes to the emotional side of things. They are in a pretty scary situation and, at least for the majority of the movie, they really don’t react to it. Plus, when the woman (Wydra) finds out the truth about her aunt’s (Lafferty) death (a death she has blamed herself for pretty much her entire adult life), it just gets glossed over. Regardless of what is happening at the moment, you would think she would have some sort of anger issue from that.

The movie isn’t as suspenseful as I hoped and I don’t know if I would consider it a true thriller. However, as I said, it did exceed my expectations and proved to be somewhat entertaining and I would still recommend the movie as a result of that.

My Grade: B