Introduction
Imagine after months of saving and searching, you’re finally moving into your new dream home. After haggling with the owners, you manage to knock down the price into a range that you can afford. You never imagined being able to live in such an upscale house you are ecstatic when the paperwork goes through. There is some dark history behind the house, but that’s easy to ignore when you jump into the swimming pool, your swimming pool. Does this sound ideal? It certainly did to the main characters in the movie Aftermath, a film directed by Peter Winther that was released in 2021.
Just like the theatrical trailer, the film summary provided on Netflix, where I watched the movie, is vague as to what exactly is going to unfold within the story:
“Desperate to save their marriage, a young couple takes a deal and moves into their dream home, but disturbing events reveal the house’s troubled history.”
I very much appreciate when trailers do not give away too much about the film and this one certainly did not. It was difficult to classify what type of horror this film was as there’s a bit of a twist to it, but ultimately I’d classify it a mixture of mystery/thriller/horror.
Horror Elements
Based on a true story (which I’ll delve into later), the movie has a captivating introduction of a 9-1-1 call and an unfolding of a crime scene. This will play a role later on, but for the introduction it provides backstory that sets the stage for the rest of the plot to play out. Why was the couple able to move into a house that is well out of their price range and yet once the paperwork is done they feel stuck there? Well, because of the murder/suicide that took place there, that’s why.
The two antagonists in the film were nothing special; certainly creepy, but not particularly scary once you actually know what’s going on in the story. Personally, the idea of somebody being that devious and taking away your feeling of safety within your own home was far scarier then when the main characters finally saw the flesh-and-blood person in their home.
With a lot of the plot being based on a true story, the whole movie felt a lot more “real” than most. Add great acting, well-developed characters, likable protagonists, and boom- you have a sturdy base for your horror movie to stand on. Something I wrote multiple times in my notes while watching was “FINALLY SMART CHARACTERS”. What do I mean by this? To start, whenever the wife heard a scary noise or saw something spooky, she immediately grabbed a weapon and/or called the police. None of this “is somebody there?” nonsense you typically see in movies. Also, the main character was relentless in proving there was something wrong with the house by investing in security cameras and hiding a secret camcorder in her bedroom, an action that eventually leads to the antagonist being caught.
One of my favorite lines from the movie, and one I feel to be extremely realistic, takes place right after the couple wake up in the middle of the night to a loud noise. Hearing footsteps downstairs, the husband bolts out of the room, leaving his wife alone. Instead of waiting for him to return, like I’ve seen in countless other movie scenes, she yells, “Kevin don’t f*cking leave me up here!” before running out of the room to follow him. She also made sure to stab the killer again even after he was presumed dead, just to make sure- thank you!
Music and audio cues for each scene are executed extremely well, including the jump scares, in which there were only three in the entire movie, one of which made me scream so loud I got a sore throat. Suspense, however, is what sets this movie apart from others. There’s no clear look at the “monster” until the final climax scene which occurs during the last 15 minutes of the film. Instead, the audience has a full 1:45 minutes of complete dread to sit through until it can finally be released through the final fight scene. In fact, this tension got high for me, I actually had to pause the movie at about 45 minutes in, to just breathe and let my heart rate return to normal.
Movie Elements
Though I felt the movie creatively added certain horror elements to an already scary situation, I can’t give the filmmakers full credit for originality considering it’s based on the true story of a young couple from California. Basically, a young couple ended up outbidding someone on an amazing house in Carmel Valley, CA. After moving in around November, weird things started happening. The wife began to receive flowers with creepy notes, their mail kept getting stopped, and hundreds of dollars worth of magazine subscriptions were delivered in their names.
Things escalated around Valentine’s Day, when eight irate neighbors descended upon the husband; all the wives in the neighborhood received inappropriate gifts that had the young couple’s address/the husband’s name on it. Finally, things reached their peak when multiple strangers dropped by the home attempting to rape the wife. It was then discovered an ad had been put in the paper advertising the address with a picture of the wife, inviting men into her home. It was shortly after this discovery was made that the police arrested Kathy Rowe, the person whom the couple had originally outbid on the house.
All of this was included within the movie, (in addition to a few twists and additions) which to me, made everything a bit scarier knowing it had been a real story. The pacing was great and kept my interest the entire two hours, quite a feat considering I have ADHD. I will say there was a bit too much drama for my taste, but despite this, the movie was still quite entertaining. I’m not quite sure where to mention this, but I have to acknowledge how much the dog Odie added to the movie too. There were quite a few scenes (at least five) that were made scary only because of the dog. For example, at one point the wife is playing fetch with the pupper when the ball rolls under her bed, getting stuck. She leaves the room (he follows her) to retrieve something long to get the ball unstuck. When she returns a few moments later, the ball is sitting on top of her bed. No change in music, no image of the antagonist, nothing dramatic whatsoever, yet it produced the desired effect: fear. Fear is at its peak during horror scenes when the director understands and allows the audience’s imagination to take over in place of “special effects”.
Cinematography, though not elaborate, was great, with the entire set feeling “dark”. Lighting was not an issue either, as despite the gloom, the audience could still see everything going on. For some scenes, there was a “fisheye” effect used, which at first I thought would be distracting, but ending up making the scene more intense as it hyper focuses on the main character in the middle of the screen, allowing for the edges of the lense to appear stretched, distorted, making anything (or anyone) you see to appear way creepier than normal. I have seen this done in other films before in such a way that was distracting, I believe because there was too much of the effect, too dramatically done, whereas the effects and angles in this film were subtle.
Conclusion
After looking around the internet for other reviews, I was discouraged to see Aftermath didn’t seem to do too well. Though not an award winner by any means, I still feel it should get more credit than it did and is certainly one I would recommend watching. It did an excellent job building up a thick layer of suspense for the audience, making it an excellent choice for mystery/thriller fans. This movie did a lot right, but one major critique would be the “why” behind the old lover living under the stairs. During the final 15 minutes, there was a flashback in conversation that went into it slightly, but there were no details, and the final explanation during the end scene felt rushed at best. Again the audience has to make some of their own inferences, which is fine, but certainly it could have been a bit smoother. All in all, a worthy watch and one that isn’t diminished when rewatched either.
Final Scare Me Please Score: Just padlock the door under the stairs shut, out of 100
Have you watched this movie? What did you think? Anything we missed? Have an idea for what we should watch next? Drop a comment below to let us know!
Sources:
San Diego couple still scared after a year of torment from jealous home bidder. ABC7 Los Angeles. (2015, February 13). Retrieved March 30, 2023, from https://abc7.com/rape-san-diego-kathy-rowe-jerry-rice/475504/
Wikimedia Foundation. (2023, March 23). Aftermath (2021 film). Wikipedia. Retrieved March 30, 2023, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aftermath_(2021_film)
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