AFTERMATH : Monday 30th August 2021.

With Greater Sydney still in COVID lockdown now until the end of September at least, and as a result all cinema's closed until sometime after this date, I've been reviewing recently some the latest feature films released onto Netflix. One such film that I watched from the comfort of my own home this week is the American horror thriller 'AFTERMATH' which is Directed, Co-Produced and based on a story by Peter Winther in only his second feature film making outing following 'Painkillers' in 2015. The film was released onto Netflix on 4th August and has garnered mixed Reviews at best.

As the opening credits roll we hear a frenzied phone call between a distraught woman and the Police before hearing a gun shot as the camera very slowly pans in on her bloodied body and then slowly moves up the body of another corpse with half its head blown off and blood and brain tissue dripping down the wall directly behind. We are left to assume this was a murder suicide. The next day after the house has been cleared, we meet Kevin Dadich (Shawn Ashmore) working as a crime scene cleaner with his two work buddies Dave (Jamie Kaler) and Garrett (Travis Coles) whose job it is to return the house to its former glory and clean up the mess. 

Next up we meet Natalie Dadich (Ashley Greene), Kevin's wife, and it appears that the couple are having marital problems, largely as a result of Natalie's indiscretion over a one night stand with a Nick Scott (Ross McCall), that Kevin still struggles to come to terms with - so much so that the couple are having regular marriage guidance counselling with one Dr. Sasner (Juliette Jeffers). Anyway, it seems the best way to salvage their floundering marriage is to start over and move into a new home. And so Kevin, hatches a plan to seriously consider buying the house that was the scene of the murder suicide and which he spent the day cleaning up in. Kevin has had discussions with Claudia (Paula Garces) who was the sister of the dead man Jay and his wife Erin, who designed and built the house from the ground up. Claudia is prepared to sell the property for a knock down price because of its gruesome history and the fact that despite it being on the market for some months, there has been no interest. Claudia's husband Robert (Alexander Bedria) is none to pleased with Claudia agreeing to sell it for a song however. 

And so the deal is done, and sometime soon afterwards Kevin and Natalie move in. It doesn't take long for strange unaccounted stuff to start happening. Objects start to disappear and then reappear, such as car keys, mobile phones and tennis balls. The record player switches itself on and starts playing an LP record, and the kitchen tap starts running, their dog, Odi begins barking at an empty cupboard, or refuses to climb the stairs, and they start receiving weird mail that they never ordered - like a subscription to a porn magazine. Then one night when Kevin is out of the house Natalie is attacked from behind by a mystery intruder and Kevin finds her asleep on the couch when he gets home, with her having no recollection of how she got there, except that she was attacked. 

Natalie and Kevin go to the Police and report the incident to Officer Richardson (Sharif Atkins) and yet they find no evidence of any intrusion or attack on the CCTV footage from inside or outside the house. In another meeting with Dr. Sasner where the pair get into a heated argument, Kevin claims that Natalie is just suffering from 'paranoid hallucinations' due to the stress that they are both currently living under. Things however, take a turn for the worse when Natalie's sister Dani (Britt Baron) is alone in the house one night to feed and dog sit Odi, when she suddenly disappears inside a walk in robe never to be seen again. Then the next day when Kevin is out in the park with Odi, the dog suddenly keels over, panting for breath, resulting in the vet having to put her down because they found a slow acting poison when they examined the dogs bloods. 

Natalie decides to meet with Claudia to learn more of the previous owners. Claudia explains that Jay and Erin were having their own marital problems with Jay cheating on Erin with multiple women while Erin was retaliating by having an affair with a mystery man. Claudia believes that her brother could not have killed his wife or himself but when interrupted by Robert she clams up. Upon leaving, Natalie is stopped by Robert outside who offers to buy back the house but for less than they paid for it, but she politely declines, as Robert calls after her asking her to think seriously about it.

Natalie continues to experience unexplainable events in the house. In the meantime she sends Dani numerous text messages asking her whereabouts without a reply. Sometime afterwards Kevin collapses unexpectedly and is rushed to hospital, where it is revealed that he has nerium in his bloodstream which can prove fatal if ingested in sufficiently high enough doses. The Police believe that Natalie was slowly poisoning Kevin, but one night again while Natalie is alone in the house, she is attacked by a stranger calling at the door. This is when the truth comes out. The attacker came to the house having seen an online advert where Natalie supposedly had desires of being attacked by a stranger. Needless to say, this wasn't of Natalie's doing but Claudia's husband Robert who posted the advert posing as Natalie. It turns out that he's seriously in debt and needs the house for the money, so was trying to scare them into selling up at a below market price and on-selling to make a tidy profit.

Taken into custody Robert confesses to this crime but not to attacking Natalie in her home or to poisoning Odi and Kevin. Later Kevin receives a text message from Natalie telling him its best if he doesn't come home that night. Natalie runs a bath and relaxes in it, and she tries to call Kevin leaving a voice mail message asking when he'll be home as she's taking a bath. Kevin picks up the voicemail and is confused needless to say, but decides to go home. Natalie is attacked again and drugged. She comes round with her arms chained up to a pole above her head, and wearing just a bath robe. 

As it turns out the tall thin man who Natalie had described her attacker as to the Police previously, has been living in the house all along in a space hidden behind a walk in robe. It is revealed that the man is Otto (Jason Liles), Erin's secret lover and she designed the house with the secret room to keep Otto close by, but when Erin ultimately chose Jay over Otto, it was Otto who killed them both.  

His regard focused on Natalie when she moved in with Kevin, so he was gradually dispensing with everyone around her, including Dani, who Kevin discovers bloodied and very dead in their bed when he returns home and is subsequently knocked unconscious by Otto. Natalie manages to escape her shackles by snapping her own wrist and ventures upstairs to find Kevin. Otto overcomes her and tries to inject her with a sedative, but is grabbed from behind by Kevin, and while those two tussle Natalie drives a pair of scissors into Otto's chest and then for good measure just drives those useful scissors in further with a final blow. Otto falls to the floor seemingly dead, as husband and wife embrace. Fast forward one month and the pair have decided to move out and move on and are clearing out the final boxes of contents. As the pair give the final one finger salute to the former home and close the door behind them, the downstairs cupboard door slowly closes of its own volition. 

At a run time of just a tad under two hours this film has worn out its welcome by the time the end credits rolled. The first half is more of a marriage in crisis drama, with the relationship angst toing and froing between the not so happy couple with regular visits to the marriage psychiatrist ending up in full blown disagreements between the pair. The second half ramps up the suspense and the emotion a notch to make for a more engaging ending when it comes in the form of the big reveal, but there is little by way of genuine surprises here, and you've seen this home invasion, domestic drama, mild horror chiller done a hundred times before and more often than not considerably better. The principle cast do a respectable enough job, it is grounded in a reality that is apparently based loosely on a real series of events that unfolded in a California home in 2011, and the film has all the touchstones of a genre chiller, but there is nothing new here, and this film has more of a made for TV movie vibe about it than a feature release. 

'Aftermath' merits two claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps. 

-Steve, at Odeon Online-