Better Late Then Never

An absolute waste of money

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

I was very unsure of what to rate this film. As a pure and simple movie it was well done: good acting, decent pace, good FX. Even the premise is promising. However, throughout there seems to be a lot of man-hating, and the end is about as hubristic as one can get. I can only conclude this was written by someone who is still bitter from a strict religious upbringing. The last line in the film seems to sum up its message of despair. Thus I settle on a solid 4. It could have been so much better.For a better "purgatorial" film, I recommend "Kingdom Come" (2014), which has a much better theological logic to it.

So this movie plays on the idea of a Christian afterlife. In most Christian churches you can redeem yourself in various ways for your sins, but this movie has a much more dark and brutal approach to sinning. It actually is scary if you think about that it might be real, for me it was anyway. The acting was OK, the actors look good, maybe the atmosphere could have been more creepy, it was OK, but the general idea of the movie is very creepy, in any case. I don't know if you have to be Christian to like it, or get scared, but it probably helps. If you're not, at least you can think of this movie as another perspective on the afterlife and the implications of every action one does in his/her life.

Five 'kids' wind up dead. Now what? That's not a spoiler, just an interesting take on the purgatory film. Normally you spend half an hour labouring through exposition to find out what the viewer already knows. Not here. But that's not the interesting thing about this micro budget horror film. Nor is the majority female cast which one reviewer here seems to have taken a huge dislike to. What's interesting about this film is what it doesn't do. No mad slasher deaths, no blood - in fact if you're after a traditional horror film then this isn't it. But as other reviewers have noted, the hook is the central idea. Revealing it would be a spoiler but this is psychological and philosophical horror. And as such it warrants judging against slightly different criteria to some of the more standard fare we see in horror. The film wears its budget lightly, the lighting is superb and the CG for the most part holds up brilliantly with impressive detail. And there are some genuine scares to be had along the way. The performances are a step up from what you normally see with Sam Keeley and Lorna Nickson Brown particular standouts.Afterdeath is a curious film in that it looks like it should be a standard cabin in the woods scare fest, but there is nothing lurking in the shadows for there are none. It's what's in store for the characters in their immediate and very certain future that holds the thrill. Teased out in clues and detective work by the characters you suddenly realise that their predicament poses some fairly difficult questions for the whole of humanity. That's rare in a horror film these days. It's an interesting addition to the genre and a strong debut from co-directors Robin Schmidt and Gez Medinger. Not perfect but promising...

A girl wakes up on a beach. She walks inland and discovers a house with others like her. They're all dead - victims of the same accident - and they're stuck in a nightmare land between the real world and the afterlife. If that sounds like I've just given away the spoilers, I've got news for you - that all happens in the first few minutes of AfterDeath. On the face of it, AfterDeath is the classic setup of young beautiful people stuck in a house with weird things going on, but in a similar way to The Cabin in the Woods, the unique world around the house allows the filmmakers to play with the rules of the horror genre. They're already dead, but the threat they face is even greater. And the fact that everyone is photogenic is actually a plot point, rather than being a convenient coincidence. And that's what makes AfterDeath so compelling. Embarking on their first feature film, directors Gez Medinger and Robin Schmidt could have played it straighter, choosing to film a story that was a by-the-numbers slasher movie. That would have been enough to get their scores on the filmmaking board, but instead they've produced a film with genuine originality in a genre where it is difficult to stand out. The cast do a good job too, with notable performances from everyone involved, in particular Miranda Raison in the central role as Robyn. My only wish is that it would have been great to have more moments of humour. There were two genuine laugh out loud moments, but that's because there were only a couple of funny bits, not because there were loads of jokes that fell flat. However, that takes nothing away from an incredibly strong debut horror movie, and I'll be waiting with baited breath to see what this pair of directors come up with next...