It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

A Brilliant Conflict

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Blistering performances.

Robyn (Miranda Raison) wakes up "dead" in a world where she breathes but has no pulse. She enters a house where there are four other people, three of which are engaged in sex. It seems sex and alcohol is the favorite past time of the dead. The house has a sign "Tabula Rasa" which is Latin for "blank slate" or "clean slate" a clue that is later explained.Robyn is not content with staying there being vexed by the black smoke demon, lighthouse lights, and an enclosing bubble. Time is running out as out group attempts to brainstorm and confess their way out.This was a fairly good film, for what it was. Acting was decent. Effects were okay. The black smoke demon has become popular.Guide: F-bomb, sex, no nudity.

So this movie plays on the idea of a Christian afterlife. In most Christian churches you can redeem yourself in various ways for your sins, but this movie has a much more dark and brutal approach to sinning. It actually is scary if you think about that it might be real, for me it was anyway. The acting was OK, the actors look good, maybe the atmosphere could have been more creepy, it was OK, but the general idea of the movie is very creepy, in any case. I don't know if you have to be Christian to like it, or get scared, but it probably helps. If you're not, at least you can think of this movie as another perspective on the afterlife and the implications of every action one does in his/her life.

This was my favorite movie I caught at the Austin Film Festival this past year. Not typically a huge horror fan, but can appreciate a good one when I see it, and this was one of the few. It has a uniquely terrifying concept of what hell would be like. I was surprised to find myself so invested in whether or not the characters stuck in this house could find their way out of hell. Especially considering most of them aren't very likable people. The special effects are really well done. Well written, acted and directed. Definitely worth a watch if you are in anyway interested in horror, sci-fi, or thrillers.

Five 'kids' wind up dead. Now what? That's not a spoiler, just an interesting take on the purgatory film. Normally you spend half an hour labouring through exposition to find out what the viewer already knows. Not here. But that's not the interesting thing about this micro budget horror film. Nor is the majority female cast which one reviewer here seems to have taken a huge dislike to. What's interesting about this film is what it doesn't do. No mad slasher deaths, no blood - in fact if you're after a traditional horror film then this isn't it. But as other reviewers have noted, the hook is the central idea. Revealing it would be a spoiler but this is psychological and philosophical horror. And as such it warrants judging against slightly different criteria to some of the more standard fare we see in horror. The film wears its budget lightly, the lighting is superb and the CG for the most part holds up brilliantly with impressive detail. And there are some genuine scares to be had along the way. The performances are a step up from what you normally see with Sam Keeley and Lorna Nickson Brown particular standouts.Afterdeath is a curious film in that it looks like it should be a standard cabin in the woods scare fest, but there is nothing lurking in the shadows for there are none. It's what's in store for the characters in their immediate and very certain future that holds the thrill. Teased out in clues and detective work by the characters you suddenly realise that their predicament poses some fairly difficult questions for the whole of humanity. That's rare in a horror film these days. It's an interesting addition to the genre and a strong debut from co-directors Robin Schmidt and Gez Medinger. Not perfect but promising...