Horror Year Book Review
AfterThought (2007)Published by Molly Celaschi April 11th, 2007 in MOVIE REVIEWS
While her peer's bodies are piling up, high schooler Christy begins seeing ghosts and communicating with the dead. Considered a "Dreamer", she is haunted by the ghastly image of a dead boy while piecing together the murder mystery. The only one she can trust is Kyle, who is suspected as the murderer.
The tagline is "Ghost Whisperer meets Donnie Darko". Unfortunately, the film lacks the quirkiness and bleakness of Darko, and it leans more towards Whisperer. The Darko comparison does make sense considering the effects of bullying by peers though, despite a somewhat made-for-TV feel. This is a smart thriller with no nudity and minimal violence & gore. Some scares come from the dead boy that continuously pops up. One particular scene made me jump.
I have a few minor quibbles though. I don't understand why, if the dead boy is connected to the suspects and victims, the cops didn't figure this out? Instead, our heroine had to search newspaper archives to figure it out on her own. And a parapsychologist tells Christy he knows her dead father is contacting her from beyond the grave, but…we never see or hear the dead father during the entire film. Also, the "dreaming" aspect doesn't always work since the ghosts appear midday while she is wide awake too.
Who the killer is and why made perfect sense. I was happy when I got the resolution, even though it was a bit overanalyzed towards the end. The flashback sequences with the young children were creepy.
While shot on a Sony F900, the picture quality was pretty well done with good lighting. I was curious how so many locations were readily available to a low budget production and it turns out that a small town in Wisconsin opened their doors to the filmmakers.
Bottom Line: Good murder mystery worth checking out.
Rating: 6.5/10
While her peer's bodies are piling up, high schooler Christy begins seeing ghosts and communicating with the dead. Considered a "Dreamer", she is haunted by the ghastly image of a dead boy while piecing together the murder mystery. The only one she can trust is Kyle, who is suspected as the murderer.
The tagline is "Ghost Whisperer meets Donnie Darko". Unfortunately, the film lacks the quirkiness and bleakness of Darko, and it leans more towards Whisperer. The Darko comparison does make sense considering the effects of bullying by peers though, despite a somewhat made-for-TV feel. This is a smart thriller with no nudity and minimal violence & gore. Some scares come from the dead boy that continuously pops up. One particular scene made me jump.
I have a few minor quibbles though. I don't understand why, if the dead boy is connected to the suspects and victims, the cops didn't figure this out? Instead, our heroine had to search newspaper archives to figure it out on her own. And a parapsychologist tells Christy he knows her dead father is contacting her from beyond the grave, but…we never see or hear the dead father during the entire film. Also, the "dreaming" aspect doesn't always work since the ghosts appear midday while she is wide awake too.
Who the killer is and why made perfect sense. I was happy when I got the resolution, even though it was a bit overanalyzed towards the end. The flashback sequences with the young children were creepy.
While shot on a Sony F900, the picture quality was pretty well done with good lighting. I was curious how so many locations were readily available to a low budget production and it turns out that a small town in Wisconsin opened their doors to the filmmakers.
Bottom Line: Good murder mystery worth checking out.
Rating: 6.5/10
posted by AfterThought - Movie at 7:16 AM
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