Leofwine_draca Don't be fooled into expecting some high budget end-of-the-world epic like Romero's DAY OF THE DEAD or otherwise, as THE AFTERMATH is strictly an amateur production (good production values and editing, but amateur nonetheless), with the same guy, Steve Barkett, directing, writing, and acting all at the same time. Strictly, this should be a rubbish movie, as it's packed with cheap effects and poor acting. Yet somehow, everything gels together and this actually becomes very good towards the end. So good that I've found myself going back to it over and over again, and enjoying it more and more each time (even if there are a number of dropouts in the tape I have and last night I was finally forced to put it in the dustbin). Yes, it's amateur trash, but it's a trashy gem made by people who love the genre and who know what elements to include.Things start off poorly, with a space shuttle flying through space. Obviously they couldn't afford anything like STAR WARS had, so instead we are left with a tacky-looking model jerking through the air. It crash lands into a fish tank, or what is supposed to be the ocean. Then the fun really begins, as the next half an hour consists of our heroes exploring the desolate world and trying to create new lives for themselves, discovering all manner of rotted and mangled corpses as they do so. I just like the concept. After this initial setup, the film deviates and becomes more of a human drama, as a number of characters are introduced, as well as an evil gang of rapists and murders lead by the psychotic Cutter (played by veteran Sid Haig). Our hero rescues a number of prisoners, who are massacred in revenge when he's not around. The finale is of the standard revenge one-man-mission as Barkett enters the enemy camp and single-handedly eliminates the entire gang. Accompanying this is a stirring soundtrack of what I guess to be library music, sounding suspiciously like the stuff in NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD.The acting is of strictly an amateurish level, especially from Barkett. You wouldn't really imagine this middle-aged guy with a moustache to be a hero in a film like this, but I liked him in a strange kind of way. He's adequate, if not particularly inspired. If Barkett is just okay, then the rest of the cast are pretty awful. At least Barkett gamely plays along, delivering his lines in a solemn yet campy kind of way (you can tell this is doing wonders for his ego). The female lead is particularly awful, picked for her looks rather than her acting skill. Sid Haig is the only other good actor, making the most of his comic-book villain as he slaughters his way through innocent victims and growls evil dialogue. A surprising amount of genre veterans turn up now and then, from Jim Danforth (a special effects artist) as an astronaut, to Forrest J. Ackerman as a curator of the last museum on earth, to Dick Miller as a voice-over on a cassette tape.There are quite a lot of special effects involved in this film, all done admirably on the low budget. From the many desiccated corpses to the scenes of an LA reduced to rubble, this impressed me a lot. There are also some really ugly mutants hanging around too. The film is very gory and violent in places, with a victim getting his head shot gunned off, a little girl getting brutally murdered and a baddie getting a knife through his chest and into his eye. The final twenty minutes is made up of all-out action, with Barkett bloodily dispatching about a hundred bad guys with his pistol and rifle, while lots of things explode. This is what all action films should be like! I also rather liked the twist ending, which puts things in a whole new perspective. Sadly, this didn't get released until years after it had been made, but thank goodness they did bring it out in the end. THE AFTERMATH is a fast-moving, action-packed, end-of-the-world epic done on a shoestring budget by real fans. A classic! AddendumRecently I was browsing through a car boot sale when I came upon a different copy of this movie - this time, the pre-certificate release on the World of Video 2000 video, titled simply AFTERMATH. I instantly bought the video and settled down to watch it, and discovered a bizarre number of minor differences in the movie. A snippet showing the ship crashing into the sea at the beginning of the film has been cut out (maybe the distributor didn't care for the effects either), and then bizarrely a whole sequence in which Newman discovers fried corpses on the beach has been eliminated, thus throwing into confusion how he actually gets hold of the satchel which he carries during the cliff-top climb. The chilling "beach" sequence is the first inkling that something is wrong and one of the most atmospheric shots in the film, so why it was cut I have no idea. This version also has a considerably longer death for the Mexican villain, who now gets a knife slowly slid into his chest in graphic detail before getting stabbed in the eyeball - this bloody sequence was extensively cut, for obvious reasons, in the 18 certificate version.

lrkiel This is my favorite bad movie of all times. When the video store was selling off it's stock of movies that were not renting, I bought it. I had rented it two or three times previously.I love Sci Fi, having grown up in the 50's and 60's where things like a nuclear attack were more apt to happen, so watching this was a combination of relief that we avoided this, and laughing at the seriousness of the production.Over all, this is the yardstick by which all other good creative "Bad" movies MUST be measured against.If you can find it, watch it.

Jon Knight Aftermath is a horror/sci-fi cross along the lines of Planet of the Apes/Omega Man mixed with Mad Max. You have two astronauts coming back to Earth after a long deep space mission, only to find it in ruins, devastated by nuclear and biological germ warfare.Early on, we're given a glimpse at two roving bands. One, a 'normal' biker-like gang of misfits who rob and plumage the other normal folks still left in the land, killing their men and stealing their women. The biker-like gang is led by Cutter, played by none other than a much younger Sid Haig (House of 1,000 Corpses). I'd never seen any of his other films and the screenshot on the back showed him in it. So I figured I'd give it a shot.The other band, mutants who all look like lepers in various stages of decay. There is a brief throwaway moment where one normal looking guy scorns his band of mutants because they'd drunk the contaminated water and thus, this caused them to become mutants. Though if all the water in the land were contaminated, wouldn't that make it kind of difficult to exist at all in this world? I suppose people could live on canned goods, as shown by the astronauts picking up a few cans off the beach in front of a group of fried corpses. But what's to say those weren't contaminated, too, being exposed out there on the beach like that? In any case, it's a minor issue.The basis of the story follows the lead astronaut, who, in a little minor scene, supposedly likes the fact that the world he knew had crumbled. This 'plastic, fake' world. Which is due to his own personal loss that we later learn to be his wife and son in an accident. What we're told is, the doctor wouldn't treat them until he had the astronaut guy fill out some forms and by that time, they were already dead. Sounds like malpractice to me and a little bogus way to blame the system. If they're in the emergency room, they should be treated, regardless. Only, the guy wouldn't be able to see them until he filled out the forms. That would have made more sense if, they wouldn't let him see his dying wife and child until after filling out the forms, but by then, it was too late. Even that is a bit much and just seems way too convenient an excuse.The lead guy leaves his friend behind (his friend had injured a knee during the trip down) and explores the world at large. He runs into a boy and a woman, who become his replacement family. The woman had escaped from the biker-like gang and wanted our hero to not only protect her, but eventually go back and rescue her friend and friend's kid. This leads our hero directly into conflict with the gang, first on a stealth mission, and when that wondrously comes back to bite them in the rear when they aren't smart enough to leave town immediately after, then a Commando like mission. You know, the Arnold Schwarzenegger film. He literally goes on a similar action extravaganza rampage, though believability has long since gone out the window.The music sounded like it was stolen directly from a 50s sci-fi/horror film. It was overdone, droning in parts, and does not work. Not one moment. This remains the largest problem of the film. There is also a voice over narrative throughout the entire length of the film, which adds nothing of real substance. Just an excuse to guide the film along and make up for obviously poor writing. Which, to note, is predictable and the set-ups are obvious. The acting is subpar at best, and probably not even that. The dialogue in some scenes is hard to hear without pumping the volume up, yet if you do that, in the very next scene the music starts again and is much too loud. The lead actor, who was also the writer/director/producer, has no real charisma and no business starring in a film like this. Not that he had any really good lines, anyway. But I doubt he could deliver them to good effect even if he had them.I keep finding new things to comment on, like towards the end when a guy gets shot in both legs and his foot, and less than a minute later is walking perfectly as he tries to fight off the hero. I wonder where the script supervisor was on that day? Oh, wait, what script supervisor? Let me just take a moment to comment on the effects. I thought the models for the post apocalyptic city were outstanding. The beach corpses looked cool. The gore effects are decent throughout, with standard gunshot wounds, a guy with his face beaten in, head explodes, and another one with a knife through his eye. The mutant makeups are passable. So, on the production side of things, this film has some good elements going for it. There's also some prime female nudity to keep the exploitation side of things on target.The final line. In the right hands and a better script, this could have been something special. A nice low budget post apocalyptic film in the tradition of Mad Max or along the lines of The Hills Have Eyes. Instead, we are stuck with something less than interesting, with some cool looking post apocalyptic effects/models/nudity that isn't enough to save the film from boredom for most viewers.

Pete Rice This movie wasn't that bad. When I was a little kid I rented it and it always seemed eerie to me. If your bored one day just rent it, who cares if its totaly low-budget. It's fun to watch because I wish I could make a movie that like someday. Hey if your bored also rent "DEFCON4" Thanks.