Forums Horror Movie Reviews
50 Essential Gore Films : #1 Aftermath

I, like many of you I'm sure, are known for buying horror magazines, such as Rue Morgue, Horrorhound, and Fangoria, so when I came across a batch of old Rue Morgue issues in my local used bookstore, I jumped on that, and fifty dollars later, left feeling satisfied. Among those issues is #83, the October 2008 issue, which inde holds a list of fifty essential gore films. I like to conder myself a gorehound, I'll watch anything if it has good effects, regardless of the quality of the film, so I feel I owe it to myself, and more importantly to the Bidites, to take a look at these fifty gore films, and see how many are worth your time.

Aftermath is the disgusting thirty minute romp though 'a day in the life of' a mortician, and that's really all it is. The film opens on a pair of autopes, and holds nothing back from the get go, as we see the skin peeled back, and the guts are sloppily handled, leaving nothing to the imagination. The skull is cracked open, the brain removed, weighed, and everything in the end, is slowly gruesomely stitched back together.This start really sets the tone for the rest of the film, it's going to be disgusting, and it's not going to stop. Director Nacho Cerdà, known for making a series of three short films, know as 'La Trilogia De La Muerte', or 'The Trilogy Of Death', with Aftermath being the middle, must think he's achieving something powerful with Aftermath. The images we see, are made even weirder by the choice to leave out all dialog, leaving everything we know about the morticians, to be from action, and their eyes.After the first autopsy is complete, and one of the workers leaves for the night, the movie gets darker. About as dark as you can fucking get. Our main character brings out the corpse of a young girl, twenties or so, and starts to cut her out of her clothing, and molest the body. This continues to the point where he starts to cut her stomach, trailing up, and down, more chaotically, until he full on plunges the knife inde her special parts. As disgusting as it is, it gets worse, as he sets up a camera, and takes pictures of himself fornicating with the corpse. When he's done, he finishes up the autopsy with the same gory effects we've already been greeted with, but this time removes her heart, so he can take it home to fed to his dog. Aftermath is a thirty minute adventure through some of the darkest tones that cinema can offer, while not offering anything in return. The gore is fantastic, and the choice to exclude all dialog is chilling, but that's about as far as it goes. Aftermath doesn't open your eyes to a world you didn't think existed, or have some form of social commentary, it's just a look at how disgusting we can make you feel for watching it. The only question Aftermath makes you ask, is why haven't you turned it off yet?

Score - C Gore - 10/10

I like your rating system, giving the overall effect of the film its own grade while scoring the gore separately. It fits in well with the type of review you were going for. Nice!