Wheels of Terror Magazine - AfterThought Review
Wheels of Terror Magazine
Reviewed by John Gugie
Taglines: 'There will be more!'
Synopsis: A high school big on its hockey team is the focus. Among the hockey jocks is a group of four childhood friends (Christy, Kyle, Elliot and Mindy). Seven years after Christy loses her father, she begins having strange dreams. When her dreams begin to become real, Christy seeks the help of Kyle, her friend and outcast of the hockey team. A team member is found dead and Christy dreamt of it. Police find her and Kyle snooping around the crime scene and are questioned. Christy trusts that Kyle has no part in the murder but, after he's again found near the scene of another murder scene, she has doubts and police charge Kyle as the serial murderer. Working alone, without Kyle, she discovers the truth.
Meat for the Beast:
I received this from director, Douglas Elford-Argent. He had e-mailed me beforehand and I checked out the trailer on their site, afterthoughtmovie.com , and I had expected to see another low-budget nauseating trailer but hat I saw looked very well done with good quality camera work, clear and crisp images, good audio with an intriguing albeit none too original premise. I wanted to see this.
Truth be told, what I got was uniformly as well shot as the trailer. Great camerawork for a low-budget flick (estimated $750,000) and not just a flashy trailer leading up to a big let-down and shoddy production values upon viewing the feature production. Kudos on not letting me down! The film utilizes a few unique camera techniques in a few shots but nothing over-the-top, gung ho use of them, as many low-budgets try to use to mask their film's inadequacies.
The camerawork is this films most positive attribute. That's not to say that it's a bad movie, just that the story doesn't hold up as well beside the great camerawork.
In my opinion, the story is a cross between an "I Know What You Did Last Summer" / "Scream" type film and a TV show, such as "Medium", "Ghost Whisperer" or some aspects of the hit horror film, "The Devil's Backbone". I think the merge between these two vastly different storylines can work if done with the correct balance. However, "AfterThought" never does find that perfect equilibrium to bring out the best of both worlds.
First, we have the storyline of an unknown killer, who has just killed a male student inside a high school locker room. He was on the hockey team, as are some of our best suspects.
Second, we have the storyline of Christy Dawson, a young high school girl is having bizarre dreams of a dead little boy who is leading her on a journey to where and for reasons unbeknownst to her. She soon finds out that she is, like her father, a Dreamer (basically a psychic whose visions come in their dreams but the ending changes that detail).
Both of the storylines can be good on their own and together takes a bit more work. Their combination here isn't awful but it's not great either. The killer side is just your standard thriller, the psychic seeing dead people can turn truly horrific. "AfterThought" never truly becomes horrific. I think this turned to focus more on the killer aspect. The psychic aspect does have quite a few scenes but it just never feels like it's fully flushed out to its fullest potential.
It turns more into just your standard "teen" slasher flick with a few twists but nothing unique. The psychic part tries to make it unique but doesn't quite make it. Still, for a low-budget flick, "AfterThought" does pretty well at entertaining us and looking good doing it.
The acting is adequate. Most actors do their parts. A few, like Annie Hughes (as Sarah Dawson, Christy's mother) and John Hammond (as Principal Wagner), feel very "cardboardish" and flat. Chris Muntel (as Officer Johnson) does slightly better. Basically, most of the "adult" characters didn't do such a hot job. The "teens" do surprisingly well. I think Gwendolyn Garver (as Christy Dawson) stands out as the best actress in the movie, good with showing her emotions and facial expressions. I hope to see her do more in the future. Cal Thomas (as Elliott Smithe) does a pretty good job. Next in line is Kristian Capalik (as Kyle Walker) does okay in a "Smallville" sense. Bobbi Jean Basche (as Mindy Mariner, Kristy's best friend and Elliott's girlfriend) eh, she's okay; beautiful but a tad too "Californian" for my tastes. The teens' younger versions are adequate. The rest of the cast are background characters.
The dialogue is pretty good, not many cheesy lines as in most low-budgets.
The SFX are okay but a bit cheesy at times. The dead people/ghosts are portrayed just as people with grayish makeup which is cheesy but serves its purpose. There is blood but not too much, little gore really.
Director, Douglas Elford-Argent, does a fine job with the script he was given. His work is given a boost by Marc Menet's superb and professional cinematographic work. High marks to Menet! Writer, Gwendolyn Garver, starts with a novelle idea and does a good job with dialogue, for the most part, but I feel her script needed one more edit to get the slasher/psychic merger honed one step further.
While "AfterThought" isn't the greatest film it does a fair job as a slasher flick and even better as a low-budget. I hoped the psychic part was better defined but it could've been worse. It turned out more like an episode of "Ghost Whisperer" but that's not such as bad thing, is it? Worth a view or rental. 2 stars for story, .5 added for acting and an additional .5 for cinematography. Total: 3 stars. 3/5
Average: Rate: [ 0 · 1 · 2 · 3 · 4 · 5 ]
Reviewed by John Gugie
Taglines: 'There will be more!'
Synopsis: A high school big on its hockey team is the focus. Among the hockey jocks is a group of four childhood friends (Christy, Kyle, Elliot and Mindy). Seven years after Christy loses her father, she begins having strange dreams. When her dreams begin to become real, Christy seeks the help of Kyle, her friend and outcast of the hockey team. A team member is found dead and Christy dreamt of it. Police find her and Kyle snooping around the crime scene and are questioned. Christy trusts that Kyle has no part in the murder but, after he's again found near the scene of another murder scene, she has doubts and police charge Kyle as the serial murderer. Working alone, without Kyle, she discovers the truth.
Meat for the Beast:
I received this from director, Douglas Elford-Argent. He had e-mailed me beforehand and I checked out the trailer on their site, afterthoughtmovie.com , and I had expected to see another low-budget nauseating trailer but hat I saw looked very well done with good quality camera work, clear and crisp images, good audio with an intriguing albeit none too original premise. I wanted to see this.
Truth be told, what I got was uniformly as well shot as the trailer. Great camerawork for a low-budget flick (estimated $750,000) and not just a flashy trailer leading up to a big let-down and shoddy production values upon viewing the feature production. Kudos on not letting me down! The film utilizes a few unique camera techniques in a few shots but nothing over-the-top, gung ho use of them, as many low-budgets try to use to mask their film's inadequacies.
The camerawork is this films most positive attribute. That's not to say that it's a bad movie, just that the story doesn't hold up as well beside the great camerawork.
In my opinion, the story is a cross between an "I Know What You Did Last Summer" / "Scream" type film and a TV show, such as "Medium", "Ghost Whisperer" or some aspects of the hit horror film, "The Devil's Backbone". I think the merge between these two vastly different storylines can work if done with the correct balance. However, "AfterThought" never does find that perfect equilibrium to bring out the best of both worlds.
First, we have the storyline of an unknown killer, who has just killed a male student inside a high school locker room. He was on the hockey team, as are some of our best suspects.
Second, we have the storyline of Christy Dawson, a young high school girl is having bizarre dreams of a dead little boy who is leading her on a journey to where and for reasons unbeknownst to her. She soon finds out that she is, like her father, a Dreamer (basically a psychic whose visions come in their dreams but the ending changes that detail).
Both of the storylines can be good on their own and together takes a bit more work. Their combination here isn't awful but it's not great either. The killer side is just your standard thriller, the psychic seeing dead people can turn truly horrific. "AfterThought" never truly becomes horrific. I think this turned to focus more on the killer aspect. The psychic aspect does have quite a few scenes but it just never feels like it's fully flushed out to its fullest potential.
It turns more into just your standard "teen" slasher flick with a few twists but nothing unique. The psychic part tries to make it unique but doesn't quite make it. Still, for a low-budget flick, "AfterThought" does pretty well at entertaining us and looking good doing it.
The acting is adequate. Most actors do their parts. A few, like Annie Hughes (as Sarah Dawson, Christy's mother) and John Hammond (as Principal Wagner), feel very "cardboardish" and flat. Chris Muntel (as Officer Johnson) does slightly better. Basically, most of the "adult" characters didn't do such a hot job. The "teens" do surprisingly well. I think Gwendolyn Garver (as Christy Dawson) stands out as the best actress in the movie, good with showing her emotions and facial expressions. I hope to see her do more in the future. Cal Thomas (as Elliott Smithe) does a pretty good job. Next in line is Kristian Capalik (as Kyle Walker) does okay in a "Smallville" sense. Bobbi Jean Basche (as Mindy Mariner, Kristy's best friend and Elliott's girlfriend) eh, she's okay; beautiful but a tad too "Californian" for my tastes. The teens' younger versions are adequate. The rest of the cast are background characters.
The dialogue is pretty good, not many cheesy lines as in most low-budgets.
The SFX are okay but a bit cheesy at times. The dead people/ghosts are portrayed just as people with grayish makeup which is cheesy but serves its purpose. There is blood but not too much, little gore really.
Director, Douglas Elford-Argent, does a fine job with the script he was given. His work is given a boost by Marc Menet's superb and professional cinematographic work. High marks to Menet! Writer, Gwendolyn Garver, starts with a novelle idea and does a good job with dialogue, for the most part, but I feel her script needed one more edit to get the slasher/psychic merger honed one step further.
While "AfterThought" isn't the greatest film it does a fair job as a slasher flick and even better as a low-budget. I hoped the psychic part was better defined but it could've been worse. It turned out more like an episode of "Ghost Whisperer" but that's not such as bad thing, is it? Worth a view or rental. 2 stars for story, .5 added for acting and an additional .5 for cinematography. Total: 3 stars. 3/5
Average: Rate: [ 0 · 1 · 2 · 3 · 4 · 5 ]
posted by AfterThought - Movie at 10:47 AM
1 Comments:
3 out of 5
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